War Horse - has anyone seen it, and what do they think of it

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TheoryX1

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As the title says really. Went to see the film version last night with a friend. Yes we blubbed for england, it was beautifully shot and the horses were gorgeous. I would love to have a Joey or a Topthorn to take home. However, we both came away with a slight feeling of hmmm .....

We have both seen the stage production (went together to London), and came away totally wowed. At the stage production the cast got a standing ovation and the audience came away in quite a hushed way, as the ending is very, very powerful. We both thought that the stage production was far superior to the film, it is a far darker story and far more thought provoking and if I say so, its much more sad.

I know its only a film and its great entertainment, but I just wondered if any of you had any thoughts about it. Having said that, we did enjoy ourselves, but having been so impressed to the stage production, it was a bit of a slight let down to us.
 
I thought it was very disappointing.
It was SO hyped up and I can't understand why Steven Spielberg has had to plan it for over 10 years.

Stupid things like a horse running through (and dragging) barbed wire attached to wooden supports is not going come out of it with 2 scratches just behind his shoulder...
 
I havent seen the stage production, but it sounds more like the book than the film. I cried almost throughout the book and wasnt sure i could cope with the film, but it didnt seem as bad, apart from the topthorn bit (!) they did seem to miss bits out and gloss over parts of the book in the film, it did seem a very spielburg film especially the end. My none horsey oh enjoyed it though.
 
I loved it! It is a beautiful film thought they managed to be unbiased Towards brittish/ german sides and that it really made me sit up and realise how massive the scale of human and equine loss was.
I know that there was abit of artistic licence used re the wire scene ect but it reall is heart warming to think that even back in such a bleak time mans love for his horse still shone through.
Soppy rant over! :)
PM
 
The book was a million times better than the film imo...but then nothing can rival ones own imagination.

The film is a bit 'wet' by comparison....but nice enough i guess.
 
I haven't seen the film yet, but I have to say I was disappointed with the stage production. The book has been one of my favourites since I was about 10, and I was disappointed with how much they had changed the storyline, to the point where I felt the play failed to grasp the actual concept of the book. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly clever as far as the puppetery, but I felt the poiniance of the story was lacking.

I hope the film goes back to the storyline of the book! But these comments are worrying me that prehaps it doesn't.
 
pigsmight:) said:
I loved it! It is a beautiful film thought they managed to be unbiased Towards brittish/ german sides and that it really made me sit up and realise how massive the scale of human and equine loss was.
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It was this the stage productioon was lacking I felt. And I love the way the book is unbiased towards the British and the Germans, and the stage production failed to get this across. It felt a little anti German :o.
 
It's difficult to estimate exactly how many horses were killed in the WW1, but agricultural production plummeted as the war progressed as farm horses were obviously ideal war horses. I recall that the most agreed figure on equine casualties was circa 10 million, though some historians put it at double this. UK figures are more accurate and our military historians believe 1 million British horses made the journey and served in France with just 65000 being repatriated. Most surviving British army horses were sold in France, the majority going to butchers - in this respect the film was accurate.

Personally, I was disappointed with the film - I think it was over-hyped
 
charlimouse said:
I hope the film goes back to the storyline of the book! But these comments are worrying me that prehaps it doesn't.
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It does miss bits and change bits from the book, i think i drove my oh mad saying 'that's not what happens in the book' so much! But then, thats nearlly always the case where films are made from books isnt it? Also i suppose as the book is from joeys point of view, its quite hard to put that into film and the people have to tell the story. I was a bit confused by the ending as alby and joey are reunited a bit different.
 
I haven't read the book or been lucky enough to see the stage production but I was a bit disappointed with the film. Felt it lacked content and story depth. Friend who saw it with me agreed. We didn't blub too much which I was surprised at - after all I can cry just hearing the Black Beauty theme tune and dare not watch the end of the Railway Children in company. Think the horses looked just too well and the ending was too 'Gone with the Wind' .
Maybe residents of Dartmoor can let us know if they even get sunsets like those at the end of the film.
But having read other comments here will definitely try to read book and would love to see stage play.
 
Not great. They just took Black Beauty and set it in World War 1!! Not very original, you could follow BB storyline chapter by chapter pretty much!
 
I thought it was really awful actually - far too Hollywood and it really annoyed me. Saying that I did cry literally from the first frame to the last. I wish I was exaggerating.
The ploughing scene drove me nuts because you would never have even attempted to plough that sort of field for the first time unless there had been a considerable amount of rain. Albert clearly didn't know much about ploughing either. The barbed wire bit was silly - the poor horse would literally have been ripped to shreds rather than a few cuts. And as usual the horses behaved nothing like horses do in real life.
It's not that bad a film I guess, but it was just so Hollywood that it lost all the charm, poise and magic of both the book and particularly the stage production.
 
Just back from seeing it.
Does it make me really hard to say I did not cry at all :eek::p Just a few tears in my eye when they were reunited.
I enjoyed the book
I enjoyed the film - yes it was a bit schmaltzy in places but I'd have expected nothing less from a Hollywood Blockbuster with Speilberg at the helm
 
What got me most is that there were "hundreds of thousands of pounds" spent on researching historical information yet both the uniforms the soldiers wore and the horses wore were very much incorrect for the time period...!
 
Went to see it against my better judgement and it was really as I expected-a couple of bits were ok but otherwise fairly forgettable-but then I'm lucky and I've seen it on the stage :)
 
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I liked the film - haven't seen the stage production or read the novel though. Personally thought there were far too many dead horses etc for it to be classed as a 12. There were so many scenes I couldn't bear to watch! Like when the tank rolled over that black horse :( no 12 year old should be watching that surely! x
 
I was dissapointed by the film - I thought it was very disney and as somebody that is usually very moved by anything to do with WW1 let alone involving horses I did not cry anywhere near as much as I expected!! I would love to see the stage production though as I have heard so many rave reviews.
 
I've read War Horse, I have seen the production, and now, the movie. Seeing the movie, I liked it and liked how Spielberg portrays the War Horse, making it his own story to tell. Acting overall was great I feel, and the horses were marvellous. However, couldn't stop myself from comparing the horses to the book, Joey wasn't a throughbred and Topthorn wasn't..what he was supposed to be. Yet, there 'acting' made up for it, I ending up loving Joey. Apart from a couple of bits which wasn't seen in the movie and was in the book, for example we never see Joey and Topthorn jump beating everyone's odds, the story between Captain Nicolls and Joey, nor do we see the halflingers made to pull with Joey and Topthorn. Some bits where OTT and too sad, like Topthorn's death and Joey jumping over the men in there trenches and some bits too soft... Overall, I throughly enjoyed watching it, mum in tears and she isn't even horsey! But would definately recommend it!
 
To the person who asked about the sunset at the end - Yes it really is like that. I grew up riding on the exact piece of moor that the majority of the dartmoor scenes were filmed. The moor gives off a red / golden hue in certain lights. It really is beautiful and I think Spielberg catches it perfectly

I did like it. I can see why people are disappointed but it was designed for the mass non horse owning / riding population who think horses behave in a certain manner, for example lying flat out to sleep etc. The finer points of equine behaviour have been roughed over by artistic license.

Ultimately it pays homage of sorts to all the horses that were lost in WW1 (and all the other animals that suffered, as well as the loss of human life). There were some heartbreaking scenes, in particular for me, the shooting of the broken down artitery horse who is then dragged away and the camera shows a mass pit of dead horses. Its just awful to think that was reality.
 
pigsmight:) said:
I loved it! It is a beautiful film thought they managed to be unbiased Towards brittish/ german sides and that it really made me sit up and realise how massive the scale of human and equine loss was.
I know that there was abit of artistic licence used re the wire scene ect but it reall is heart warming to think that even back in such a bleak time mans love for his horse still shone through.
Soppy rant over! :)
PM
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The film was far less German friendly than the book was! And half the stuff in the film didn't even happen it the book and vice versa-some of which was quite important-like the fact that grandpa gave Albert the horse so Elise memory could live on etc.. Don't get me wrong, was a good enough film, but no where near as good as the book. Now just need to cobble together some pennies to the stage production1
 
Haven't seen the stage production but cried buckets at the book.
Film made me cry when Topthorn died, reminded me of OH's horse that we lost in September.
What really got to me about the film was the death and destruction, this was nearly a hundred years ago, so many men and animals died and were left with horrendous injuries, we have learnt so much since then, thinking about technology etc, but why oh why, as a human race are we still fighting wars and blowing up innocent people?, probably a bit deep for this time of the morning but the film left me with these thoughts
 
I agree it was a good film i liked the book more but thats often the way. My non horsey OH really enjoyed it.

I found bits of it hard to swallow. I just don't think anyone would have really given two hoots about the animals when faced with the horror of just staying alive but i appreciate this would not have made for a very nice film!
I also don't think any horses came back, im sure people will disgaree but seems like wishful thinking.
 
Some horses did come back but not many. I read 65,000. There is a lovely story in last weeks horse and hound about 2 which came back and went straight back into their stables after being away for 5 years.
 
I thought it was funny in parts, the horses were beautiful but definitely not the best film I have seen.

Didn't cry although I did blub when I watched the stage show.

And it was a bit ridiculous that a tank followed the horse so it jumped over it! that was stupid.
 
I think you are all being a bit harsh - yes it had the Hollywood cheese to make it more palatable to a wider audience, but do you really want to sit through a harrowing film?

Uniforms (Blues No1 with chain mail epaulettes for the test) and kit was actually spot on and I was eyeing up all the P1908 and P1912 swords. Plus my friend was in the German camp charge, so maybe I'm biased and got more out of the film

I thought the barb wire sceen was done well as should have made every horse owner uncomfortable!

I have not read the book, or seen the play - so I went in just to watch a good film and it had a better storyline than most!
 
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