Jason KingWAR HORSE: A Review
December 24th 2011 00:11
:
Stunning Picture Book Movie
Category: Reviews
War Horse is definitely my pick to watch out of the Spileberg films of this holiday period. It is a picture book tale of the harrowing life tale of a horse and it is one of Spielberg's most spectacularly visual films to date. It spans a huge chunk of World War, a nice surprise considering Spielberg's fondness of filming World War 2, and will give you the most sublime connection to a non human character you have had since watching Babe 
The film is shot to capture an era but is told in a fairy tale way. Rural English poverty still looks beautiful in this film and I can see this pissing quite a few critics off. When I watched the film with good friend Karin I told her it was very "Little House on the Prairie" and quite a bit too innocent. Karin, being way smarter than me and an English teacher told me that it is capturing the emotions of people in the time quite well as it is how they were. It may not have looked as glamorous but they all were much more conservative and innocent.
Don't fight the innocence and Hollywood glamorisation of the film, embrace it and enjoy this Disneyesque tale of beauty and sadness. I also recommend you don't stop the open sobbing you may encounter while watching it. While it has some moments of darkness and extreme sadness I would recommend this for the whole family. Mixed with the sadness it also has a lot of happiness in it and get ready for comments from the kids "I want a pony"
The movie is based on both a children's novel of the same name set during World War I, by Michael Morpurgo, first published in the United Kingdom in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation, also of the same name.
It is clever as it is one of those stories that has many characters that all somehow bridge together and come together towards the end and I loved how all these people are effected and connected by this stunning horse. And make sure you are aware this is a horse film, not a World War 1 film, it is just set during the war.
I thoroughly enjoyed the acting in this film and love a film starring an unknown that manages to pull it off and will undoubtedly open up the world to Jeremy Irvine who had only been in a few TV episodes of Life Bites (never even heard of it). Jeremy plays a character much younger than his actual age and has this unrequited love for this horse that becomes his best friend. If his love went any further I think we could be watching Equus. He totally reminds me of characters in 60s TV shows - I think this is where my connection to Little House on the Prairie came from. Get ready to see Irvine as Pip in an adaptation of Great Expectations in the works and also as Young Eric Lomax in The Railway Man.
The film also has a host of people you will recognise. David Thewlis, without his warewolfishness, as Lyons. Peter Mullan and Emily Watson as Albert's (Irvine) parents. Tom Hiddleston best known as Loki in Thor is briefly in the film as Captain Nicholls and a bunch of others that make up the huge ensemble of characters.
One thing that saddened me about the film was the amount of tales and how some of them were too short and or unnecessary. The story of Gunther (David Kross from The Reader) and his brother just broke my heart. I know it showed a part of the war we would most like to forget but was it necessary? It was a huge face punch I did not need with all the other harrowing stuff going on.
But a scene that made it all up to me and provided a much needed slight comedic relief for the audience was the two enemies of the war coming together over a horse - it gave me quite a few tears of joy.
Spielberg is in top form for this film and the film is a huge epic tale of glamorous proportions. It will break your heart and revive a love of animals. It starts on Boxing Day and I recommend this one for the whole family, although you might get some sad kids (and adults) during the film. Worth 9 our of 10. It's my holiday pic of the season.
The film is shot to capture an era but is told in a fairy tale way. Rural English poverty still looks beautiful in this film and I can see this pissing quite a few critics off. When I watched the film with good friend Karin I told her it was very "Little House on the Prairie" and quite a bit too innocent. Karin, being way smarter than me and an English teacher told me that it is capturing the emotions of people in the time quite well as it is how they were. It may not have looked as glamorous but they all were much more conservative and innocent.
Don't fight the innocence and Hollywood glamorisation of the film, embrace it and enjoy this Disneyesque tale of beauty and sadness. I also recommend you don't stop the open sobbing you may encounter while watching it. While it has some moments of darkness and extreme sadness I would recommend this for the whole family. Mixed with the sadness it also has a lot of happiness in it and get ready for comments from the kids "I want a pony"
The movie is based on both a children's novel of the same name set during World War I, by Michael Morpurgo, first published in the United Kingdom in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation, also of the same name.
It is clever as it is one of those stories that has many characters that all somehow bridge together and come together towards the end and I loved how all these people are effected and connected by this stunning horse. And make sure you are aware this is a horse film, not a World War 1 film, it is just set during the war.
I thoroughly enjoyed the acting in this film and love a film starring an unknown that manages to pull it off and will undoubtedly open up the world to Jeremy Irvine who had only been in a few TV episodes of Life Bites (never even heard of it
). Jeremy plays a character much younger than his actual age and has this unrequited love for this horse that becomes his best friend. If his love went any further I think we could be watching Equus. He totally reminds me of characters in 60s TV shows - I think this is where my connection to Little House on the Prairie came from. Get ready to see Irvine as Pip in an adaptation of Great Expectations in the works and also as Young Eric Lomax in The Railway Man.
The film also has a host of people you will recognise. David Thewlis, without his warewolfishness, as Lyons. Peter Mullan and Emily Watson as Albert's (Irvine) parents. Tom Hiddleston best known as Loki in Thor is briefly in the film as Captain Nicholls and a bunch of others that make up the huge ensemble of characters.
One thing that saddened me about the film was the amount of tales and how some of them were too short and or unnecessary. The story of Gunther (David Kross from The Reader) and his brother just broke my heart. I know it showed a part of the war we would most like to forget but was it necessary? It was a huge face punch I did not need with all the other harrowing stuff going on.
But a scene that made it all up to me and provided a much needed slight comedic relief for the audience was the two enemies of the war coming together over a horse - it gave me quite a few tears of joy.
Spielberg is in top form for this film and the film is a huge epic tale of glamorous proportions. It will break your heart and revive a love of animals. It starts on Boxing Day and I recommend this one for the whole family, although you might get some sad kids (and adults) during the film. Worth 9 our of 10. It's my holiday pic of the season.
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