Known As:
Боевой конь

StoryLine:
Young Albert enlists to service in WWI after his beloved horse, Joey, is sold to the cavalry. Albert's hopeful journey takes him out of England and across Europe as the war rages on.

Cast & Director:
David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Jeremy Irvine, Steven Spielberg

Genres: Drama

Taglines: Separated by war. Tested by battle. Bound by friendship.

A Fantastic War Movie that Will Appeal to All Audiences

I was lucky enough to see War Horse in a special pre-screening lastweek, and I can safely say I will be seeing it again when its releasedon Christmas day. I went in with relatively low expectations, afterwatching the series of mediocre trailers, and walked out being able tosafely say that War Horse is one of the best movies of the year, one ofSteven Spielberg's best films, and, quite possibly, one of the best warfilms ever made, up there with my personal favorites The Thin Red Line,Apocalypse Now and Paths of Glory. Steven Spielberg had long said that he didn't want to make SavingPrivate Ryan again. He said he wanted War Horse to be a war movie thatparents cant take their children to and teach them something about loveand war, and in this respect I can say that he more than succeeded.Spielberg comes close to the clinical perfection of Private Ryan, butmore importantly, from an emotional perspective, War Horse far exceedsPrivate Ryan. There are many people apt to cry at Private Ryan, but WarHorse is more likely to cause tears at a similar level to, say,Schindler's List. More importantly, unlike either Schindler or PrivateRyan, War Horse is unlikely to cause any sort of political or moralcomplaints. He never tempers the anti-war message with nationalisttripe. Rather, he plays war straight. War is evil, men are good. Thereare no sides in this movie. In fact, at various points throughout thefilm, he seems to directly reject Saving Private 's heroism is dyingfor country message.War Horse is based on the children's book and play of the same name. Itis about a boy who's father, on a whim, buys a horse for his son thathe knows will never be what is needed for the farm work it is purchasedfor. The boy forms an incredible bond with the horse. The first fortyfive minutes of the film is spent establishing the relationship betweenboy and horse. This part of the film is rather slow, but is necessaryto establishing the film's central relationships, and is quickly madeup for by the shift in pace as soon as the war begins. From theScottish country side, after this important turning point in worldhistory, War Horse shifts to France, where the titular horse is servingafter being sold to the army. The boy is a year or two too young tofollow his horse to Europe at this point, so for the next section, thefilm follows the horse only. From here on out, I will leave the plot amystery, but it is gripping, thrilling, and very emotional.There are two scenes in War Horse that I think are worthy of furthermention. The first is a charge across no man's land. For anyone notfamiliar with the bulk of World War I's combat, it consisted of monthsat a time of back and forth shooting between trenches, broken up byawful charges across no man's land, to take a few hundred yards ofenemy territory. These charges, as short as they were, as a result ofthe machine gun, came with death tolls in the thousands or higher. WarHorse contains one of these charges, and it is carried out with bothtaste, and near perfect artistry. It is just grisly enough to get thereality across, but not so grisly that it makes the movie impossible toshow to younger audiences. In fact, this trench charge ranks up withSteven Spielberg's other famous World War battle scene, the beachlanding in Saving Private Ryan. It doesn't quite make it, but it comesclose.The other scene worthy of mention also occurs in the trenches, andreflects the other side of War Horse. The titular horse gets caught inthe barbed wire in No Man's Land. The soldiers on either side spot it.No one knows what to do, as it is clear that its in incredible pain,but they know that leaving their respective trench would expose them tomachine gun fire. Eventually two soldiers, one British, the otherGerman both move to free the horse. The soldiers on both sides knowwhat is going on, so no one fires a shot. This scene is unbelievablytouching. The discussion they have (the German soldier happens to speakgood English, explained adequately through a joke) will move even themost cynical of viewers, and gives a good idea of just what perspectiveWar Horse takes to the act of war.There are a few small problems in War Horse that, in most films, Iwould take issue with, but I will forgive in this case as I feel thatthey are so necessary for this film to appeal to younger audiences. TheGerman soldiers speak English to one another, a big pet peeve for me. Iwould have preferred for French characters to speak subtitled Frenchand German characters to speak subtitled Germans, but I recognize thatmany younger viewers refuse to read subtitles. There are a fewunnecessary jokes, but again, younger viewers will enjoy these.Spielberg, as always, has three different endings tacked onto themovie, in this case necessary to provide the cut and dry resolutionyounger viewers require. As I said, these are still problems, but theyare, for better or worse, required to accomplish what Spielberg wastrying to.I can say with absolute certainty that when Christmas rolls around, Iwill be dragging all my younger relatives to a screening of War Horse.I have never seen a movie so able to pull its punches enough to get aPG- 13 rating, but show enough to explain just what it is about warthat makes it such an odious, disgusting, awful affair. In short, seeWar Horse as soon as you possibly can.