Spielberg delivers a classic in 'War Horse'
Reviewer's Rating ★★★★
The latest project from Steven Spielberg returns the director to the subject for which he’s won three Academy awards. Following the World War II-era dramas — 1993’s Schindler’s List and 1998’s Saving Private Ryan — Spielberg depicts an earlier but likewise sweeping conflict that’s been seen much less often in movies, World War I.
Poignant and inspirational, War Horse, based on a 1982 novel for young adults by Michael Morpurgo and a 2007 stage adaptation by London’s National Theatre, is a fictional biography of an English horse named Joey.
Born and raised in hilly Devon, this stalwart, beautiful horse is tested by the mud- and blood-covered battlefields and trenches of World War I.
Spielberg — the 65-year-old Hollywood powerhouse whose films include 20th-century classics Jaws, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Close Encounters of the Third Kind — shows himself to be at the top of his cinematic skills with War Horse. Epic in vision and masterfully translated from the page and stage to the screen, this tale of a great horse and his brave boy is sure to touch audiences of all ages.
Amidst green and stony English countryside, Albert Narracott witnesses three men tending to a mare as she gives birth. A white streak on his forehead distinguishes the newborn colt. The boy later offers the horse an apple but, heeding his mother’s hoof-stomping protests, the young thoroughbred declines the treat.
After being separated from his mother and brought to town for auction, the colt catches the eye of Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan). A tenant farmer, Narracott needs a plow horse, not a thoroughbred beauty. Nonetheless, reckless pride, edged on by the contents of the flask from which he frequently sips, gets the better of him. He outbids his own landlord for the fine horse.
War Horse glorifies neither war nor softens the upper-class arrogance of Narracott’s landlord. David Thewlis is excellently insulting and cruel as Lyons, the story’s primary villain. Lyons gleefully lords it over the Narracotts, pledging to evict them if they don’t deliver the rent in full on the appointed day.
Foolish though Narracott was to buy the horse, his son, Albert, is delighted. Albert dubs the horse Joey. He wins the striking animal’s confidence and handles him with care, patience, even love.
Twenty-year-old British actor Jeremy Irvine makes his film debut as Albert. The passionate attachment Irvine’s character has for Joey warms the screen around him. Horse and boy form an enduring bond.
Just as his father’s foolishness brought Joey to Albert, it parts them, too. Unable to pay Lyons’ rent money, Ted Narracott sells the horse to the British Army upon the nation’s entry into World War I.
The many notable performances in War Horse, extending deep into the supporting cast, include Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of Capt. Nicholls. The young, truly noble cavalry officer buys Joey, recognizes the horse’s specialness and promises to treat him well.
The great British actress Emily Watson co-stars as Albert’s mother, Rosie, a woman who, long-suffering though she is, springs to scene-stealing action when her family is under threat.
None of the human actors, however, steals Joey’s equine thunder. The horse endures the horrors of war and stars in a virtuoso action sequence that tops every other scene in the film. He’s also the thread that binds a sprawling story that covers many, frequently tragic, lives.
With War Horse, Spielberg, long among the world’s great filmmakers, adds another film worthy of classic status to his credits.