9.08.2012
War Horse
IMDb | Official Website
Overall Grade: A-
An adaptation of a play, which is an adaptation of a book. 'War Horse' follows the horse, Joey, from the time when he is born in Devon, England through his training and upbringing by a boy/young man named Albert Narracott. Eventually, to save the family farm, Joey must be sold to a British cavalry officer, Captain Nichols played by Tom Hiddleston, at the outset of WWI. Of course, we know with hindsight that cavalry became completely out-dated with the machine guns and artillery introduced during the war and Cpt. Nichols is tastefully but emotionally killed off. Ownerless Joey and another calvary horse are taken by the German army to pull ambulances and put under the care of two young brothers who shortly use them to desert from the army. The boys hide in a windmill and are soon found and shot for desertion. The horses are found by the sickly girl on whose farm the windmill resides. The girl Emilie lives alone with her grandfather as her parents have already been killed in the war. She adores the horses, and manages to hide them once from a pillaging army, but the first time she goes out riding on Joey, she runs into more soldiers and both horses are retaken by the Germany army, this time for the backbreaking task of pulling artillery. The other horse subcomes to the heavy labor and dies. In the face of an Allied advance, the Germans releash Joey who panics what with all the explosions and the tank that chases him and he runs pell-mell into no-man's land. Eventually he becomes completely entangled in barbed wire and can't move. Soldiers from both the English and German sides come out to set him free (because they'll kill each other but not a poor horse apparently). A wounded Joey returns to the English side where he is almost put down before he miraculously encounters Albert Narracott, who is temporarily blinded by a gas attack. After some more drama, they go back to the farm in England together at the end of the war.
It was strange to watch a movie that follows a horse, especially since the people that encounter Joey keep dying. A good but not happy movie. Watched it on an airplane ride from Georgia back to California - mostly because it's on Hiddleston's filmography. Also, has Benedict Cumberbatch who leads cavalry to which Cpt. Nichols belongs. You might not even recognize Cumberbatch if you aren't playing attention as his different British accent and period mustache totally change his appearance.
Labels: genre: historical, media: movie
