Can’t wait for this one… horses and WW1! What’s not to look forward? Probably won’t make it Christmas Day, but will definitely be in the audience on Monday.
I’ve read the book, haven’t seen the play. The horse in the trailer/poster looks gorgeous.
Anybody seen it yet? Thoughts?
Sounds good to me, thanks for mentioning it. I’ll probably wait for it to come out on DVD though.
I have to assume, since the movie is opening on Christmas Day and being billed in the ads as “the perfect Christmas gift” (or words to that effect), that the titular horse does not die. I saw the trailer in the theater several months ago and thought,“No way can I go see this movie.” The fact that it’s being hyped as warm and fuzzy makes me think maybe I can go see it.
I won’t be seeing it. I assume some pretty terrible things happen to horses in wars, and see no reason to put myself through the ordeal of watching them happen.
Having read the book, I can say with assurance:
The horse lives. His worst “injury” is, in fact, an illness.
Of course, I can’t speak for what happens in the background or to other horses. It is war, after all.
Or people. Actually, we could make some pretty good guesses, but they wouldn’t be pretty.
Snark aside, I avoid movies in which there is a chance a dog could get killed. People and horses, not so much, so I might enjoy this movie.
I absolutely cannot wait for this movie! Will be going to see it over New Year’s weekend.
I have heard there is Oscar talk around it…
Well, I’ve seen the movie and illness …
is not Joey’s (the horse’s) biggest problem.
I attended a preview that had a satellite Q&A with Spielberg. I would give the movie 3.5 out of 4 stars. Very good acting. I liked the use of a relatively unknown cast. Parts of the movie were perhaps over-sentimental. The war scenes were well-done and quite brutal to watch. For those worried about the fate of Joey,
he lives at the end. It is a happy ending and, yes, they used more than one horse (no big surprise) to act as Joey.
Out of the 4/5 times I’ve seen this preview I’ve been reduced to tears. Hell yes I’ll be seeing it.
Uh, it’s not so warm and fuzzy, at least not to me, as someone who hates seeing animals suffer. This is an extremely well-made, well-acted, well-shot, all around well-done film, but[spoiler]this movie is practically wall-to-wall horses being beaten, tortured, abused, hurt and killed. Ok, maybe not wall-to-wall, but it seemed that way to me. Yes there are several wuzzy scenes but the horse’s horror was what sticks with me. I’ve had nightmares about the barbed wire scene.
Yes I know they had to show that stuff. The war and suffering was already soft-pedaled enough. The trials and tribulations and pain and suffering makes the wuzzy parts even more meaningful. Plus, a boy and his horse tale would be boring and probably wouldn’t make much money.
Oh yeah sure, of COURSE I know that it was fake. CGI. Camera angles. It’s only a movie. No animals were harmed blah blah. But if the point of a movie is to put you into the movie and care, Spielberg did a bang up job of making me care about the horses, to the extent that it was horrifying to see them abused so. If we’re to keep telling ourselves “it’s only a movie, it’s fake, it’s only a movie, it’s fake” then why should we care about anything or anybody in the film?
And anyway, all the "it’s only a movie, it’s fake, it’s only a movie, it’s fake"s in the universe couldn’t take away the prominent thought that even so, all that suffering and much much worse REALLY HAPPENED to the REAL HORSES used in REAL LIFE battles, over and over and over again throughout history, in all the wars started by men where horses played a part. Men had choices. Horses didn’t. They did what the men told them to do, men who so often treated horses as worse than cannon fodder.
For such a beautiful film to look at, and the genuine emotions it often evoked, the main thing I took away from it was:
Fuck with a chainsaw anyone who mistreats animals.
Fuck with a chainsaw men and their warring ways.[/spoiler]So no, not a warm & fuzzy movie for me personally. It certainly will get a boatload of awards nominations and wins though.
The ads for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse look really good. It’s getting good reviews too.
minor spoilers
I’m going sometime next week.
Anyone else interested in seeing this one?
I can’t wait althought I can’t even read the review without tearing up.
Merged two threads about the movie.
I enjoyed the play so I’ll try to catch the film sometime next week. Though a lot of why I liked the play was my wonderment at the puppetry, so I dont know if using real horses might make it less impressive.
Even as I typed those words, I thought “warm and fuzzy” was not really what I meant. :smack:
count me OUT. there’s enough misery in the world without me spending two hours i’ll never get back watching animals suffer in a war flick.
i still haven’t forgiven the world for inflicting *eight below *on me. jebus but i HATE that effing movie with almost the same amount of passion i reserve for lima beans. :mad:
We saw it yesterday and all three of us absolutely loved it. A lot of changes from the book, but since the book was told from the horses point-of-view (who communicates with the other horses), that was to be expected.
We saw it earlier and really liked it. Even my tough guy boyfriend sniffled…a lot. A little cliche-y in parts (fellow horse people will do a lot of eye rolling at the “horse training” that goes on) but otherwise very good.
…I don’t really understand the appeal of the movie as it is. The stage play it is based on is note-worthy because of the use of elaborate puppetry for the “horses.” The movie… just uses horses so it seems the visual hook is taken away and you get a straightforward Boy Loves Animal/Animal Loves Boy movie.
I’m not sure if this is meant to be an appreciation thread or not, so I’m spoilering my negative review so as not to threads__t.
[spoiler]The movie is devoid of plot or character, and it’s emotionally dead because the central role, the horse, is a cipher. War events happen around the impassive horse, and people come and go without growing or changing. Stretched to two and a half hours and aspiring to grandeur, it’s “Forrest Gump” crossed with “Australia.”
The acting is Spielberg at his most mawkishly sentimental. The resolution of nearly every character’s fate is wholly predictable. The war footage is occasionally sweeping and dramatic to watch, as in “Saving Private Ryan’s Horse,” but that’s not enough to sustain the movie.
[/spoiler]