Released on Christmas Day, and directed by the one-and-only Steven Spielberg, this feel
good war-epic stars Jeremy Irvine as a young Briton who falls in love with a plucky thoroughbred
horse named Joey, who can seemingly do everything.
When World War I breaks out, Joey is sold to the army, and drifts from person to person
during the war, going from one battlefield to the next, with his wishful owner hoping
he'll someday return.
[CLIP] It is a simple, and kid-friendly story about the love of a pet that transcends all
boundaries, which is why it's unfortunate this plot-thread is seemingly abandoned for
the entire middle act as Joey's owner is nowhere to be found.
As expected though, the film is expertly direct and filmed by Spielberg, who makes full use
of the European countryside both before and during the first great war.
The acting is sufficient here, but sometimes approaches soap-opera levels of scenery-chewing.
Besides a clever scene between enemies who cease warfare to help the injured Joey stuck
in the barbed wire of No Man's Land - nothing particularly amazing or surprising ever occurs
in this film.
Joey the horse is seen as an underdog from the start, but that never stops him from constantly
impressing the doubtful humans taking care of him, whether it's the German army, or a
small French girl who finds him in a windmill.
This is a fun, and delightful movie that plays everything by the book, and never makes any
missteps - but with a predictable ending, this film sorely lacks any real suspense or
consequence, and fails to really achieve a true level of greatness.
"Warhorse", an "Heavy-handed inspiration of wartime".
Those are my thoughts, now let's take a look at some of yours from the YouTube comments.
For the last time tonight, here's the Rate-O-Matic to score "War Horse", a SEVEN and a NINE.
You loved this film presentation and inspirational message, you scored it an "awesome".
While I appreciated everything this film accomplished, it never really impressed me - I thought it
was "cool".