Sawtell First Avenue Cinema

Now Showing at Sawtell Cinema

War Horse
Rating: M      Running Time: 2 hrs 26 mins

Session Times: Thu 2-Feb 12:30 pm, Fri 3-Feb 12:00 pm, Sat 4-Feb 3:45 pm, Sun 5-Feb 12:15 pm, Tue 7-Feb 12:00 pm, Wed 8-Feb 7:30 pm

Synopsis:

Follows a young man named Albert and his horse, Joey, and how their bond is broken when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent to the trenches of World War One. Despite being too young to enlist, Albert heads to France to save his friend.

Review by Andrew L. Urban:
War Horse is a soppy, schmaltzy film about the great love between a teenage boy and a young horse, but it's quality schmaltz, thanks to Steven Spielberg's technical talent for the screen. Even composer John Williams gets all sentimental with a rather obvious score, but no one could be too critical of such a big hearted story, told with such enthusiasm.

For a start, the horse is marvellous to look at, and should get some sort of equine Oscar for his performance, too. Just look at those big eyes, full of ... something. This is the major factor in the film; if we don't fall for the horse and stay in love with him, the film would be meaningless.

The story is part adventure part hero's journey: two heroes, in fact, because Albert (James Irvine) is as much a hero as Joey the horse; and I put it that way round because it is really Joey who faces impossible odds, terrible ordeals and death defying situations. Several times. It is his survival we barrack for, and his courage and spirit which lifts us out of our seats and right inside the cinematic fable.

Young Albert sees Joey being born in a Devon field, and then admires him from afar, until his father, Ted Naracott (Peter Mullen), buys the colt at auction - one of the film's best scenes, to be reprised in rather different circumstances towards the end of the film. In between the two auctions, the world changes for Albert, his family and the world at large.

Spielberg seems so determined to push everything at us he makes everything in a major key, so much so that some scenes are stilted, and some images are pure cliché from the archives (eg the end shots). There are some savage battle scenes, where Spielberg's experience on Saving Private Ryan comes to the fore. Harrowing though they are, it is essential to the story, to demonstrate the extraordinary elements that make the story and the horse so special.

Not all of the escapades work equally well; the French farmhouse where Joey takes refuge with his brother horse from the British army, is undisciplined and rather clunky, albeit Niels Arestrup is great as the grandfather, who has a dramatically crucial role to play at the end of the film.

The tone of the film, despite the gruelling battle scenes, is often allowed to drift into a bucolic charm, which robs it of the gutsy characteristics that are evident in most of the characters, the story - and of course, the horse.

But we forgive it all, because Spielberg is working hard to move us, to transfer the emotions that drive the story across the screen to us in our seats. There are a handful of scenes in the second half of the film (including a battlefield scene with Joey) that will use up any dry patches left on your hankie.