War Horse
Steven Spielberg | USA | 2011
146 min
War Horse is the kind of quaint, old fashioned film that they don’t make anymore. It advocates the virtues of hard work and having faith in the goodness of humanity. Despite being set during the First World War, and having a title that references it as well, it is not as much about the war as it is about the companionship between an animal and its owner transcending all adversity.
Spielberg, a master of staging battle scenes, outdoes himself here, with spectacular scenes of horse mounted attacks and fierce sword fights, but the episodic structure of the tale results in a sprawling narrative that spans many years, numerous locations and half a dozen characters, never letting the film be about the war itself. In this way, the film almost becomes a series of vignette’s, like Cold Mountain, with the journey of Joey, the titular horse, becoming the connecting thread that ultimately leads us back to where it began. It also shares a lot in common with Spielberg’s very own Empire of the Sun in the way it has mainly British protagonists, is set during a great war and is from the point of view of a child (or as it is here, a young man) coming to terms with the effect of the war on the self while trying to survive.
The films setting lets Spielberg’s tender optimism take over. What starts of as a simple story of a family man on a farm trying to plough his field with the help of his son and his newly bought horse (this is essentially the films first and better half) gives way to a heartwarming, intermittently funny, genuinely uplifting tale of survival through bloodshed, suffering and the chaos of the battlefield. The film’s best scene though takes place during its last act and has Spielberg experiment with dark humour, where an English soldier indulges in conversation with his German counterpart in the no man’s land between their trenches. Such moments break the ice for viewers who expect a shallow, banal treatment from a director often mocked for his naivety and child like view of the world. Spielberg’s long time collaborators also perform to their usual high standards of technical perfection, but composer John William’s swelling, sweeping score is a standout. None of them however upstage their director, who lets viewers feast on some of the most gorgeously shot scenes of the year in a film that is as remarkable as it is pure and honest.
