"War Horse" by Zach Mason

Theme and director’s intention:

“While “War Horse” is, like so many of Mr. Spielberg’s films, a work of supreme artifice, it is also a self-conscious attempt to revive and pay tribute to a glorious tradition of honest, emotionally direct storytelling.” -Scott

“Essentially screenwriters Lee Hall and Richard Curtis have given us the purest sort of love story. In structure, it follows the three-act basics of most romantic comedies or dramas — they meet, they are separated, they struggle to find their way back to each other.” -Sharkey

“Its leading character is not human but a non-speaking horse, and the structure does not fall into the conventional three acts - instead, it is episodic and cyclical, which in many ways is more like real life.” -Tookey

Separate elements and their relationship to the whole:

“You may find yourself resisting this sentimental pageant of early-20th-century rural English life, replete with verdant fields, muddy tweeds and damp turnips, but my strong advice is to surrender.” -Scott

“Without those visual theatrics, the screenwriters shift more focus on the people that surround Joey, their worries and woes trying hard to stack up to the noble steed's.” -Sharkey

“As Spielberg proved with Saving Private Ryan, he is a master at depicting warfare.” -Tookey

Objective evaluation of the film:

“War Horse” registers the loss and horror of a gruesomely irrational episode in history, a convulsion that can still seem like an invitation to despair. To refuse that, to choose compassion and consolation, requires a measure of obstinacy, a muscular and brutish willfulness that is also an authentic kind of grace.” -Scott

“War — battle-hot or postwar cold, reality or fantasy — has always brought out the best in Spielberg, and so it is with "War Horse." -Sharkey

“Steven Spielberg, with the help of screenwriters Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) and Richard Curtis (Love Actually), has fashioned Michael Morpurgo’s novel into a thoroughly moving picture.” -Tookey

Subjective evaluation of the film:

“Allow your sped-up, modern, movie-going metabolism, accelerated by a diet of frantic digital confections to calm down a bit. Suppress your instinctive impatience, quiet the snarky voice in your head and allow yourself to recall, or perhaps to discover, the deep pleasures of sincerity.” -Scott

“The emotional signature of the director can be felt from the first frames as he establishes the relationship and the mood of the piece — there will be tears.” -Sharkey

“This is the greatest of all equine entertainments, even surpassing such classics as National Velvet, The Black Stallion and Seabiscuit.” -Tookey

The film’s level of ambition:

“Who are we? Mr. Spielberg’s answers to this question tend to be hopeful, and his taste for happy is frequently criticized. But his ruthless optimism, while it has helped to make him an enormously successful showman, is also crucial to his identity as an artist, and is more complicated than many of his detractors realize.” -Scott

“There is great beauty in "War Horse," great power in the emotional journey for both boy and beast, if only Spielberg had trusted that we would be able to read between the lines.” -Sharkey

“War Horse has already been condemned as safe, conventional film-making, yet it’s anything but.” -Tookey

Words you found interesting:

folksy, adage, emotive

Relationship to film movements/genres/ relation to other filmmakers’ work.:

“Shot the old-fashioned way, on actual film stock (the cinematographer is Mr. Spielberg’s frequent collaborator Janusz Kaminski), the picture has a dark, velvety luster capable of imparting a measure of movie-palace magic to the impersonal cavern of your local multiplex.” -Scott

“The early English countryside section is evocative of John Ford’s The Quiet Man, which was set in Ireland.” -Tookey

Works Cited

Scott, A.O. “Innocence Is Trampled, but a Bond Endures” Rev. of War Horse, dir. Steven Spielberg Refn. The New York Times 22 Dec. 2011

Sharkey, Betsy. “'War Horse' is the purest sort of love story” Rev. of War Horse, dir. Steven Spielberg Refn. Los Angeles Times 23 Dec. 2011

Tookey, Chris. “Spectacular, tear-jerking, uplifting: War Horse is a Spielberg masterpiece.” Rev. of War Horse, dir. Steven Spielberg Refn. Mail Online 13 Jan. 2012