This movie doesn’t set any new standards in film, but it’s a good watch. Instead of drawing from the action/adventure tradition of American film, Spielberg is mining the melodrama here. I felt manipulated throughout the film, and usually in a way to evoke tears: Albert and Joey plow the field, Ted sells Joey, Cpt. Nicholls gets shot….. But I didn’t care because I felt for the characters in front of me, especially for the horse, Joey.
War Horse hearkens back to older anti-war films like All’s Quiet on the Western Front with its détente on the front lines. And war here corrupts, damages, breaks or destroys everything. Even Joey, an animal, experiences traumatic loss because of the war. The film also looks to other types of melodrama. The end of the movie, supposedly in England, looks every bit like the Midwest during the depression in Grapes of Wrath with its silhouettes and bright backlighting. And both film citations work great.
There isn’t a single surprise in this story, but at least one of sequences is unforgettable. What Spielberg accomplished at the opening of Saving Private Ryan with the landing at Normandy he duplicated with Joey panicked and running through the trench lines getting entangled in barbed wire and dragging it with him until he can run no further. That is one powerful film sequence.
You’d hardly say War Horse is creative or ground-breaking, but it’s a compellingly entertaining film that certainly had me engaged throughout its 2-1/2 hour, episodic run. It’s emotional and moving -- a good quality time at the movies.
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