War Horse

War Horse

Directed by Steven Speilberg

Cinematography by Janusz Kaminski

With Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullen, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine, Tom Hiddleston

Steven Spielberg’s “War Horse” resurrects the old-fashioned epic type of filmmaking, complete with sweeping panoramas, powerful music, direct storytelling and gut-wrenching appeals to emotion and sentimentality. There are those who will criticize it for that very reason, but take note, “War Horse” is a strong , stirring and affecting film for everyone.

The film begins with gorgeous sweeping panoramas of a verdant countryside in Devon England. A mare is giving birth to her colt as World War I begins. The colt is Joey, the protagonist of “Warhorse,” a story based on the 1982 children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo.

Young Joey is purchased at auction by a drunken farmer(Peter Mullan) who overpays for the horse to spite his landlord, who is also bidding on the horse. When he takes the horse home his wife (Emily Watson) is furious, but his son, Albert, is entranced by the beautiful animal. They bond and Albert trains Joey. However, the bills for his father’s farm must be paid, and Joey is sold to an English officer (Tom Hiddleston) and the animal is taken across the English Channel. Albert is devastated, and vows to somehow reconnect with Joey, who will now be used as a war horse. 

The story proceeds through a series of Joey’s owners, including the English officer , an elderly Frenchman farmer (Niels Arestrup) and a kindly German officer, among others. Joey inspires those who encounter him with his intelligence and “heart.” All of this is shown against the backdrop of the violence and slaughter of World War 1, a very far cry from the paradise of Devon’s bucolic beauty. The battlefields in War Horse are absolutely brilliantly staged. Warfare had been modernized, and tanks and machine guns ravage the combatants, along with swords and carbines. Fields are strewn with bodies of humans and their mounts. 

There is a harrowing scene culminating when a panicked Joey becomes ensnared in the ubiquitous coils of barbed wire used to keep back the enemy. A badly injured Joey can’t move, and both a German and an English soldier work together to free him.

Steven Spielberg’s sentiments have always been anti-war and this film chronicles the horrors of conflict: the fear of the soldiers; the total devastation of the landscape; the ugliness of slogging through the mud with heavy artillery; the fragmentation of families.  He does not focus on the gore and guts of conflict, but he does not need to: The message is delivered loud and clear. 

There are those who will say that “War Horse,” being a Disney production, has too many maudlin, sentimental and contrived moments. That the Devon countryside is just too idyllic; that Albert’s house is too charming and too perfect; that the heart-wrenching separation of Albert and Joey has been  manipulated to bring tears; that the appeal to nostalgia is too obvious; that the “Happy Ending” is just too unrealistic. To them, I say, “War Horse” is a movie full of adventure, sensitivity and soul. It is an entertainment with stunning cinematography (Janusz Kaminski) and top notch performances from a mostly unknown cast. The film illustrates the power of animals to bring out the humanity

in people. 

“War Horse” is a sweeping Hollywood epic of the finest sort. I suggest you take a box of tissues to the theater.