Review of War Horse (2011) by Carol L — 16 Feb 2013

Heartbreaking movie about the life of a horse based in the novel by Michael Morpurgo, a portrait of an extraordinary bond between a boy and his horse in the terrible background of World War I.

Joey is a colt born in Devon and trained by a teenage boy, Albert. When the World War I breaks out the horse is sold to a young officer against Albert's wishes. This officer is posted to France to fight the German Army and killed in action shortly after arrival, it is then that Joey's odyssey starts, he has several owners and is handed over from one to another, in his journey he will meet privates and officers from both sides, deserters and French locals, but more importantly we get to see the rawness of a War eclipsed by the also bloody World War II.

In this movie we learn that World War I was a very physical fight, man against man in a cruel melee, we get to see the poor living conditions of the trenches, "no man's land", the improvised hospitals, the barbed wire fields, the gas explosions... We get to know that a soldier's life wasn't valuable, most of them were just sitting ducks waiting to be shot. The movie shows us also the harsh treatment the horses endured and the high number of fatalities that happened when pulling Army equipment.

It is fiction but part of it feels real, almost like a docudrama.

Morpurgo has successfully mixed History with a poignant story and Spielberg had mirrored it well in a movie that has been thoroughly researched and staged but without eluding the cruel bits. It isn't common to come across a Hollywood film without stereotypes but you live to learn.