Following a resilient horse and his journey from farm life in rural England to the trenches of World War I, War Horse is Stephen Spielberg’s entry into the award season shuffle. The horse called Joey experiences a number of episodes, which coincide with the difficulties of war. But even though the horse is the lead, he mainly acts as a marker to bring the audience to different sets of characters and different perspectives. It is a fairly ambitious idea that comes across as well developed and genuine at all times. Plus, who knew that a horse’s actions could provide so much emotion?
A long film, War Horse is a story that needs that time to build up the audience’s emotion. There are so many casualties in the film that this horse becomes as much of a morale boost to the viewer as he is for the characters he interacts with. I have never seen a grown man weep openly in a movie theater like I did near the end of this film. No it wasn’t me, but I was choked up and everyone else likely was too.
This definitely has the feel of a depressing Oscar nominee, but the difference is that there is always a sense of hope hanging around War Horse. The visuals are stunning; culminating in Joey’s run through the barbed wire filled “no man’s land” with explosions as the backdrop. It could come across as cheesy and thinking back it may have been, but at the time it is quite powerful. War Horse is a dense movie-going experience that takes some real work from the viewer to commit emotionally to the characters and the historical context. But it proves to be worth it in the end. I’m curious as to how puppets can be as layered in the stage version. (9.5 out of 10)
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