War Horse

In the second of Steven Spielberg's films for the season he makes another war film but this time about World War I.

Steven has covered World War II pretty extensively with films and TV shows. He now moves onto another war. I had not heard of the story before I saw the film and I think because it was being directed by Steven, I expected something more. The first half of the film is pretty conventional and cliched. It is the typical story of a family on a farm unable to meet payments and forced to sell a beloved animal. I know that this story has been told many timed before and I probably would not have minded if it was told in an interesting way. Perhaps Steven's direction is conventional and not dynamic enough t make the story interesting. It was not until the second half of the film when the action starts that the story gets interesting. I'm not sure if Steven works better when he has lots of action to work with. I think I was expecting a bit more war action as well. So these earlier scenes did not feel as interesting because I was expecting a bit more action. I did find the ending really emotional though so it did get to me in the end.

The horse that plays Joey is an exceptional horse. He manages to show lots of emotion and a real personality. Which makes you care about him more as a character. This is a good thing as he is the central character of the film. I'm sure that at several times in the film he looked like he had human qualities. Jeremy Irvine makes a decent human hero for this film. He is a bit bland but he is still good. Peter Mullan makes a nice gruff farmer. Emily Watson is good as the loving and supportive wife and mother. Niels Arestrup makes a good grandfather trying to take care of his granddaughter.

A good drama about a non-human's experiences during World War I. Maybe not at dynamic as you might expect but still very moving.