WARHORSE

In a small village in Devon, England at the beginning of the
last century, Ted Narrowcutt a poor farmer buys a thoroughbred at auction for
his son even though he pays far more for it than the plough horse that he
really needed.  The decision irks his landlord who wanted the horse himself and now issues
threats, and his wife Rose who is convinced that they will now lose everything.  Albert his teenage son however is convinced
that he can train the horse and thus save the day and the farm.  And naturally he does, and just in time
before WW1 breaks out and Ted sells the horse, now named Joey, against the
wishes of the family to an army cavalry captain about to set off for the Front
in France.

And thus in this old fashioned epic of a movie the
long journey/story of the Warhorse begins. He is captured by the Germans,
abandoned by them and becomes the companion of a young French girl, recaptured
by the invading forces and made to work really hard, before escaping again just
when the German Army is in retreat.  On
this last occasion in a panic to get away, the Horse makes a bolt through Enemy
Lines and ends up tangled up in barbed wire smack in the middle of no-man’s-land
(i.e. the waste ground between the two sets of trenches).  Un-freeing the horse is one of the dramatic highlights
of the movie.

The story has been adapted from a children’s novel,
which in turn was adapted into an Award Winning Play at the Royal National Theatre
in London (then transferring to Broadway) and now it has been given the whole
Stephen Spielberg treatment.  Stunningly
filmed as only he does, it is visually beautiful and uncompromisingly sentimental complete with a stirring soundtrack by John Williams.  I have only touched briefly on the plot, but
let me assure you that it contains more than enough heart wrenching moments to
have even the most cynical grabbing for the Kleenex. 

The other thing that Mr. Spielberg is good at is depicting wars,
and I must say that these scenes were extremely graphic and showed how barbaric
this war was, especially the sections with the cavalry, and I am a tad surprised
that for a movie intended for children (or so I thought) that it included so
much blood and guts.

There is a sterling cast of British actors in this,
such as Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis etc. but they really all pale
into insignificance with the real star of this movie.  The Horse. 
He was stunning and so deserves an Oscar.

Totally unmissable.


★★★★★★★★★