War Horse

2011 "Separated by war. Tested by battle. Bound by friendship."
7.2| 2h26m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 25 December 2011 Released
Producted By: DreamWorks Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website: http://www.warhorsemovie.com/
Synopsis

On the brink of the First World War, Albert's beloved horse Joey is sold to the Cavalry by his father. Against the backdrop of the Great War, Joey begins an odyssey full of danger, joy, and sorrow, and he transforms everyone he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Albert, unable to forget his equine friend, searches the battlefields of France to find Joey and bring him home.

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Reviews

sj-facebook War horse is a story which presents all those in war and the goodness of some regardless of side or class. This film captures non of that. The smiling English v the miserable Germans. The book is short children's story which is an emotional roller coaster, each character has depth to them that simply has not been captured in the film. The play is an absolute masterpiece and I can't recommend it highly enough.
Tricycle It's a truism to say: 'Never let the facts spoil a good story' - but to ignore facts completely is to write fantasy, not fiction - this film is fantasy.And the best actor was the horse - should have been given an Oscar . . . .It started out well - just the first 10 minutes - but after that the story showed little recognition of reality in any form. It is a shallow fairy tale - not even one with any clear moral worthy of nearly two hours of moralising.Early on, there was mention of 'The Imperial Yeomanry'- potentially a great 'seed' for the following story, but utterly wasted - and even at the end of the film its relevance remained undiscovered. The vagueness seems to suggest that either the author or screenwriter were rather out of their depth regarding the Second Boer War and just flailing around at a deeper story. All we had as a thread was some barely seen pennant which miraculously stayed with the horse through the unfolding story, but which carried no weight in it. So much more could have been made of that angle.Situations were created simply in order to be resolved in a emotionally jerky way, but also to reinforce stereotypes and received wisdom about WW1.The British Cavalry charge is a nonsense - no army camp is defended by a row of machine guns behind them. Anyway, since the Boer Wars the British Cavalry was principally used for scouting and mobile skirmishing (mounted infantry) and used rifles - sword wielding cavalry charges was retained just for later gullible film directors.However, if you are gonna have B. Cumberbatch in the film you have to give him something grand and patently foolhardy to do.The Germans hardly ever shot deserters in the field in WW1: that was something that the British occasionally did but which usually involved a 'proper' Court Martial on both sides. In contrast, a horse, injured and trapped in No-Man's Land would more likely have been peremptorily shot.Towards the end of the film, 'Grandpere' buys the "miracle horse" - it being the same one his grand-daughter briefly "owned". Quite how he found out about it 40 minutes later in the film involves a big leap of faith - or willful blindness - by the audience . . . .The true stories about war horses are much more engaging - and sobering.
evoapollo I mostly hated this because terrible cliché story line but one thing I cant stand anymore is that the story takes place in England?! Wtf?! I wanna see American war movies, not crap from another country. Why would Spielberg waste his time to make a garbage children's movie about this? When I first watched it I thought it was in the us in 1912. But then I saw the English flag and I immediately lost interest. Thats just my opinion though. Forgive me for loving this country enough. And ill stick to some good war movies that's actually about the country I live in. I cant stand watching war movies that shows the view of other countries. Maybe if this movie was about the us I might have liked it. But now its a disaster in my opinion no offense to Europe.
kijii Somehow I was able to grind my way through this VERY boring 2.5 hour movie, perhaps because I thought I should see any movie that had been nominated for 6 Oscars, including Best Picture. John Williams score was, as usual, very good and the art production is very good too. However,if one is not interested in either dark war movies (World War I) or horses, there is very little here for one to connect to. A horse is born, goes an odyssey, with hardships and many owners, and is finally reunited with its original owners.This movie is a Steven Spielberg-Kathleen Kennedy production, and one usually is not disappointed with the movies they make. However, I can only say, I'm sure glad it didn't spend the money or time to see it in a movie theater.