I thought it was beautifully done and packed an emotional punch, master manipulator Mr. S is. Having seen and greatly admired the London theatre production which the script is partly based on I knew the various turns the story would take so had no issue at all with the structure - I just admired the way Spielberg translated it to the big screen. The way the horse was trained to perform Joey was remarkable and the Somme sequences were utterly brilliant (no surprises there). Personally I'd rather watch it again than Saving Private Ryan, but I'm sure that's just me.
Very unrealistic and artificial. Felt many scenes were forced to evoke emotional response from the audience. Speilberg doesn't have any fresh concepts it seems to be.
I like it, had a few tears cus I could feel the pain and sorrow. It is however mainly about the horse, so it will probably reach out more to those that are into horses/animals. The others may find it plain boring because they would rather see more about the actual war or what ever, not a horse's story. Only parts I didnt like were where the horse showed extreme intelligence/care (like when
he showed the other horse it's ok, and when he took the other horse's place
. That's far too unrealistic for my taste). Other than that, it's good.
As mandapuspi mentioned earlier..finally a movie that shows what happens to the horses. In pretty much all other war movies, you just see them lying on the ground dead, being shot, running away with a burning wagon etc. In this, it's a different story.
Watch a different movie if you DONT care about the animals in wars. It's a story about a horse and its owner, simple as that. I think it even said that in the description, so dont be disappointed when it actually is about the horse and its owner.
I absolutely fell in love with this movie. It's amazing how one being (and interestingly enough it happened to be a horse) can bring together so many others. It was visually stunning but the horse's story was enough to make me love it.
Much like Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan", "War Horse" is a emotionally spellbinding war-time epic that focuses on a story of hope, but this time Mr. Spielberg leaves the buckets of fake-blood to the side to focus more intently on a friendship between a young man and his horse. There are jaw-dropping sequences of action, throat-tightening scenes of emotional release, scenes that will have you cringing in fear, and all this is wrapped up in Spielberg's signature mastery for visuals.
The story is as predictable as you expect, but this is a story of a journey - that is to say that, despite being able to deduce the entire plot from 10 to 20 minutes into the film, I found myself thinking expectedly ahead to just what a great emotional punch those closing scenes would have when it was all said and done and wondering how we'd get there.
One of the more emotional movies of the year. A crowd pleaser. This is a real surprise joy of a film if you just let yourself get caught up in the spectacle.
Like any Spielberg film it is very technically impressive. The cinematography is gorgeous, the action is great, the costumes are nice and the score is predictably wonderful. Even the way the story is told is interesting.
However it's just so lifeless. There's no emotional core to this film, though it tries so hard to have one. Everything is flat and frankly, boring. It's an even bigger sin that Spielberg made such a compelling anti-war film with Saving Private Ryan but falls into all the trappings of schlocky Hollywood war movies here.
“We’ll be alright Joey. We’re the lucky ones, you and me. Lucky since the day I met you.”
This is a pleasant family film in which every member of the family will find a piece they’ll love most. The kids can dream about the adventurous part and the bond of friendship between a person and an animal. The women will be sobbing with all the sentimental and gooey stuff in this film while their handkerchief will get moister as the end nears. The tougher men of the family can set up for some authentic WWI footage.
The look and feel of this movie took me back to movies like “Old Yeller“. It looks sometimes like a painting. I had the feeling that it wasn’t always filmed outside. The storyline is much like “Forrest Gump“, only that this time a horse is the subject that runs through history and all sorts of situations. A comparison with Lassie is obvious cause Joey behaves like a trained collie. At one moment I expected him to go sit on his butt like a real dog.
The characters have a wide spectrum of feelings and personality. Joey is obviously highly intelligent an extremely loyal. Everyone would love to have such a horse hopping around in the garden. Not only does he express infinite love for Albert (Jeremy Irvine), but he’s also that strong to plow an entire field full of stumps and boulders in one night. Albert is the lucky boy to have this wonder horse as a friend. It’s a simple, extremely boring and never aging man. For his age, I think he has an unhealthy interest in horses. Instead of chasing girls and hang out with friends, he only talks and thinks about his horse. Like someone noticed on IMDb : “I guess one day he would like to settle down with Joey the Horse, get married with Joey the Horse and have kids with Joey the Horse. His character is so utterly one dimensional and bland”. Peter Mullan was brilliant again as the hardworking farmer who bought Joey on an auction right under the nose of his landowner. I think Mullan is one hell of an actor since I’ve seen him in “Tyrannosaur“. Emily Watson played convincingly the bossy wife and David Thewlis played an unkind version of a harsh landowner. I often hoped that he would be trampled under the feet of Joey .
As mentioned earlier, the film shows the adventurous life of Joey. From the pasture where he was born, to the farm where he needs to work hard, into the British army who loses Joey in a failed attack and he falls in the hands of the Germans. Then he ends up with a French girl and her grandfather (peak of dullness in the whole movie). Then again back in the hands of the Germans and eventually he gets tangled in barbed wire right in the middle of the battlefield. The end is so incredibly predictable with the obligatory moment when Albert and Joey meet again and return home to embrace his mother and eventually the father.
Terribly corny and sentimental film material in a heap, but filmed in a masterful way. The symbolic nature of the film is not hard to guess. The beauty of a deep-rooted friendship in contrast with the horrible hateful war in the background. This WWI was realistically portrayed on screen even though it seemed like a fairly clean war here. No blood spattered around, not even a drop. No ripped bodies. No hideous looking casualties caused by the gas attacks. In reality it was not a pretty picture. But all in all I thought it was pretty entertaining to watch and not boring at all. Although the moment when Joey got entangled in barbed wire was too ridiculous for words. I rather think that they would have used him as a practice target. For me, the moment when five cutters flew through the air to make him loose was a humorous slapstick moment .
Conclusion :
A Walt Disney fairy tale with many war sentiment and heartbreaking melodramatic, but picturesquely portrayed. Not the best of Spielberg, but it certainly was not that bad and awful.
Oh, what a bunch of grumpy sods you all are. Criticising a film based on a British children's novel & stage play as a kids' piece and typically Hollywood seems a bit rich. And boring? God. Go back to your mile-a-minute Transformers crap or whatever.
Ever since I saw a war film, the ones with horses and swords, a ridiculous question always poked me: what about the horses? Are they died? Are they running away? Would they be taken care of if they're injured? And this film made. I find myself hooked from the start. Let's say it pictures war in a horse's perspective.
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Comments 1 - 15 of 32
dombrewer
I thought it was beautifully done and packed an emotional punch, master manipulator Mr. S is. Having seen and greatly admired the London theatre production which the script is partly based on I knew the various turns the story would take so had no issue at all with the structure - I just admired the way Spielberg translated it to the big screen. The way the horse was trained to perform Joey was remarkable and the Somme sequences were utterly brilliant (no surprises there). Personally I'd rather watch it again than Saving Private Ryan, but I'm sure that's just me.filmyjo
Very unrealistic and artificial. Felt many scenes were forced to evoke emotional response from the audience. Speilberg doesn't have any fresh concepts it seems to be.Elica
I like it, had a few tears cus I could feel the pain and sorrow. It is however mainly about the horse, so it will probably reach out more to those that are into horses/animals. The others may find it plain boring because they would rather see more about the actual war or what ever, not a horse's story. Only parts I didnt like were where the horse showed extreme intelligence/care (like whenAs mandapuspi mentioned earlier..finally a movie that shows what happens to the horses. In pretty much all other war movies, you just see them lying on the ground dead, being shot, running away with a burning wagon etc. In this, it's a different story.
Watch a different movie if you DONT care about the animals in wars. It's a story about a horse and its owner, simple as that. I think it even said that in the description, so dont be disappointed when it actually is about the horse and its owner.
kayjay027
I absolutely fell in love with this movie. It's amazing how one being (and interestingly enough it happened to be a horse) can bring together so many others. It was visually stunning but the horse's story was enough to make me love it.greenhorg
War Biscuit.frankqb
Much like Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan", "War Horse" is a emotionally spellbinding war-time epic that focuses on a story of hope, but this time Mr. Spielberg leaves the buckets of fake-blood to the side to focus more intently on a friendship between a young man and his horse. There are jaw-dropping sequences of action, throat-tightening scenes of emotional release, scenes that will have you cringing in fear, and all this is wrapped up in Spielberg's signature mastery for visuals.The story is as predictable as you expect, but this is a story of a journey - that is to say that, despite being able to deduce the entire plot from 10 to 20 minutes into the film, I found myself thinking expectedly ahead to just what a great emotional punch those closing scenes would have when it was all said and done and wondering how we'd get there.
One of the more emotional movies of the year. A crowd pleaser. This is a real surprise joy of a film if you just let yourself get caught up in the spectacle.
mi-16evil
Like any Spielberg film it is very technically impressive. The cinematography is gorgeous, the action is great, the costumes are nice and the score is predictably wonderful. Even the way the story is told is interesting.However it's just so lifeless. There's no emotional core to this film, though it tries so hard to have one. Everything is flat and frankly, boring. It's an even bigger sin that Spielberg made such a compelling anti-war film with Saving Private Ryan but falls into all the trappings of schlocky Hollywood war movies here.
ikkegoemikke
“We’ll be alright Joey. We’re the lucky ones, you and me. Lucky since the day I met you.”This is a pleasant family film in which every member of the family will find a piece they’ll love most. The kids can dream about the adventurous part and the bond of friendship between a person and an animal. The women will be sobbing with all the sentimental and gooey stuff in this film while their handkerchief will get moister as the end nears. The tougher men of the family can set up for some authentic WWI footage.
The look and feel of this movie took me back to movies like “Old Yeller“. It looks sometimes like a painting. I had the feeling that it wasn’t always filmed outside. The storyline is much like “Forrest Gump“, only that this time a horse is the subject that runs through history and all sorts of situations. A comparison with Lassie is obvious cause Joey behaves like a trained collie. At one moment I expected him to go sit on his butt like a real dog.
The characters have a wide spectrum of feelings and personality. Joey is obviously highly intelligent an extremely loyal. Everyone would love to have such a horse hopping around in the garden. Not only does he express infinite love for Albert (Jeremy Irvine), but he’s also that strong to plow an entire field full of stumps and boulders in one night. Albert is the lucky boy to have this wonder horse as a friend. It’s a simple, extremely boring and never aging man. For his age, I think he has an unhealthy interest in horses. Instead of chasing girls and hang out with friends, he only talks and thinks about his horse. Like someone noticed on IMDb : “I guess one day he would like to settle down with Joey the Horse, get married with Joey the Horse and have kids with Joey the Horse. His character is so utterly one dimensional and bland”. Peter Mullan was brilliant again as the hardworking farmer who bought Joey on an auction right under the nose of his landowner. I think Mullan is one hell of an actor since I’ve seen him in “Tyrannosaur“. Emily Watson played convincingly the bossy wife and David Thewlis played an unkind version of a harsh landowner. I often hoped that he would be trampled under the feet of Joey .
As mentioned earlier, the film shows the adventurous life of Joey. From the pasture where he was born, to the farm where he needs to work hard, into the British army who loses Joey in a failed attack and he falls in the hands of the Germans. Then he ends up with a French girl and her grandfather (peak of dullness in the whole movie). Then again back in the hands of the Germans and eventually he gets tangled in barbed wire right in the middle of the battlefield. The end is so incredibly predictable with the obligatory moment when Albert and Joey meet again and return home to embrace his mother and eventually the father.
Terribly corny and sentimental film material in a heap, but filmed in a masterful way. The symbolic nature of the film is not hard to guess. The beauty of a deep-rooted friendship in contrast with the horrible hateful war in the background. This WWI was realistically portrayed on screen even though it seemed like a fairly clean war here. No blood spattered around, not even a drop. No ripped bodies. No hideous looking casualties caused by the gas attacks. In reality it was not a pretty picture. But all in all I thought it was pretty entertaining to watch and not boring at all. Although the moment when Joey got entangled in barbed wire was too ridiculous for words. I rather think that they would have used him as a practice target. For me, the moment when five cutters flew through the air to make him loose was a humorous slapstick moment .
Conclusion :
A Walt Disney fairy tale with many war sentiment and heartbreaking melodramatic, but picturesquely portrayed. Not the best of Spielberg, but it certainly was not that bad and awful.
More reviews here
Earring72
Very well made but feels a bit by the numbers and just didn't grab me.Joker of Gotham
Maybe my favourite movie of 2011.4.5/5
badblokebob
Oh, what a bunch of grumpy sods you all are. Criticising a film based on a British children's novel & stage play as a kids' piece and typically Hollywood seems a bit rich. And boring? God. Go back to your mile-a-minute Transformers crap or whatever.TalkingElvish
Lots of war, lots of horse, lots of beautifully lit shots and lots of emotional manipulation. Should have been half as long and twice as good.Malena
nice movie to watch once and that is it!! Not a Spielberg movie at all.djpatch28
Least favorite of the nominees this year, very boring, it made me angrymandapuspi
Ever since I saw a war film, the ones with horses and swords, a ridiculous question always poked me: what about the horses? Are they died? Are they running away? Would they be taken care of if they're injured? And this film made. I find myself hooked from the start. Let's say it pictures war in a horse's perspective.Showing items 1 – 15 of 32