War Horse Review

Was it good?

To be honest  as the title suggests the film is more about Joey the horse and his adventures rather than the rest of the cast – though it does include stellar performances from the British actors (Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston). While this sounds strange Spielberg in my opinion has done a good job of the story telling, but in typical Hollywood fashion the harshness of the conflict has been dubbed down to meet the 12 rating.

In pockets the film does show how bad the conditions of the war were but Spielberg has mainly tried to emphasis the treatment from the horses point of view and the path that Joey undertakes. This itself is quite an eye opener, and a little upsetting in some places, as you sometimes forget that a lot of the horses got used in the conflict and were harshly treated/massacred.

The above was one of the reason why I was not looking forward to this film, as I expected it to be filled with images like what I saw from Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan, but for the most part it was not really that bad.

For all the chaos surrounding the topic in question, War Horse is just a heartfelt story underneath. Showcasing Albert, who enlists to serve in the War only because his beloved horse had been sold to the cavalry. You get to see the story from his eyes and the horses, however to mention anything else would spoil the film for you.

War Horse is certainly a film worth renting, but for those expecting action, based on the title, you’ll need to stay away. This is a Spielberg film after all which combines a tale of adventure, mixed in with the odd bout of realism, mixed in with heartfelt characters and storyline.