How entertaining? ★★☆☆☆
Thought provoking? ★☆☆☆☆ 22 December 2011
This article is a review of WAR HORSE. |
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“It is an honour to ride beside you… Be brave! Be brave! Be brave!” Major Jamie Stewart.
Steven Spielberg’s films shaped my childhood, RAIDERS, LAST CRUSADE, EMPIRE OF THE SUN, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS. His body of work for so long though pains me. Not only has he delivered one dud this year with the ultra bland TINTIN, but two, with this inert, syrupy adaptation. First there was Michael Morpurgo’s okay novel, then there was the magnificent National Theatre production, and Spielberg couldn’t match the splendour of the latter. For those that saw both the play and film of HIS DARK MATERIALS will know the feeling: the sheer impressiveness of the theatrical teams, and the wonder how big Hollywood film productions could deliver such lacklustre.
The novel is from the perspective of a horse Joey and his ODYSSEY-style epic experiences, and his deep friendship in particular with a human boy Albert. Albert is the son of a farmer, Ted Narracott, a drunk and foolish man who causes both Joey and Albert huge pain through his inconsideration (rather than say being evil). When his father sells Joey to the army to fight in the First World War, Albert runs away underage to fight and find him. The play is not told with voice-over, instead Joey’s character comes across in cleverly scripted conversations that the protagonists have with him. Not only that, the stage production manages to heighten the emotional intensity of the familial conflict. However, the movie irons out the household conflict leaving little drama. Joey had humanity but no personality, and the bond between him and Albert rarely came across. Spielberg used to be able to knock this kind of film out of the park; however here so much felt forced, like he was squeezing the square peg of the original story into the round hole of his seemingly out-of-touch sensibility.
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