War Horse

Sometimes the best thing to do is to play it straight. The story is good and so all that is needed is the right man to support it & bring it to life. It is an understatement to say that Steven Spielberg is the right man for the job. He and his usual collaborators did not overdramatize the story but instead let the script do its job. The plot points and heartwarming moments of “War Horse” were well executed. Spielberg has captured WWI just like WWII. His extensive experience with the later war obviously helped in his first portrayal of “The Great War”.

The first part of the movie depicts Britain in such a way that you would die to live there. It feels like Hobbiton in “The Lord of the Rings”. The same can be said with the scenes involving Emile and her grandfather. The story of “War Horse” is much like 1994’s “Black Beauty”: the horse goes from one owner to the next and ends up back in the hands of the boy who helped raise the horse. The film had enough differences however to win our hearts. The setting of World War I was a big enough difference alone. I enjoyed certain moments in the charge of the British cavalry. The use of silence at one point was cool and I liked how Spielberg shows the horses making it past the guns without their riders. It is a family friendly way to show the failure of the charge. The same can be said with Gunther and Michael’s execution. The use of the windmill in that shot was a typical Spielberg move. Starting with Gunther and Michael, “War Horse” shows the good people on both sides of a war and I liked that. My favorite scene in the whole movie was the one between Peter and Geordie in No Man’s Land as they free Joey. It reminds me of the Christmas truce. Story-wise, I like how the two auctions act as bookends to the movie and I am also glad that the Emile plot was resolved. The final shots with the sunset were quite impressive.

One reason why Spielberg is so good is because of the men he regularly uses to make his movies. Michael Kahn has edited every one of Spielberg’s movies since “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, Janusz Kaminski has been his cinematographer since “Schindler’s List” and of course, John Williams has scored all but two of Spielberg’s movies. Williams gives us a unique theme that was missing from “Tintin” and I am grateful for that. I wish that he had won at the Oscars for his work on this show. This is Williams' 47th nomination which is a record for a person still living and he deserves more than the five Oscars he has. The work of the cast is noteworthy. I liked Jeremy Irvine. David Thewlis, from “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban”, did his job well too. Fittingly, he was in “Black Beauty” also. It was nice to see Eddie Marsan from the Sherlock movies.

Because I am a Tintin fan, I liked that movie a little more but that does not change the fact that “War Horse” was a great experience. It received six Oscar nominations including Best Picture. It is fitting that it may very well be the last contemporary movie I watch off a film reel. Until recently, Khan has always edited his movies traditionally without using a computer and Spielberg himself is a fan of film as opposed to digital cameras. The drama was genuine because of Mr. Spielberg. Because the story wasn’t completely original, it was hard for me to completely connect with it. Having said that, I still enjoyed the movie and recommend it to anyone who wants to see a good movie. Spielberg’s storytelling skills do the story justice.

4 Stars