3/10
Here are a few adjectives to describe Spielberg's new film: infuriating, cheesy, magnificent, dull, noisy, hamfisted, old-fashioned, long, clumsy and spectacular. And most of those, you will gather, are not recommendations.
War Horse started life as a children's book, written by Michael Morpurgo in 1982. 25 years later it was adapted for the stage, with huge success, and finally it arrives to a cinema near you, courtesy of the highest profile director on the planet.
The story is simple enough. It's about a horse at war, the war in question being the Great War which later became known as World War 1. The horse originally belongs to a boy, but is taken away when the war starts, and survives various adventures, while Albert (the boy), lies about his age in order to join up as a soldier and find Joey (the horse).
The problems with the film are more numerous and complex. First of all, there is the point of view. In the book, the horse is the main character. We hear his thoughts and follow events through his eyes. In the play (which I haven't seen), I gather that the amazing puppeteers and horse design create characters with whom the audience can identify. Spielberg can hardly have a horse's voiceover (from the horse's mouth, as it were), and equally, he cannot use wooden puppets as substitutes for real flesh and blood. These limitations are made worse by his decision to go full throttle for the Hovis approach. I am of course referring to the legendary/infamous adverts from many years ago, which depicted the early 20th century in a permanently golden glow of nostalgia. Those were commercials, this is a movie, and the use of Castle Combe (standing in for a Devon village), and lighting effects that wouldn't look out of place in the Northern Lights, all stirred up with the massed orchestral manoeuvres of John Williams is an unforgivable lapse of taste. At certain times, Spielberg may give a half nod in the direction of the notion that war is hell, but you can tell that his main feeling is that in the past, the sun set more gorgeously.
One of my many complaints is the casual waste of so much great British acting talent - Tom Hiddleston, Peter Mullan, Benedict Cumberbatch, Emily Watson, Eddie Marsan, Liam Cunningham and David Thewlis, each of them given a few minutes of screen time and a stereotype for a character, before being shunted off stage and replaced by the next thespian. Episodic films are very hard to pull off. Audiences need a level of continuity, so that they can build up a relationship with the people on the screen, which is simply impossible to do here. And our emotional connection is stretched even more thinly by the galumphing soundtrack, which is like being run over by a tank. I am also left wondering who exactly Spielberg thought would want to go and see this film, and - equally important - what possessed him to make it. It's not really a children's film, at over 2 hours long, and with more battle scenes than is usually considered appropriate for a younger audience. Nor is it a grown up film. And I can't see many teenagers rushing to see it.
If you want a serious film about WW1, then watch All Quiet On The Western Front, or La Grande Illusion. This throwback to an earlier era, part 50s cliche, part silent movie pathos, is something and nothing. The set piece battle scenes are impressive enough, as you wonder about the logistics of filming them, but there isn't the gritty realism of Saving Private Ryan. And they take away from the intimacy that the film and the story need, as we move from one setting to another, with only the horse as the constant factor. There will be those who admire the pyrotechnics, the visual flair of flares, the soaring soundtrack, but if you are a fan of character, subtlety and stillness, you will be very disappointed.
