Disclaimer: I am no movie critic (a la Roger Ebert) so don't take this review personally. I'm not even sure if it should be called pop culture either. ;)
(picture from EW.com)
[Much spoilers ahead]
Watched this yesterday with a few colleagues in the cinema, since they only released the movie in Malaysia around early Feb 2012. To say the least, this movie received smaller reception compared to, say, movies like Underworld, so I'm half-surprised to see the theater half-filled. But not surprised to see most of them in their late 20s and older. Heh.
Onwards to the movie shall we?
Some reviews called it boring, some called it a tried-too-hard project of Steven Spielberg, and some called it slow at first and picked up its pace in the 2nd half.
I'm agreeing with the latter group. Sure, War Horse isn't some high-tech film that wows you with its effects. In the plethora of action/CGI-packed movies, War Horse is one of the movies that speaks more volume through its quiet moments. Which are quite a number.
By quiet I don't necessarily mean absolute silence. War Horse possesses lots of moments that provokes reflection and thoughtfulness from the audience, from a simple scene of two German brothers who go AWOL, just wanting to go home to their parents, to a sickly girl who wanted to ride a horse her whole life.
Summary
In a nutshell, War Horse is about a horse which is supposed to be a farm horse, which was then sold to the army for the upcoming World War I. The horse, named Joey, went through some rough times to almost the point of death, before it(he?) could reconcile with his owner.
Plot
The movie opens with
Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine), the protagonist of the movie (besides Joey) who watches Joey growing from a young thoroughbred foal to a young horse in the outskirts of Devon, England. Joey is then sold to
Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan), Albert's father, in an attempt to out-buy his landlord. While Albert was excited,
Rose (Emily Watson), his mother, is not, since the horse was bought at the expense of the rent. A thoroughbred means Joey is not a farm horse, but one that is bred for racing.
(picture from DreamWorks)
What other choice do the Narracotts have but to try to prove to the landlord
Lyons (David Thewlis) that Joey can plow their rocky field and that they can plant turnips in time to pay the rent. The whole town came to watch the spectacle as a determined Albert pleads with Joey to plow the field. It seemed like a hopeless attempt until it starts to pour. Joey, being further encouraged by his young master, obeys Albert and soon the whole town watched the rock-laden field being plowed beautifully. In your face, Lyons! :P
(picture from DreamWorks)
Alas, another torrential rainstorm came and ruins the crops, driving Ted to desperate measures and off he goes to sell the horse to the militia, much to the dismay of Rose and Albert. Albert couldn't take the pain of losing Joey, and so tries his best to enlist into the army. Alas, being under-aged, hence disqualified,
Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston) assures Albert instead that he will have Joey as his personal steed and will personally return Joey to Albert once the war is over. Joey is then led to the stables where he is groomed and trained together with
Major Jamie Stewart (ah, Benedict Cumberbatch!)'s beloved horse,
Tophorn.
(picture from DreamWorks)
An ambush is planned on the Germans and so the cavalry goes, with Joey and Tophorn and their riders in the lead. Being tipped off (which I highly suspect that's the case), the Germans surprises the English cavalry instead with machine guns and captures all of them, killing Captain Nicholls and many other cavalrymen in the process. The English cavalry surrendered and the remaining horses shot if they're injured. A private of the German army,
Gunther (David Kross) and his 14-year-old brother
Michael (Leonard Carow), asks for the healthy horses to pull the ambulance cart. Joey teaches Tophorn how to wear the brace, as how Albert had taught him to for the plowing. Hence, Joey saves both their lives.
(picture from DreamWorks)
The German army are filing out towards war and Michael is selected, instead of the older Gunther, because of Gunther's skills with handling horses. Gunther, reluctant to let Michael go off to war at such a young age, decides to go AWOL with him, together along with Joey and Tophorn. They both hide in a windmill, anxious to get home to their parents, but the army officers got to them first. For deserting the army, both boys are shot.
Joey and Tophorn were left in the windmill until
Emilie (Celine Buckens), a French girl, discovers them and decides to adopt both the horses. Her grandfather (Niels Arestrup), who makes jam, is reluctant to keep them, and even more reluctant to let Emilie ride the horses since Emilie suffers from brittle bones. But Emilie is determined. She tries to teach Joey how to jump over the barrier, which Joey still doesn't (which was shown earlier in the movie when Albert was riding Joey, in a challenge to the landlord's son,
David (Robert Emms - who plays Albert in the stage version), who was showing off his father's car to his date. Joey stopped just right in front of a fence which propelled Albert forward and had him landed on his bum, sorely embarrassed).
(picture from DreamWorks)
The German army raids the grandfather's house while Emilie hides the horses in her room. Soon, the grandfather relents and lets Emilie ride Joey on her birthday up the hill and back. But all joy is short-lived when the Germans were gathering in the other side of the hill and captures the horses.
Joey and Tophorn are made to pull the artillery, but Tophorn is in bad shape. The German soldier (Nicolas Bro) in charge of the horses tries to take care of them by offering the other horses but to no avail. Then, Joey, being the stronger one, moves forward for Tophorn, replacing Tophorn in the artillery pulling.
(picture from screenrant.com)
Albert, a few years older now, has enlisted in the army with his best friend, Andrew, along with landlord's son, David, with a mission to search for his horse. Thinking they have infiltrated the German's camp, the enemy releases poisonous gas and thus kills Andrew and blinding Albert.
As the Germans were retreating to their other camp, Tophorn finally succumbs to the exhaustion and dies. The German soldier who had looked after the both, told Joey to run and save himself. Joey runs while the war goes on in full force, until he gets trapped by barb wires in the no-man's land, a border of sorts that separates the English and Germans.
The soldiers are astonished to find a horse still surviving, no less in no-man's land, which motivated
Colin (Toby Kebbell), one of the Geordie soldiers, to wave a white flag to try to save Joey. Soon,
Peter (Hinnerk Schönemann) from the German camp, came out with a wire-cutter to help free Joey. By a toss of coin, Joey is led back to the English camp, where the army doctor (Liam Cunningham) declares Joey as untreatable and wants him shot dead.
Albert, recovering from his blindness, hears about the miracle horse and decides to give his hooting call (a call which he taught Joey). The army doctor disbelieves Albert since Joey was all covered in mud. The significant characteristics of Joey, which are 4 white socks and a diamond blaze on Joey's forehead, were covered. The army soldiers decides to help wash the horse and it was indeed Joey.
(picture from DreamWorks)
The armistice came and the war was over. Albert's sight recovers and he is longing to bring Joey back to Devon, but military rules says that Joey, along with other horses, has to be sold through auction. The armymen helps to gather money for Albert, but the bid went to Emilie's grandfather, whose granddaughter has died. At first adamant in bringing Joey back to France with him, Joey runs to Albert, unwilling to let go of his master. Emilie's grandfather took out Ted's military pennant, which Albert had tied to Joey's bridle before Joey was sold off to Captain Nicholls. Realizing the first connection that was already made, Emilie's grandfather graciously lets Joey go. Albert and Joey returns home to Devon, happily reuniting with his parents.
(picture from DreamWorks)
Thoughts
First things first, the cinematography is beautiful. From Devon for the first scenes, to the warzone, all were captured oh so prettily. The horses were gorgeous. The sheen on Joey and Tophorn's body shines literally.
There are a few scenes which I really loved, one of it was the scene where Joey loses Captain Nicholls (it's evident he was shot and had fallen off Joey) and Joey continued running before being subdued by the Germans. If a horse could express fear, that scene was it. The same kind of fearful expression was repeated again when Joey ran across the battlefield and gets trapped by the barb wires.
The other scene which I loved so much was the temporary truce between Colin and Peter. That scene reminded me of C.S. Lewis' description of war. Sometimes being obliged to fight in the war doesn't necessarily means you hate the "enemy", as this was shown in the scene. Colin and Peter could have a friendly banter and work together to free Joey, something that the war was propagating against. In the end, when they were parting, you could feel that both were feeling a little sad that they have to go back to fighting each other.
I appreciate that violence was not focused upon in this movie. There were a few scenes where you're left to understand the next activity on screen, like the part where Captain Nicholls had the foreboding of death in his eyes though his death was never shown. You just knew it when Joey continues galloping without Nicholls on his back. The only time when death was more pronounced was when Gunther and Michael were shot. Even that was covered by the windmill's rotating flaps. You only hear the sounds of gunshot and then both boys were shown lying on the ground.
Of course this movie's not flawless. I admit the Devon (Dartmoor) scenes were a little too long as it feels like it's taking quite some time to build the plot. Even the land-plowing bit served little build in climax as it was predictable. You knew that Joey was going to come through and surprise the townsfolk. But when we got to the war, the pacing got a little better and the highlight was when Albert recognizing Joey and when Joey returns to Albert after being sold to Emilie's grandfather.
I wish they do improve on some plot points since sometimes I find it jarring. Like the scene where the grandfather hands Joey back to Albert. I know why it is there and I like that scene. I just wish that the whole transaction could have been stronger. To me it just feels like something is missing, like Emilie's grandfather will give Joey back to Albert, just because. The scene isn't void of those dialogues, just that it could have been much much stronger.
Or the scene where
Andrew, Albert's best friend (Matt Milne), dies. I am not really sure what the team wanted me to see or feel, since there isn't a repercussion of that, except for the fact that Albert was temporarily blind. Andrew played a more significant role in Devon as he was the one who witnessed Joey's growth together with Albert, so I do wish that at least some dialogue or some grief would take place (or even Andrew's trademark "Well, would you look at you" line). But the death fell flat. Before the gas, Albert almost shot Andrew then they both rejoiced at finding each other in the war. Then Andrew just dies. Again, I wish the scene could have been stronger. I'm not asking for tears even. I mean, it's a war movie, and if you set up Andrew to be Albert's best friend, wouldn't it be nicer to have a little more bromance? I mean, even the horses has better bromance.
And I actually wish for more visual cues, like where exactly we are in the movie. I got lost when we were in between French and Germany? Or was it England? It doesn't help that the characters spoke in English, regardless of their nationality. My colleague actually commented that using the native tongue would have made the scenes more effective. We had to decipher for ourselves by their accent and their names, which not every character has.
But back to the positives. The soundtrack is appropriate most of the time, and it helps to build suspense, though I thought it felt like I was gonna watch a horror sequence when the dark tones were being played. Overall, I enjoyed John William's score for War Horse.
The acting was wonderful, with Jeremy Irvine in his movie debut. He sure pulls off the innocent, naive and vulnerable horse-loving youngster well. I love it when he identifies Joey even when he is blind, so sure that it is his horse.
I admit, I didn't cry in this movie, but I was moved by the story. I like war stories that focus on the relationship and the humanity, rather than just all-out rage and violence. I think, sadly, a lot of movies lack that nowadays. I know I'm in the minority who love stories like these. Joey knew what it was like to suffer, but he also trusted that he will see his young master again. For that, the movie has managed to hit the right notes. But I do wish for the human relationships to flesh out even more, war horses notwithstanding. It's either we go all the way on the horse plot, or we strike a nice balance between the two protagonists, the horse story and the human story.
(picture from DreamWorks)
Watch if you like: Lassie, Black Beauty and all those animal stories, with a dash of grit and depressing realities of war.
Rating: 7/10
