Movies We Love... WAR HORSE (2011)

     
                         "War Horse"  (2011)  -  directed by Steven Spielberg


   While some may find War Horse old fashioned and sentimental, we believe that it exhibits Steven Spielberg's greatest strengths - a sure directorial eye (with standout cinematography from Janusz Kaminski), good story telling, and fine work with a large cast. "War Horse" which is based on a poplular novel (and a play!) tells the story of how a thoroughbred stallion, gentled to the plow by a Devon lad named Albert, is then sold by the boy's father to the British Army at the outbreak of World War I. Albert wants to go with his prize horse but is too young. He vows he will find the animal when the war is over.

We follow the horse, Joey, through a series of misadventures: first as a British Cavalry officer's horse, then captured by the Germans, adopted into the care of two German soldiers (a pair of unfortunate doomed brothers), lost, then saved and befriended by an innocent French peasant girl, again conscripted by the Germans to haul artillery, a job of such hardship that horses can endure it for only days or weeks before dying of exhaustion, thrown into the chaos of trench warfare, and enduring a night of horror when, in a panic, Joey races through No-Mans Land and becomes entangled in a mass of razor sharp barbed wire. A scene in which a soldier from each side meet on the killing field in an attempt to free the proud animal is sure to be a classic.

Paralleling Joey's story, we follow Albert who has reached the age when he may enlist. When he too travels to the front, we know his path and that of his beloved horse are fated to cross, but will it be a sad and final farewell, or a return to the idyllic Devon countryside and a time of peace?

We have nothing but admiration for what Spielberg has achieved here. Working with a novice lead as well as seasoned veterans like Peter Mullen, Emily Watson and David Thewlis;  handling the action scenes with clarity and sureness (one battle scene in the trenches will remind you of the shock and horror of the Normandy Invasion scene in Saving Private Ryan) "War Horse" seems almost epic in its proportions, yet it remains an intimate story too, of the devotion a man and horse may share for one another, and the courage and endurance that try them both in time of war. Heart-wrenching yet inspiring, "War Horse" will remind you of some of the classic adventure films of Hollywood's past.