With the knowledge of people’s varying opinions about War Horse on many social media sites, I went into the Steven Spielberg movie with an open mind but realistic expectations. The polarizing opinions about the film piqued my interest, and I was looking forward to viewing it and drawing my own conclusions.
The film starts off set in rural England where a young boy’s father, Ted Narracott, buys a thoroughbred stallion at a horse auction for significantly more than he was worth to spite his landlord. The son, Albert, creates a bond with the horse he names Joey, but, the father ends up having to sell him to the military as a war horse in order to save their farm. Due to varying circumstances, Joey ends up being passed from Albert to a British military officer, to some German soldiers, to a French farm girl, back to German soldiers and finally back to Albert by the conclusion of the film.
The motion picture immediately reminded me of the story line of the film classic, Black Beauty, but, unfortunately, War Horse never takes off due to the forced connection between Joey and Albert, who is played by actor, Jeremy Irvine. There is zero chemistry between the boy and horse leading to awkward and stilted emotionless scenes. The film is also jarring at times switching back and forth from Disney sentimental type scenes to gray and ominous war battles.
Irvine, who played Albert, appeared to lack the emotional depth that was needed to be convincing in his role. The highlight of the film was the 13 horses that played Joey–they were beautiful and mesmerizing to watch. While Anna Sewell’s Black Beauty is told through the eyes of the horse and immediately connects the viewer with inner thoughts of the horse, Spielberg’s movie only gives you a cursory glance of what happens to the horse. The horse’s thoughts never enter the story leaving the audience disengaged from what is really going through this noble creature’s mind. You want to root for him but are not given the emotional backstory to feel empathy for him.
On a positive note, the cinematography by Janusz Kaminski is breathtaking and the landscape and war scenes feel authentic and painstakingly researched, but many of the characters are not on the screen long enough for the audience to experience an emotional connection. There was a desire to see more scenes with the British military officers and the French jelly farmer and his granddaughter with Joey instead of the contrived scenes between Albert and Joey.
While Spielberg was trying to appeal to a mass audience (PG-13), I think this choice is one of the film’s major downfalls. I appreciated the fact the film’s center of attention is the unheralded war horse during World War I, but, while the war scenes were authentic–visually, emotionally–it felt glossed over and sugar coated. In my opinion, the movie would have worked better if it had the grittiness of past war films by Spielberg such as, Saving Private Ryan, as well as told from the view point of the horse, like in Black Beauty.
Overall, it would be better to rent the classic movies, Black Beauty or National Velvet if you are in the mood for a horse-related family film that has emotional impact. This film does not live up to the hype and is not appropriate for small children.
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