Review

Review Date: 18-December-11
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Juicy

War Horse (2011)

War Horse unites several pet motifs of director Steven Spielberg. At its core is the connection between a boy (newcomer Jeremy Irvine) and a friendly non-human, this time equine instead of extraterrestrial. They go off to war and witness and experience atrocities. Each yearns to return home, which in this case is the hardscrabble yet picturesque tenant farm of a fallen wretch (Peter Mullan) and his bulwark of a wife (Emily Watson). It's here that their only son raises a handsome bay colt, names him Joey, breaks him into saddle and harness, and adores him as a soulmate. It's from here that the horse is commandeered into the British army en route to Flanders fields, after which he falls in with cocky cavalrymen, doomed children, a brutal German commander, and, most memorably, a courageous old Frenchman (Niels Arestrup) trying to protect what little war has left him.

The movie bears its maker's mark: every scene is developed as a Big Moment with its own build-up and crescendo, stunning backdrop, and gorgeously heavy-handed music. With a less practiced or sincere filmmaker this might not go over so well, but Spielberg, in partnership with composer John Williams and cinematographer Janusz Kaminski, has polished this style to a tee. In fact, the movie's finest moment is its stagiest, a vignette which suggests the story's other incarnation as a play and could stand on its own without context. Following Joey's most harrowing ordeal (which is not easy to watch), the scene involves two soldiers who meet on the battlefield to assist him. One is British, the other German; both would rather risk their lives than see an animal in pain. Their meeting recalls the famous tale of enemies singing Christmas carols across the trenches, and it represents the best of the sentiment that War Horse provides.

Copyright © 2011 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.