Year: 2011
Country: United States/India
Language: English
Number: 1098
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Watson
Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Musical Score, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing
Steven Spielberg's War Horse is based on a children novel with the same name, and then I have to look at it as if I wear a child, because it's darn difficult to even like it as an adult. It all starts in a small quiet town in England, where a mare is giving birth to a young healthy colt, whom the teenage boy Albert Narracott is looking after and shows a great deal of love for, and names him Joey, and to all the villagers amazement is able to plow the whole field on just one day on a very young age. He is without a doubt a miracle horse. But when the first world war breaks out, Albert's father takes Joey to the town to sell him to the military, so he can pay the rent on the farm which he's about to lose. Joey is drafted into the war as a cavalry horse on the British side, but is after a bloody battle used by the Germans, and then is owned by a little French, and then the German again, etc. etc.
As an adult I think this movie could have been more realistic, more macabre, more merciless on the characters to really get the message through. But what we see here is that the feeling called Hope is what gonna get you through a war safe. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas had no difficulties to tell how it was, and so could this film. And it's very difficult to be amazed or surprised when movie trailers these days reveal the whole story. I also don't like the main character Albert with his crystal blue eyes, with an innocence of a Disney character, and so is it with the rest of the characters, by looks you know who's good and evil.
It is a good looking movie though, But if I look at it as child it's actually kind of a thrilling film. The horses in this movie really had a soul that was worth to keep and relate to, and we also can understand them as people, with the same feelings, compassion, bravery, hope and anger. They don't need any narration of any kind to be understood. John Williams delivers once again a good score, and the cinematography is great. I'm kind of split when it comes to the question if I like the movie or not. But I think if I ever had children I would probably watch it with them, and they would have cried. I know I'm a little sentimental but I give it a Thumbs up.
Grade: C
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