War Horse, based on the book by Michael Morpurgo and following in the hoofsteps of the successful stage adaptation, opens just before the start of the First World War. In a small Dorset village a daft and drunken man buys a fancy thoroughbred instead of a plough horse at auction. His teenage son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) falls for the horse just as quickly, names him Joey, and bonds with him by teaching him to plough the family farm. As the war begins the family have to sell the horse to save the farm and Joey is sent to France with a young cavalry captain (Tom Hiddleston). During the chaos of war Joey passes through many hands - English, German, French - and by 1918 ends up in the trenches where a very young soldier is searching for his long-lost horse...
I hate having to write this review because I'm going to have to be harsh, and I genuinely wanted to love this film. I'm a sucker for a sad horse story - Black Beauty is the only film that's ever made me cry - and I expected to love this one just as much as Black Beauty and My Friend Flicka. However, sadly, Spielberg has rather cocked it up. I've never read the book or seen the stage play so I can't be certain whether all of the flaws are the director's but some of them most definitely are. Firstly, the photography. The entire thing looks like it was made a good 20 years ago, the lighting is very strange, not least the final orange-drenched scene supposedly depicting sunset. Considering that even the most mediocre of films these days can be stunningly beautiful (I'm looking at you Sucker Punch) I'm surprised that Spielberg went for this fuzzy, dated, technicolour look which just makes the whole thing look like a Hovis advert for horses.
The second problem I have with this film, which is going to sound awful, is that the cosy Dorset village where Joey begins his life seems to be the place where all the other villages in the South West send their village idiots. Admittedly the slow Dorset accent doesn't help, but Albert looks incredibly dozy as does his gurning best friend. It's difficult to find much empathy with a hero who looks like he's wondering what day it is half the time. Mr Narracott is a drunk with very few wits who attempts to shoot the very expensive horse he has just bought because the poor creature shies away when he clumsily shoves a horse-collar at it. One has to wonder why his evidently more clever wife, played by Emily Watson, ever married him to begin with.
There are many odd things about this film - the tone for much of the film is aimed (sort of) at realism in its depiction of war, but then at the start of the film we have an almost anthropomorphised goose who spends his time berating the farmer, peering malevolently round doorways and chasing the evil landlord off the farm. Then there's the ridiculous moment when Albert and Joey victoriously plough the bottom field, just as a tide of curious villagers apparently sprout from the next-door field, and as they head towards a particularly treacherous looking rock which is evidently going to trip both horse and plough, the plough blade slices through it as if it is cheddar cheese. I'm no ploughman but I find that a tad unrealistic. This film is a curious mix of mawkish sentimentality and grim reality. The problem may be with the story; some characters are introduced as if they are going to be important and then forgotten about (hi, random pretty girl in car near the start of the film, and also the goose). Then there's the French girl, Emilie, who charms us for a few scenes but by the end of the film all we get is some mutterings from her grandpere who suggests she's died, although this is by no means clear despite the fact that she's the only character I felt any empathy with.
The feel of the entire film is old-fashioned and outdated and I have to wonder at Spielberg's decision to drench the production in cheesy storytelling traditions when the stage play was so successful using a more innovative and original approach.
There are some good scenes in the film - the section with Emilie and her grandpere is sweet, and I loved the section where poor Joey has tangled himself in barbed wire in No Man's Land and a young German soldier joins a young English soldier to cut him free. However, the majority of this film was a sad disappointment and I can't help but lay the blame at Mr Spielberg's door; much as I like his other family films this one falls well short of expectations.
Comments