WAR HORSE - A Complete Movie Review

Director: Steven Spielberg

Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Toby Kebbel, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston

Running time: 146 minutes

Certificate: 12A


Synopsis: When he’s sold towards the army after the break out from the Great War, Joey the horse runs into a number of people across Britain and France, experiencing and enjoying the battle from both sides. But Joey’s original owner, Albert (Levine), desires to reunite using the horse in some way, actually volunteering to use it himself…

It isn’t often that one sees a movie in which the character is a non-human, especially if said non-human hasn’t been anthropomorphosized and given an humorous hat of some type. But that’s exactly what Steven Spielberg has dared to complete in WAR HORSE, his adapting to it from the Michael Murpurgo novel. That isn’t to express there aren’t human characters with whom we are able to discover or be connected. The titular horse - Joey to his friends - meets an entire variety of folk throughout his experiences within the Great War: various sexes, ages, as well as nationalities. Joey trots through the collection cast one by one, all of which makes for a comparatively uneven film; WAR HORSE is, sometimes, wonderfully stressed and on an emotional level engaging, and also at others, woefully tedious. It is also dogged by Spielberg’s most continual flaw, his penchant for heavy-handed sentimentality. He reminds us of how thickly he loves to spread the cheese - a Devonshire flavour instead of his regular Americana - nearly as much as tells us why he’s among Hollywood’s very best functioning directors.




As Battle HORSE starts, we are brought to Albert, the film’s the majority of prominent individual character. It’s Albert’s dad, Ted (Peter Mullan) that irresponsibly buys Joey the actual horse, placing the family from great monetary risk. In spite of Joey’s best initiatives to plough their own land, he's still sold to the military when battle breaks away. Albert vows in order to reunite along with Joey somewhere in some way (having evidently fallen deeply in love with the equine, as much as he's legally able to do so) as well as becomes the real heart from the story; however the character additionally personifies many of the film’s much less commendable factors. Jeremy Levine’s performance is actually serious sufficient, but the cumbersome and clichéd conversation with which he needs to contend makes his personality almost laughable: it’s hard to take anybody seriously that whispers heartwarming sentiments towards the horse within an affected bumpkin highlight. Simpleton Albert also seems to become under the impression which his equine can comprehend English (although it’s possible he is able to - in the event that every single Western included in the battle
talks English, it’s most likely the equine does additionally).

The initial act is stored by the swaps between Ted (Peter Mullan) and his villainous landlord Lyons (the ever-reliable Professor Lupin). Even though Mullan is resigned to actively playing a softer version of the broken-down drunk, there stays a threatening edge beneath his overall performance; he’s probably the only doing work actor who are able to state the words ‘I’m likely to plant turnips in that thar’ field’ and make it appear like ‘I’m gonna stick this pint glass in yer fookin’ eye ya coont’.




But for all the jocularity and unintentional humour of the film’s opening chapter, once Joey moves on to the battlefields things soon become serious and the Spielberg amps up the tension considerably. Joey finds himself under the ownership of Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) who leads a mounted battalion to cross swords with Fritz. This segment proves to be one of the film’s strongest, and Hiddleston shines in the role, as does his comrade Benedict Cumberbatch (played by Sherlock Holmes). The pair duke it out over who has the fastest horse and poshest accent, which is entertaining enough, but there is a genuine darkness to their story. As Joey edges closer the realities of war, the film steps up an emotional gear and Spielberg proves he’s still got it where it counts. This is most clearly seen as Hiddleston’s Nicholls and company charge toward the enemy on horseback, quickly realizing they’d be better equipped with machine guns rather than girly swords. Harrowing stuff indeed. And so it should be; there is a very serious point to be made here.

Joey’s travels in The Great War are intended to outline the futility of it all. He touches different lives in different ways, but underneath it all the characters are all essentially human. And through the eyes of a horse, war appears to be a senseless and frightening thing… have we all got the point yet? The moral thematic core is a sound one, but it’s laboured and overdone, and by the time Joey provokes a truce in no-man’s land, the message begins to feel like a horseshoe round the noggin. That it’s developed through a succession of interactions with different characters is also problematic: predictably, some of the stories are more interesting than others, and engagement with each of the different characters is restricted. Also, some sequences could have been trimmed, creating a tighter and less arduous film.




Overall, it’s hard to commit in either case to Battle HORSE. It’s not really brilliant however does show flashes associated with brilliance; neither it is horrible, yet it offers elements that may be deemed as a result. The film’s main flaw is actually its heavy-handed sentimentality, an issue telegraphed from the seem of panpipes within the opening mere seconds, none which is assisted by the associated clumsy piece of software. The piece conveniences are in times absurd, and as such the end result of the movie is never in a question.

Spielberg’s actual talent stands out in his talent for capturing ultra-tense battle moments, scaring all of us to dying in the process. Certainly, a no-man’s property sequence showcased late within the film is every bit gripping as well as disturbing. Although not as gruesomely practical as Conserving PRIVATE Thomas, it’s no less a powerful experience, as well as shows a genuine cinematic grasp at work. He or she proves he can still transfer an audience as well as ignite which emotional ignite; he simply does it better with motion than he is doing with reduced, heartfelt times. The former truly scares and also the latter edges on laughable, which would be to be expected from the film in regards to a boy that loves the horse. Possibly it wouldn’t happen to be too absurd to have provided Joey the equine an humorous hat in the end.

WAR HORSE is produced in UK movie theaters 13th January 2012.