Already strongly predicted for glory at awards season, War Horse an adaptation of the children's book by Michael Morpugo, and the stage play that first started in 2007, and is the latest film from Steven Spielberg.
The film, simply put, is pure Oscar bait. Sweeping story, lots of emotion and some war thrown in as well. But is it award WORTHY? In my opinion, not especially.
The premise is quite simple. A young man, Albert (Jeremy Irvine) enlists in the army after the horse he raised, Joey is sold to the military to help during World War I. We follow both Albert and Joey as they both travel to mainland Europe and see their war stories, leading to the inevitable reuniting moment.
There's a lot to like about War Horse. Obviously this being Spielberg, the sequences of war are amazing - don't go expecting Saving Private Ryan or Band Of Brothers levels of bloodshed though, this is a family film. There are genuine moments of humour, and on the flip side, plenty of touching moments, and the films two and a half hour running time just flies past.
The performances from the actors are all great, but this is very much a horse film, so the likes of Benedict Cumberbatch and David Thewlis don't get much of a look in, which is a shame, and the characters they portray are not very well developed at all.
It's a double edged sword when it comes to Steven Spielberg though. Whilst he shoots some amazing stuff, he does tend to lay it on a little thick though. The worst example of that is a scene that briefly unites a British and German soldier. While it isn't as vomiting inducing as it could be, it's really a bit much considering.
But the main issue I had with the film is one that definitely won't apply to everyone, but will to some. And considering the title of the film, it's pretty big. It's the horses, and the lack of emotional connection I made with them. It was just asking too much of this reviewer.
I don't want to sound flippant here. Horses are amazing creatures, granted. And there were times when funny things happened to Joey, and the other horses in the film, and those were funny. And there were sad things that happened too, and those were sad. But I think the film was asking for more emotion about the horses than I had to give.
Maybe people who see the film who get more emotional about things, or someone who owns a horse, or just more of a general lover of animals would be effected more, but I just couldn't get too much into the horse side of things. There were people being killed left, right and center, and while that was given some respect, it seemed like a side note to Joey getting stuck in barbed wire.
I'm sure that opinion won't be too popular with some, but even without my lack of real emotion when it came to the equine members of the cast (and the human ones too, due to the aforementioned shoddy character development), War Horse was still just a pleasant, easy to watch film. Nothing more, nothing less, and definitely not worthy of any kind of awards consideration.
***
A well made film, with some brilliant and dramatic sequences. But, it's all going to come down to how much of a 'horse person' you are. But even that may not overshadow the poorly written humans, and what seems like a rather in your face attempt to get an award nomination.
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