Jeremy Irvine in War Horse
So. Erm. Yeah. War Horse. In a nutshell, it is a two and a half hour movie directed by Steven Spielberg, about male humans falling in love with a male horse. Perhaps that is a sweeping and ignorant generalisation, for this horse (Joey, played by Finder and thirteen other horses) is a metaphor for innocence and turning from boy to man and loving your fellow man and bestiality (…joking. I think).
The film is adapted for the big screen, by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and Richard Curtis (Love Actually), from Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 children’s novel and on the back of the stage plays success in 2007. Look out for the author’s cameo role, during the auction scene at the beginning of the movie, standing next to David Thewlis. The film shows World War 1 through a horse’s viewpoint, which is a lovely idea for a kids book – but a film? No. Not really. This is mainly because this film is not a children’s film; even though it is a movie that could be enjoyed by kids, it seems to be aimed at an adult audience, which results in the idea bordering on, well, a little bit silly.
The first forty-five minutes or so are where the film is at its wettest. Young Albert (Jeremy Irvine, in his first feature film role) literally falls in love with Joey, right from seeing his birth to when his drunken dad brings him home - after paying way too much for him at an auction, because he fell in love with him – and beyond. Not even after Joey is sold to the cavalry and Albert is away from him for several years, during a war where millions of humans and horses were killed, including his friends, and in which he is himself enlisted, is his love dampened. To such an extent, that he carries a photo of Joey with him when going over into no man’s land.
The film does get fractionally better when the war kicks off and Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston, Thor) becomes besotted with our equestrian hero. At least Benedict Cumberbatch’s Major Stewart - putting in an expected quality performance – does not get so doughy-eyed. The acting overall, is top notch; it is an excellent cast, with Thewlis, Cumberbatch, Hiddleston, Emily Watson, Peter Mullen, Niels Arestrup, Toby Kebbell and Eddie Marsden, but who would turn down a Spielberg film? It is unlikely they even read the script, before committing.
All jokes aside, War Horse is actually a perfectly well made film. The battle scenes are well choreographed; not nearly as epic as those seen in Spielberg’s previous Saving Private Ryan, but quality all the same. The horses are expertly trained too - Bobby Lovgren and other trainers had only three months to get them ready and they did an excellent job; there was 280 of the buggers in one scene. All this without whips too, it seems, because the American Humane Society awarded the film an ‘outstanding’ rating for it’s care of the animals.
War Horse is a concept that, while certainly not ridiculous in itself, has been handled badly in its story execution and seems to have no self-awareness in regards to it being simperingly annoying. But hey; it has a best picture nomination in the up and coming Oscars and has been critically acclaimed, so there is definitely the audience for it.
War Horse is showing at Broadway until Thursday 2 February
War Horse official website
Read comments and make your own
Comments