Saturday, May 10, 2014

War Horse - Movie Review

I watched this movie in six or seven instalments, not because it was bad but because it somehow happened that way. The one thing that strikes you is this - how the hell did they get the horses to act so well? And then you see Spielberg's comment somewhere that he finds horses extraordinarily expressive. And was he right/

The story is pretty convoluted as it follows the horse all over the place - England, France, Germany. The main hook is the affection that a boy and the horse share before the war starts. He does not want to let it go but has to due to some cinematic compulsions. The horse goes here and there, finds a horsy friend and many human friends, survives most of its riders (almost all except this boy so you start worrying for him) and a spirited attempt to run through a barbed wire fence in no man's land. Rescued from that no man's land in one of the dramatic moments of the film where the Englishman and the German risk their lives to save the horse, shake hands and promise to visit each other (I think) the horse, Joey, finds its boy, now a man, who is fighting the war, and who is temporarily blinded, but who senses it and sends it a signal, and then alls well and it ends well.

Fairly dramatic. How the hell did they get the horses to act so well? And apparently they used many horses for Joey. Not the most gripping dramas ever for me but good enough. Done.

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