War Horse (film)
War Horse is a 2011 war drama film directed and produced by Steven Spielberg, from screenplay written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis. It is based on Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel of the same name and its 2007 stage adaptation. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Niels Arestrup, Jeremy Irvine (in his feature film debut), David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch. Set before and during World War I, its plot follows Joey, a bay Irish Hunter horse raised by British teenager Albert as he is bought by the British Army, leading him to encounter various people throughout Europe, in the midst of the war and its tragedies.
War Horse
- Steven Spielberg
- Kathleen Kennedy
- 5 December 2011 (Avery Fisher Hall)
- 25 December 2011 (United States)
146 minutes[4]
- India[5]
- United States
English
$177.6 million[6]
DreamWorks Pictures acquired the film rights to the novel in December 2009, and Spielberg was announced to direct in May 2010. Having directed several films set during World War II, it was his first to tackle the events of World War I. Shot in England over 63 days, the production used 5,800 extras and 300 horses. Several longtime Spielberg collaborators—including producer Kathleen Kennedy, cinematographer Janusz Kamiński, editor Michael Kahn, production designer Rick Carter and composer John Williams—worked on the film.
Produced by DreamWorks and distributed worldwide by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through the Touchstone Pictures label, War Horse became a box-office success (earning $177 million on a $70 million budget) and was met with positive reviews. The film was named one of the ten best films of 2011 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review, and was nominated for six Academy Awards (including Best Picture), two Golden Globes and five BAFTAs.
Plot[edit]
In 1912, a bay Irish Hunter is born in Devon, England. At an auction, farmer Ted Narracott outbids his landlord Lyons for the colt, to the dismay of his wife Rose, because the family needs a working horse that can plough the field, not an Irish Hunter. Their son Albert, accompanied by his best friend Andrew, names the colt Joey, and teaches him to come when he imitates an owl's call. The pair form a close bond. Against all odds, the horse and boy plough a rocky field, which lets them grow turnips and thus saving the family's farm.
Rose shows Albert his father's medals from the Second Boer War, and gives him Ted's regimental pennant, confiding in Albert that his father carries physical and mental scars from the war.
In 1914, as war with Germany is declared, heavy rain ruins the family's crops, forcing Ted to sell Joey to the army. Albert is heartbroken and tries to stop the sale, to no avail. Captain James Nicholls sees Albert's attachment to the horse and promises to look after Joey. Albert tries to enlist but is too young, and before the company departs, he ties the pennant to Joey's bridle and promises Joey he will find him.
Joey bonds with Topthorn, a black stallion with whom he is trained for his military role. The horses are deployed to Flanders with a flying column under the command of Nicholls and Major Stewart. They lead a cavalry charge through a German encampment, but the unit is decimated by machine gun fire. Nicholls is killed along with almost all his fellow cavalrymen and the Germans capture the horses.
Gunther, a German soldier, is assigned to the care of Joey and Topthorn. When his younger brother Michael is sent to the front lines, Gunther takes the horses and the four of them run away. The German army tracks down the boys, shoot them for desertion and leave without noticing the horses. They are found by Emilie, a French girl, the next morning. When German soldiers arrive at her grandfather's farm, she hides the horses in her bedroom. For her birthday, Emilie's grandfather allows her to ride Joey, but they run into the Germans who confiscate the horses. Emilie's grandfather keeps the pennant.
By 1918, Albert has enlisted and is fighting alongside Andrew in the Second Battle of the Somme. After a British charge into no man's land, Albert and Andrew make it across to the German trench, where a gas bomb explodes. Andrew is killed while Albert survives, temporarily blinded.
The Germans use Joey and Topthorn to haul artillery, under the care of Private Friedrich Hengelmann. He cares for them as best as he can, but the severely worn Topthorn succumbs to exhaustion from overwork and dies. Devastated over this loss, Hengelmann rebels against his commanders and is detained, but not before freeing Joey from his reins. Joey escapes and gallops into no man's land and evades a tank, but is entangled in barbed wire. Colin, a British soldier, makes his way to Joey under a white flag and tries to free him. Peter, a German soldier, comes over with wire cutters, and together they rescue Joey. To decide who should take the horse, they flip a coin. Colin wins and guides the injured Joey to the British trench. Albert hears about Joey's rescue while recuperating. Just as Joey is about to be put down by a doctor who deems the horse too injured to recover, Joey hears Albert's owl call. Albert, his eyes still bandaged, is able to describe Joey in perfect detail, and the two are reunited. The doctor decides to nurse Joey back to health.
World War I ends, and Joey is ordered to be auctioned because only the horses of officers will return home. Albert's comrades raise a collection to bid for the horse against the local butcher. The auction is won by Emilie's grandfather, who implies that she has died and the horse is all he has left of her. However, after Albert pleads with him, the old man recognizes the strength of the soldier's bond, returning the pennant and Joey to Albert. Albert returns with Joey to his family's farm, embracing his mother and returning the pennant to his father, who extends his hand to him with pride, as Joey watches.
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
War Horse grossed $79,859,441 domestically and $97,200,000 internationally for a worldwide total of $177,584,879. Although it was not one of Spielberg's biggest box office successes, it was the highest-grossing World War I film of all time until Wonder Woman overtook it six years later.[6]
Critical response[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 75% based on 244 reviews, with an average score of 7/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Technically superb, proudly sentimental, and unabashedly old-fashioned, War Horse is an emotional drama that tugs the heartstrings with Spielberg's customary flair."[138] Metacritic reports a score of 72/100 based on 40 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".[139] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[140]
Although there was an embargo on official reviews of the film being published before 21 December 2011,[141] reviews started appearing on 26 November in mainstream press such as The Daily Telegraph, which gave it 41⁄2 out of 5 stars.[142]
Giving the film an A− grade, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly wrote, "The project is tailor-made for Saving Private Ryan Spielberg, the war-story specialist, as well as for E.T. Spielberg, the chronicler of boyhood desires and yearnings for family."[143] Rex Reed of The New York Observer gave the film 4 out of 4 stars and said, "War Horse is a don't-miss Spielberg classic that reaches true perfection. It's as good as movies can get, and one of the greatest triumphs of this or any other year."[144] Roger Ebert gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars, saying it contained "surely some of the best footage Spielberg has ever directed ... The film is made with superb artistry. Spielberg is the master of an awesome canvas. Most people will enjoy it, as I did."[145] Richard Roeper praised War Horse by saying, "What a gorgeous, breathtaking, epic adventure this is," and gave the film 4.5 out of 5 stars.[146] Ty Burr of The Boston Globe said that the film was a work of "full-throated Hollywood classicism" that looks back to the craftsmanship and sentimentality of John Ford and other legends of the studio era, and gave it 3 out of 4 stars.[147]
Conversely, Simon Winder of The Guardian wrote that the film, "despite twisting and turning to be even-handed, simply could not help itself and, like some faux-reformed alcoholic, gorged itself on an entire miniature liqueur selection of Anglo-German clichés".[148] David Denby of The New Yorker wrote that "The horses themselves are magnificent, and maybe that's reason enough to see the movie. But War Horse is a bland, bizarrely unimaginative piece of work".[149]
Accolades[edit]
War Horse made several critics' lists of the best films of 2011. Richard Corliss of Time named it the fifth best film of 2011, saying. "Boldly emotional, nakedly heartfelt, War Horse will leave only the stoniest hearts untouched".[150] David Chen of /Film selected War Horse as 2011's best film.[151]