FINALLY!!!!!! It's been a while since John Williams and Sir Steven have tag teamed on a film ( It's been 3 years since their last collaboration). These two visionaries used to create magic together on the silver screen (with classic films like E.T., Jaws, and Jurassic Park). While their last effort, the just plain bad Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, failed to ignite that old spark their newest project, War Horse, recreates the magic that millions have missed so much.
War Horse is the story of a young horse that is ripped away from his mother and sold to a poor family, where the adolescent son, Albert (Jeremy Irvine, who does a really good job here), falls for the horse and volunteers to be the one to break him in/train him. Together the two form a strong bond. Unfortunately times are hard for the family, and to alleviate some of the stress, the father sells the horse, named Joey, to the British Army ( and to a British soldier played by Tom Hiddleston, who is great here as usual) which is preparing for WW1. It is this event that will set the horse on a collision course with several individuals who he will make an impact on and help, meanwhile Albert embarks on a journey to find joey and bring him home.
The first half of War Horse is where the film struggles to find its footing. There was little to no emotional connection made for me, the film didn't flow very well, was choppy, and characters were introduced only to be abruptly dropped ten minutes later. It is here where one of the main problems with the film takes shape, does it want to be a sweeping war epic or a tender heartfelt sentimental journey, does it want to focus mainly on Joey or does it want to focus mainly on the human's stories? the film can't make up its mind and it's only well into the end of the first act/beginning of the second act that it finally is able to find somewhat of a balance.
While the first act tested my patience (if i wasn't with my family, I may have given up and walked out of the film) , the second half of War horse is where the film swallowed me whole. It is here where the film begins to finally pick up steam, where the music melds into the film so I didn't even notice it, where the emotional connection was finally made that the film so badly needed. In short, the second half is where War Horse finally gets good.
War Horse is one of Steven Spielberg's most mature, sad, and tragic films. It deals with several very adult aspects of war, and treats both the British and German sides as equal. Not one is good or bad, both are viewed as victims of sorts. The film also deals realistically with the treatment of horses during war. There is a scene where a battlefield is strewn with the dead corpses of both humans and horses, and the setting for most of the second half, an area referred to as No Man's Land (a war torn field), is beautifully realized, actually taking my breath away in the ugly beauty of it all. Steven Spielberg has always had an eye for environments and settings, and he shows this skill off to a stunning degree in War Horse (with the help of Cinematographer Janusz Kaminski).
War Horse is a film that was made to explicitly tug at your heartstrings, and it does this with an alarming precision and skill. If you don't like films that try their hardest to make you shed a tear, then War Horse is not the film for you. I like films that are sentimental, and while I didn't cry (I don't cry easily) I definitely got choked up at the last scene. War horse is by no means a perfect film, and while it does lose it's way in the first half it successfully finds a firm footing during the second and manages to deliver the goods we all were expecting. It's just fantastic to see both Spielberg and Williams back together again, weaving their own special brand of magic that only they can weave. In the end, War Horse overcomes its many struggles and emerges triumphant. It's quite an achievement.
3.5/5
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