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One of the least creatively-named films of the season has been surrounded with growing Oscar buzz for months, but I don't think War Horse will be taking home the top prize this year. (And yes, War Horse is about a horse, during the war.) In Steven Spielberg's second major movie for the holidays, we follow a horse from birth to adulthood, and see the good parts and the bad parts of his life
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The movie opens as the horse is being born. A neighbor boy watches the birth and becomes strangely enamored with the horse. A few months later, as a colt, the horse is taken to auction, where the neighbor boy's father buys the horse for about 5 times its worth, just to prove he is as manly as his landlord. The boy trains the non-thoroughbred to be a hard worker on the farm, and raises the horse to be one of the strongest and the best in town. Then, because the dad paid way too much for the horse in the first place, he sells it to the army at the start of World War I, so he can pay his landlord rent. The boy is obviously crushed, but in his tears, the officer buying the horse promises to return it to him if they both survive the war.
The next 90 minutes of the film follow the horse, Joey, through different countries, and different battles, with a host of different owners. Joey fights on both sides during the war, and serves as a cavalry horse, and ambulance horse, a towing horse and more.
My biggest problem with this film was that the characters were developed in a way that would be great for a book, but just doesn't work in film. The father in the film has as drinking problem, and most of his acting is simply staring off into the distance with tear-filled eyes. But then we learn from the mother that the father was in a war, and doesn't talk about it, so he doesn't say much. That's less character development, and more sloppy writing. I'm sure it worked great in Michael Morpurgo's novel of the same name, the screenwriters could have done better. Although I'm not sure how much great characterization I should expect from a screenwriter with credits like Mr. Bean and Notting Hill.
The story gets interesting enough once the war starts, and the horse narrowly escapes death dozens of times. The battle scenes are shot really well, and some of the finest I have ever seen. The battles do a great job of communicating the ugliness of war, and the fear that young soldiers face, while still highlighting the basic goodness found in most people. This part of the screenplay was fantastic and even brought a tear to my eye when two soldiers on opposite sides team up to save Joey's life.
The film hops from character to character too fast to develop any real emotion for the people in the film, but it will keep you cheering for Joey to continue to defy the odds, and be one of the war's survivors. 3.5 out of 5 stars. |
