Blazing Minds

Yes folks it’s movie review time again and I’ve not long got back from seeing Steven Spielberg’s latest movie based on Michael Morpurgo‘s War Horse, the story of a horse and his journey through the battlefields of world war one.

War Horse – Review – The Story Of A Horse And His Boy!

Bought at auction by Ted Narracott (Peter Mullen), Joey is taken back to their West Country farm in a hope of using the horse on the farm, but son, Albert (Jeremy Irvine) takes a shine to the horse and becomes attached to him, even to the point of lying about his age when Joey is about to be sold off to the army in 1914, so that he can stay with Joey.

What I really found a bit of a disappointment with the film is that the narrative that is told by Joey, the horse, in the book wasn’t there and for me this would have been a really nice touch to the film, instead the film takes on the mantel of realism and just tells the story through the directors eyes.

There is also a strange feeling to the film, in that the lighting and scenery always looks a little strange, it’s not fake, but somewhat not really  real, even though they are, I really can’t put my finger on the slight surrealism of it. Don’t get me wrong this isn’t a bad thing, just rather strange.

War Horse In To Battle!

You do get a feeling for Joey as the film progresses and I was started to well up at certain points and did find several parts of the film quite emotional to point of tears slowly running down my face and towards the end it got a lot harder to hold the flow of tears from rolling down my cheeks.

The battle sequences in the film are nicely done and the surround sound mix was spot on with bullets and explosions coming from everywhere, kind of reminded me of the beach landing on Saving Private Ryan.  The image of so many dead horses at one point did have me in a state of “Oh my God the poor things, that’s awful!“.

All this comes to a relaxed and somewhat emotional section of the film in no-man’s where a British and German solider argue over who gets to keep Joey, which was so nicely done and my imaginary hat is tipped to Toby Kebbell and Hinnerk Schönemann for such a wonderful performance.

War Horse – The Final Verdict

Ok, so after reading this you may think I hated the film, but you would be wrong, yes it has it’s flaws, but what film doesn’t, it’s an enjoyable film to watch and can be an emotional ride through the film. It certainly makes a change from all the action, horror, Sci Fi and animated movies that seem to be around at the moment. I enjoyed the time spent watching the film and think that this is another hit for Steven Spielberg, even though some of the critics have really slated it!

So I’m giving War Horse 8/10. Go see it and don’t forget, take some tissues with you

Another film seen @ApolloCinemas Rhyl

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