The heart wants to proclaim“ War Horse,” directed by Steven Spielberg, a superior movie and as far as the horse Joey is concerned, the movie is effective. However, when taken as a whole, “War Horse” falls short of great. What Spielberg does well is capture the horrors of World War I and the waste of fighting a (then) modern war using antiquated methods. The principle difficulty is following the story from Joey’s perspective, which the novel by Michael Morpurgo does. Instead, the script by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis focuses on the human characters during scenes in which the horse is present. This results in a loosely episodic narrative, preventing us from developing any emotional attachment to the people Joey encounters. Compounding the problem is the performance of Jeremy Irvine, the young actor who plays Albert, Joey’s original owner. His performance is flat and underplayed, making it difficult to sympathize with him. The rest of the cast, however, including Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Niels Arestrup and David Thewlis, is solid.
“War Horse” follows the adventures of Joey, a horse born and bred in Devon, who is owned by Albert (Irvine) and his father Ted (Peter Mullan) and his mother Rose (Emily Watson). When their landlord (David Thewlis) threatens to foreclose on the farm unless the rent is paid, Ted sells Joey to Major Stewart (Benedict Cumberbatch), who rides the horse into the early battles of World War I. After Stewart is killed in action, Joey is taken by the Germans. Over the next few years, he ends up pulling ambulances and gun wagons and being the pet of a lonely French girl (Celine Buckens) and her grandfather (Niels Arestrup). Once Albert becomes old enough to join the British army, he searches the front lines for Joey, even though the odds of him finding his beloved horse are insurmountable. The final scene with Joey in the foreground and the sky flashing shades of orange, red, and yellow, is too emotionally manipulative, but nonetheless, a prime example of the stunning camera work of cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. “War Horse” is an enjoyable crowd-pleaser. Too bad it’s not Spielberg at his best. 12/25/11
1 comment:
A splendid movie to watch, Sielberg brings WW1 alive with his sets and his cinematography. The problem is that it's a good movie but not a great one. I was expecting greatness!
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