Oh Steven Spielberg what did you do to War Horse?

Have to confess that my initial thought about seeing the film was 'it won't be as good as the play' then my second thought was 'you don't want it to be as good at the play' and then my third thought was 'I'll bet you'll cry like a baby and love it'.

Well only one of those proved true and it wasn't the latter - although I did cry a couple of times.

My main problem with the film is that it is just too big and too Hollywood. There are rather too many scenes of sweeping landscapes and actors staring off into the sunset for my liking. It feels unnecessarily glossed at the expense of the heart of the story.

The film is longer than the play and I don't know whether they have added in stuff that was originally in the book or of the writers own devising but it diminishes the impact of the central Albert/Joey story. 

How Albert gets into the army when he is turned away for being too young isn't explained and scenes have been added to create dramatic tension that really don't seem necessary. The French grandfather coming back to bid for Joey at the end, for example.

The play had charm, primarily because of the puppet horses, but you also got a real sense of the danger and destruction of war. War Horse the film didn't have the charm. It feels like Spielberg was trying to make another big war epic rather than a film of a children's book and failed at both.

I'm giving it 48% (3 stars) only because I'm a sucker for an animal sob story and I cried twice in it and having subsequently seen J Edgar this weekend, I know which I'd rather sit through a second time if I had to.

It's on the Guardian 50 films for 2012 list and Peter Bradshaw has given it 2 stars: 

"Spielberg's version of the equine first world war yarn is an unconvincing attempt at summoning up the spirit of the time"

Maybe the Guardian and I are wrong because over on IMDb its got 74% with a Metacritic rating of 72% while on Rotten Tomatoes critics have given it 77% while 76% of audience members have given it 3.5 stars or more.

 

Comments

[Jessica]

I tend not to like Spielgerg's films as much as I would like to. I come away from them feeling like he's tried to manipulate me in some way.