War Horse

[Impact]

Review, Discuss and Have Fun!

[Plain Old Tele]

Loved it. Not without its flaws, but a movie is always either more or less than the sum total of its parts, and in this case it's more.It is firmly sentimental. It is very old-fashioned. Adjust your expectations accordingly... this is not SAVING PRIVATE RYAN with a horse. It is THE BLACK STALLION meets EMPIRE OF THE SUN.

[Impact]

So I went to another theater thinking it be less crowded, but it seems like EVERY theater is crowded.War Horse12:30 PMAbout 90%+ full, I rarley ever see this theater that crowded, mostly people in there 50s+Trailers:Good Deeds: Looks decent.Big Miracle: Bleh. Looks terrible. Is this Dolphin Tale 2? Though I did hear some people wanting to see it.Loud and Close: Man this looks depressing.Pirates: What a diffrence a audience can make. At Muppets and Hugo the entire theater was laughing. Here the only part that got laughter was the lepord boat line.Chimpanzee: Boring. Looks like something I watched in mid school....John Carter: Looks good I think.Movie: Wow amazing. Great music and sets and cinematogophy. No human is the star, its Joey of course. And the black horse as well. I did enjoy the acting. The ending was good,

Not that far fetched either, for example-the famous Christmas fight comes to mind from WW1.

I really thought this was Steven's best film in quite a while. As a side note-I've seen all of his films at the theater starting with Minority Report. Beautiful, very pretty.A+Best film of 2011.

[mattmav45]

I enjoyed this.

It's embraces old-fashioned cinema, and makes no apologies for it. It is definitely sentimental and emotional, but I never felt it crossed the line to cheesiness. The score was really well done......one of those scores that keeps you invested in the movie throughout even if you don't notice it on a continuous basis.

Not one of the best of the year, but a great time at the movies to watch a movie made in competent, old-fashioned manner. Doesn't ever feel slow and is emotional without being overly sentimental. A solid holiday movie, IMO.

B

[Impact]

Wow, Matmav I really am finding that I like some of the same films as you recently.

[mattmav45]

Wow, Matmav I really am finding that I like some of the same films as you recently.

Your film taste must be improving.Of course, following the master is never a bad idea, IMO.

[Ozymandias]

It got really slow in some parts but overall it was alright with some great scenes. Not as good as I was expecting though.

[Warhorse]

The movie was OK. Not the best movie I saw all year, no where near it, and definitely not the best horse movie I have seen either, (actually, this is one of the worst horse movies I have seen to be honest, The Black Stallion has it whipped!)I was loving the movie all the way until the horse was taken away from the French girl (who was my favorite character in the movie) It started to get bogged down from there. When Joey was stuck in the trench, jumping the tank, getting all caught up by the barbed wire, I really had to role my eyes at these scenes. But, the ending just sucked. The boy gets re-united with Joey, but then to have the military auction him off, and then get bought by the French Grandfather, only for him to give the horse back to the boy, am I missing something here? What was the point of this scene? I thought maybe they were going to have Emilie meet the main boy and he becomes her prince charming, but obviously that doesn't happen. I just thought the ending was a real let down.But I did like the cast, and personally, I would have loved to have seen the Captain that bought Joey in the beginning have a more prominent role in the movie, and the violence was done tastefully, as tasteful as one can get showcasing a war movie.I gave it a B, like I said, movie started out great, it just fell apart near the end. And I hope to see the little girl in more movies, she was such a darling in this!

[75Live]

Probably the 2nd or 3rd best movie of the year for meA-

[acsc1312]

Pretty good movie, but I wish they would have stayed closer to the book. Parts of it were really cheesy for sentimental effect, but parts of it were great. The war sequences did reach SPR level at times. Oh, and the cinematography was great.B+

[4815162342]

The second auction scene seemed wholly unnecessary (not in the play) and would have worked better if it had been Emilie buying the horse and giving Joey back to Albert when she realized he was the original owner (and that way Albert would have insisted on repaying her money and she'd have taken it).But the final three minutes with the Gone with the Wind-style cinematography was brilliant. Possibly the best sentimental final sequence of Spielberg's in 30 years.

[Warhorse]

The second auction scene seemed wholly unnecessary (not in the play) and would have worked better if it had been Emilie buying the horse and giving Joey back to Albert when she realized he was the original owner (and that way Albert would have insisted on repaying her money and she'd have taken it).But the final three minutes with the Gone with the Wind-style cinematography was brilliant. Possibly the best sentimental final sequence of Spielberg's in 30 years.

What you said about Emilie should have bought the horse, I agree 100%. Don't these directors or editors get these movies screened tested anymore? It's kind of strange how we all can watch these movies and think of better outcomes, and we are far from professionals.

[Plain Old Tele]

I disagree, I'm glad she didn't make it. I thought she was the least interesting of all the characters Joey interacted with and her death was more interesting (and less cliched) than her staying alive.

[Gopher]

It's not a great movie- I would have trimmed it down quite a bit without compromising the film's emotional punch. And it really should be open season for the cynics of the world. But it's impeccably crafted- Janusz Kaminski's larger-than-life cinematography, the sweeping John Williams score, the impressive cast- and before I knew it, I was floored. It's a very good movie. And while as a whole it's beautiful, some sequences- Joey's race through the barbed wire, the last few minutes in the sunset, the rain scene and the snow scene- are inspired. As a callback to the emotional weight of films like ET and Empire of the Sun, it's a perfect counter to the Raiders callbacks of Tintin. I haven't seen The Artist, but I would be way cooler with this as an Oscar frontrunner than I was with, say, The King's Speech.

[tawasal]

Awesome movie from beggining to end.I just watched DVDSCRN.

[AppMini]

By now, we're used to the Spielberg one-two punch of a summer blockbuster followed by a prestige film for the holidays. Sometimes it works spectacularly (Jurassic Park and Schindler's List) and sometimes it fizzles (Lost World and Amistad). Sometimes the themes of the films blend together despite the vast differences in premises, budget and audience appeal (War of the Worlds and Munich are equally harrowing ruminations on post-9/11 anxieties)

Last year's double-bill was different, mainly because the crowdpleaser (Tintin) and the prestige film (War Horse) were scheduled within the same week in December. However, I personally suspect Spielberg had a much different dichotomy of passion for this particular set. He clearly had much more passion for Tintin than he ever did for Jurassic Park or War of the Worlds, and it showed in the fact he spent 30 years trying to make it. On the other hand, War Horse had one of the quickest turnovers I can think out of any Spielberg film -- he finds out about the novel/play in 2009, cast announced in 2010, finished film out in 2011 -- which makes me feel he doesn't have the same level of passion for this material that he did for the life stories of Oskar Schindler or even Frank Abagnale Jr.

Don't get me wrong, it is superb from a pure filmmaking standpoint. Everyone delivers a fine performance, the cinematography is gorgeous, the war sequences are intense and harrowing despite the lack of gore, and unlike many, I had zero issues with the level of unabashed sentiment on display. The fatal flaw is Richard Curtis' screenplay which, I'm sorry to say, fails miserably at sustaining an engaging narrative structure. There are some great scenes in the beginning and ending, but I found myself zoning out too much during the middle portions where the horse traveled from one doomed owner to another.

I honestly feel Spielberg just wanted a relatively simple project to thaw off some live-action filmmaking rust after working with mo-cap and a CGI-heavy Indiana Jones installment. He obviously loved the novel/play and identifies with the themes, but he doesn't explore them with the verve that defines classics such as Schindler's List or Private Ryan. I expect his next film Lincoln to be much better.

B-

[Goffe]

A few terrific moments, such as the surprise attack and the two guys saving Joey from the barbed wire, intercut with so much pointless and overly (unearned) sentimental bullshit. It was too much, even for me.

 

One of the worst scripts Spielberg ever worked with. The lead guy was terrible, like SOMEONE-PUNCH-THAT-KID-ALREADY terrible. 

 

And of course, the last 20 minutes couldn't be any different, they mindbogglingly boring and unnecessary. Is there a rule where Spielberg has to drag his films to the point of exhaustion that I'm not aware?

Schindler's List 100/100
War of the Worlds 100/100
Empire of the Sun 100/100
Munich 90/100
Jaws 85/100
Bridge of Spies 80/100
Jurassic Park 80/100
Always 75/100
Minority Report 65/100
The Color Purple 65/100
Duel 65/100
Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 60/100
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial 60/100
Amistad 60/100
The Lost World 60/100
Saving Private Ryan 55/100
Raiders of the Lost Ark 55/100
Lincoln 50/100
The Terminal 50/100
War Horse 45/100
Hook 45/100
Close Encounters of the Third Kind 45/100
Temple of Doom 45/100
The Sugarland Express 45/100
Last Crusade 40/100
1941 20/100