After a detour into the world of 3D (Tintin, released last year, met with mixed reviews), Spielberg as we know him is back. War Horse is relatively free of big names. Its biggest star, Joey the thoroughbred, doesn’t even appear on the cast list. The film is based on a children’s book by Michael Morpurgo so popular that a stage adaptation has already been made, and you can see why.
A film that starts quietly, amongst the rural hills of Devon, it pulls a big emotional punch. We are first introduced to Joey the horse through the eyes of Albie, a ridiculously attractive farm boy played by Jeremy Irvine. It’s love at first sight. After his father (Peter Mullan) foolishly buys the horse, Albie and his family face eviction unless Joey can somehow be trained to plough the land. Against all odds, Albie breaks the horse in. And then disaster strikes. Foul weather that ruins the harvest, and a declaration of war. It’s 1914, and the army is in need of horses. Joey is bought from Albie’s father for 30 guineas. What starts out as a slightly saccharine picture of a lost age, class-struggles and all, quickly turns into a sensational war-epic. As one and then the other are sent to the front, both Joey and Albie find themselves forced to grow up.
Warning: this is not a first-date movie, especially if your other half has a soft spot for horses. The first part of the film anthropomorphises Joey to an alarming degree, so much so that you find yourself caring more about him than the human characters. One memorable scene pans over a battlefield full of dead horses – it takes a second or two to realise that there are human bodies dotted amongst them. Despite many sobering moments, in the fraught atmosphere of war the beautiful horse seems to evoke a kind of wonder and compassion that has become impossible elsewhere. If anything, this only accentuates our sense of the human cost of conflict.
The end of War Horse comprises the sort of fairy tale wish-fulfilment probably necessary to render Morpurgo’s original book appropriate for children. Admittedly, it comes as something of a relief to an adult audience too. Spielberg’s film walks a fine line between the horrific and the sentimental. Whilst neither is entirely palatable, it certainly leaves you with plenty to think about.
4 STARS