|
 In
the second of two - count ‘em - two Steven Spielberg features in one
Christmas movie season, we find our director on a very different course
than his whimsical, quasi-animated, The Adventures of Tintin. Instead
of cartoon fluff, he regales us with a story of war, devastation and
loss that somehow provides the Yule log to warm up the cockles of even
the most stone-cold hearts. Based originally on a children’s book by
Michael Morpurgo that later became a successful play, we have
Spielberg’s adaptation of War Horse.
In a
rural Devon, a young boy is granted a miracle: A vain test of wills
between his stubborn father and the richest man in town grants the
teenager a completely useless animal; a horse too wild to bring to
harness and too weak to plow the family’s farmland. Realising his error
could make them homeless, Albie’s father intends to sell the horse, but
by then Albie has seen something in the spirited stallion that no one
else does and begs for the chance to make things right. Working
patiently, Albie creates a bond of trust with the horse -- now named
Joey -- that eventually has the animal moving heaven and earth to do as
Albie asks. It all comes too little too late, as in a last ditch effort
to save their home, Albie’s father sells Joey to the army, who have come
to town recruiting after the eruption of the new world war. The kindly
officer who now owns Joey promises to care for the horse and bring him
back to Albie if he possibly can, and after a tearful goodbye and
promises of reunion, Albie watches Joey go. We then see the life of the
soldier on four legs as Joey endures every hardship of his two-legged
companions; horrific battle and death all around, imprisonment, the
creation and abrupt ending of new friendships and all the daily terrors
of war.
Magical, this; truly epic and magnificent. Spielberg takes a subject
he’s become an expert on; the cinematic portrayal of war and makes it
both gruelingly real and at the same time like a fairy tale. Making a
horse the star of your film is already setting up the audience for some
heartfelt reactions, but Spielberg makes Joey’s interactions with the
various people and situations he comes across so meaningful that it
transcends any cutesiness while balancing out the inherent horror of the
surroundings. People die, animals die, families and homes are torn
apart, there is cruelty and waste everywhere; yet there is also beauty,
there is love and real friendship, we’re shown hope and humanity even in
the midst of a battlefield. Two of my favourite scenes are jarringly
different; the first being Joey’s foray into the French countryside,
where he meets a sweet but sickly young girl and her doting
grandfather. Joey’s presence makes Emilie stronger in both her fragile
physique and her will, and her grandfather cannot help but be moved
watching the child’s joy. Sadly, like all of the friendships Joey’s
made, war cannibalises everything as Emilie’s home is ransacked and Joey
is made wartime property and stolen from the family. The other standout
moment is a scene where Joey becomes the impetus of an unlikely
partnership between a British and German soldier, whose collective
concern for the wounded stallion initiates an international détente.
It’s the funniest moment of the film; the two combatants work under the
white flag, trading good-natured nationalistic barbs (no pun intended)
and finding themselves to be just two decent blokes doing their duty and
trying to live long enough to get to their respective homes. If only
all wars could be so easily sorted, which is kind of the point of War
Horse; all this destruction and death and for what? In the end, if
there were more of the kindness and compassion exhibited by the two
soldiers from opposing sides, there’d be no need for such deplorable
horror and waste of life. Trying hard not to go into the brutality of
Saving Private Ryan or Schindler’s List as this is meant to be a family
film, Spielberg still pushes some boundaries with regard to the wartime
violence: He pulls the camera back far away to set up the cruel
execution of two unsuccessful defectors. Albie’s childhood friend and
eventual brother-in-arms, the slow-witted Andy, literally disappears
into the mist after a poison gas attack. Very little is graphically
shown, but it’s impossible not to connect the dots, which may frighten
smaller children; and, yes, there is terrible stuff that happens to the
horses in the film, again, not overly graphic, but sometimes quite hard
to endure no matter what the viewer’s age. Concession stand owners
could make a mint selling Kleenex packets for this one.
However troubling the war aspect, one cannot deny the film’s incredible
beauty: Longtime Spielberg cohort, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński
knocks it out of the park, filming War Horse in dreamlike, saturated
colours and wide, panoramic frames that practically move across the
screen as if one is turning pages in a storybook. The harrowing scene
of a terrified Joey hurtling blindly through dark, dangerous trenches is
Oscar-worthy. The performances by a cast equally divided between
well-known European actors and first-timers are all excellent. Emily
Watson captures the tough stoicness of the farmer’s wife whose main
concern is the roof over her family’s head and the well-being of her
only son. Tom Hiddleston’s body is clearly possessed by the ghost of
British acting legend, Leslie Howard during his scenes as the kindly,
heroic officer who sends drawings of the horse back to Albie. In those
scenes, Benedict Cumberbatch once again delivers a brief but memorable
moment as the prideful, blowhard leader of his garrison. Niels Arestrup
and Celine Buckens as the family that harbors Joey are heartwarming as
we watch the girl find a reason to live because of the love she has for
the horse. Her moments of joy become a symbol of the hope for peace
that the end of the war must bring. Toby Kebbell is all homespun common
sense and backhand humour as the private who simply cannot bear to watch
Joey suffer, and risks his life to save the horse armed only with the
Twenty-Third Psalm on his lips. His chemistry with his
partner-in-animal-rescue, Hinnerk Schönemann as the German soldier is
wonderful.
Is War
Horse sentimental? Yes, beautifully so. There is a scene that is
unapologetically schmaltzy and somewhat ham-fisted toward the end of the
film, but after all the brutality we’ve experienced for the previous two
hours, isn’t remotely out of place. Is it a fairy tale, after all, and
a very good one, indeed. There have been more egregious attempts at
tear-jerking by Spielberg in other films that were not nearly as
effective or affecting as this. This epic captures the essence of
classic movie-making and needs to be seen on a big screen. The
heartfelt and emotional War Horse is one of Steven Spielberg’s best
movies and certainly one of the best films of the year.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
December 21st, 2011
Click here for our
exclusive coverage of the War Horse Gala World Premiere in New York
City.
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