Haven’t seen it yet, but was in Leicester square for the U.K. premiere, (And no I’m not a groupie, was there for other reasons) and was glad to see the allegedly, six hundred servicemen, invited to it, some with missing limbs, plus plenty of medals on show.
Sore throat, huh? He gets a little…?
One critic said, “It’s the movie of the year!! Trouble is, the year is 1942!”
Well put. YMMV.
War Horse is now available via Amazon streaming.
Saw it last night. The WWI scenes alone were worth it. Fantastic film.
I went to watch it, expecting a movie about a horse. Instead, I got another excuse for Spielberg to film war scenes. I thought it was better than Saving Private Ryan, since at least this one didn’t try to pretend that there was much of a story, but I think Spielberg has more to answer for on this one, since he hijacked the story that he had bought the rights to to masturbate his war fetish onto.
Overall it was something to do on a weekend, but it’s very skippable.
I thought it was pretty meh. I liked the bits with the grandfather and grandaughter, but the rest was forgettable.
Quick factual question here- I get why one German soldier, or one French civillian etc etc might speak English, but in the scene where they’re freeing the horse from the barbed wire how is it that about a half a dozen German soldiers in their immediate proximity knew the phrase “We need more wire-cutters”?
And in the scenes earlier on after the officer is killed in the machine-gun charge why on earth are all the Germans speaking English to eachother? Is this from the book, or has Spielberg got an aversion to subtitles?
Anyway, the main human character struck me as being mildly autistic- HFA maybe, in my un-professional opinion. Was that intentional, and if not was it due to the writing, the acting, or Spielberg again?
Not the worst movie I’ve seen… definitely not the best WWI film I’ve seen. As someone who doesn’t watch a lot of horse movies, I’d say it was probably a pretty good one of those.
Horse porn for horse people.
I am most defintely HORSE PEOPLE but the movie was just OK for me.
Horse person here and we really liked it but there were too many eye rollin’ “horse training” moments going on to call it horse porn. I hate when horses or dogs are “humanized” as if that makes them better than what they already are. Give me Seabiscuit beating War Admiral any day, recreated or the real thing - that’s “horse porn”.
Exactly BoPeep. Honestly, I think it’s HARDER for a ‘horse person’ to really enjoy a horse movie because we see so many things wrong with the way horses are depicted.
War Horse wasn’t AS bad as some of the other horse movies… the newest Flicka, anyone? I actually refused to see that one… they changed Ken to a girl and Flicka from chestnut to black…)
I saw the film when it was first in theaters, but regarding the language I thought I remember seeing a scene where it was shown that speaking English was for the benefit of the movie audience, but in the world of the film they would be speaking their correct language (German, French, etc.)
Ah! Thank you.
Another horse person chiming in. Last summer’s indie documentary Buck was horse porn. War Horse, on the other hand, was horse shit. This was definitely the worse movie I saw this year. The horse behavior was ridiculous (they’re not dogs, people!), the horse training scenes were ludicrous, and the entire plot is liberally coated with sentimental glurge. It was definitely Spielberg at his worst. I am SO sorry I wasted good money on this piece of cinematic tripe!
Before people start dumping on Spielberg for mawkish sentimentality, please note that the original was a mawkishly sentimental children’s book that told the story from the horses’s POV with far more “They’re not dogs, people” (or even “they’re not people, people”) moments than found in the movie. Maybe Jim Cameron could have removed the sentimentality… but I doubt it. 
To be honest, this movie needed a British director, one more steeped on the impact WW1 had on the UK. Unfortunately I think Spielberg said to himself “I’ve done WW2… what next?”
In reality, one of the producers of the film War Horse had seen the well-received stage adaptation of the novel in London and after that they pursued the film rights.
I saw the movie and enjoyed it, while appreciating that it is a fantasy.
I am going to see the stage show this summer, and am very much looking forward to it. The life-sized puppets they use for the horses are extraordinary!
JEALOUS!!! I would LOVE to see the stage show!
Dear Og, I can’t even watch the trailer for the London stage production without tearing up. I would LOVE to see that show.
ETA: OMG I found the coolest video of an English cavalry horse meeting one of the puppets!
Could they have constructed a better title that brought together two large audiences (animal movie fans and war movie fans) in a way that guaranteed the fewest number of people would attend?
Maybe, “The Kittens of the 2nd Wehrmacht)”? “Love in the time of Titanomachy”?