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| Steven Spielberg gives audiences not just one, but two movies over the holiday stretch. |
If The Adventures of Tintin wasn’t enough Steven Spielberg over the long holiday season, there remains yet one more sprawling epic from the iconic director with the release of War Horse. 2011 isn’t this first instance that Spielberg has released two of his films in the same year. Back in 2005, Spielberg released his vision of War of the Worlds in the midst of summer and Munich, later in the year attracting attention from many critics.
War Horse comes at the perfect time of the year, fitting the shape of an awards bait film with its epic scale and emotional tension. Though everything points to War Horse being a film that is here to only collect a potential pile of awards, there is so much more that Spielberg delivers in divulging a tale that simply comes down to one about a boy and his horse. And that’s exactly how War Horse begins. An Irish farm boy named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) begins a bond with a recently purchased horse, but when his father is behind on the rent, the horse is thrown into the midst of World War I and continuously changes owners.
War Horse comes at the perfect time of the year, fitting the shape of an awards bait film with its epic scale and emotional tension. Though everything points to War Horse being a film that is here to only collect a potential pile of awards, there is so much more that Spielberg delivers in divulging a tale that simply comes down to one about a boy and his horse. And that’s exactly how War Horse begins. An Irish farm boy named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) begins a bond with a recently purchased horse, but when his father is behind on the rent, the horse is thrown into the midst of World War I and continuously changes owners.
There no doubt that War Horse holds its own as yet another classic Steven Spielberg epic, but it feels more like multiple vignettes tied together by one umbrella of a narrative. The horse, Joey, changes hands from owner to owner that he himself remains the only constant. Even with a runtime nearing two and a half hours, we end up more involved in where the horse is going and how will the horse escape another predicament rather than the people that come into and leave along Joey’s journey.
While the relationship between Albert and Joey is strong and remains the strongest bond echoing through the entire film, it does start the film off on a slow pace. Emotionally, it is powerful and we see Albert treats Joey as not some ordinary plough horse, but an actual friend. For a while, one wonders when the gears are going to get moving and it’s when Joey is swapping out owner for owner rather quickly that one needs to brake occasionally.
If anything, War Horse struggles with its pacing, unable to keep remain steady for a lengthy runtime. When the focus of the narrative switches between Albert and Joey and a Captain (Tom Hiddleston) and Joey, the latter doesn’t have as much to build upon and is quickly dismissed in the ultimate goal War Horse’s storytelling. Despite feeling segmented, the narrative doesn’t feel like Spielberg is slapping the vignettes together without any care. Every portion of this film, no matter how little serves its purpose to the final goal.
War Horse could have made its titular character less dynamic and more of an afterthought. Instead, Spielberg makes the horse the focal point of the entire film as war and peace are seen through the eyes of such a noble beast. To the horse, borders are little concern and there is no good or evil, just people. All British and Irish aren’t viewed as just the good guys, nor are the Germans all villains. Like in reality, every culture has good people and bad people and an entire group of people cannot be stereotyped in a particular manner.
War Horse could have made its titular character less dynamic and more of an afterthought. Instead, Spielberg makes the horse the focal point of the entire film as war and peace are seen through the eyes of such a noble beast. To the horse, borders are little concern and there is no good or evil, just people. All British and Irish aren’t viewed as just the good guys, nor are the Germans all villains. Like in reality, every culture has good people and bad people and an entire group of people cannot be stereotyped in a particular manner.
The two and half hours of War Horse can only be described as a beautiful painting with surreal locations and events documented through the eyes of a horse. Spielberg carefully spends every moment of the film depicting the beauty of the countryside juxtaposed with grittiness of war. That combined with another memorable score of John Williams, which tends to stay close to particular cues makes War Horse a splendid interpretation of the time period. Though the horse takes center stage, the cast work together in the various segments to add an overall depth to the world. Jeremy Irvine as Albert starts off a bit awkward, but by the second and third acts, what started as rocky begins to hit home for the audience. Tom Hiddleston, Emily Watson and David Thewlis are all fantastic here as well, though none of the actors have the opportunity to stand out due to the minimal screen time given all around.
War Horse is an all around another moving and mesmerizing addition to Steven Spielberg’s long list of classics. It captures what has unfortunately become a forgotten war from a unique perspective and a canvas that was painted from a very in-depth dream. Spielberg has not only given audiences one gift this holiday season, but two gifts to enjoy for years to come.
GRADE: A- (9/10)This review is also available on Blu-Ray.com
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