....a visceral look and war and death and random cruelty
Animal people (you know who you are) may have a hard time watching the beautiful
horse Joey as he serves in the British army during World War I. In addition,
many who have seen War Horse, the Broadway play, found magic there that
rules the movie out for them. But this is far more than the story of a horse. It
is a powerful statement against violence of any kind, especially the barbarism
of war. What I hadn't counted on was that War Horse would be profoundly
disturbing simply because it is so beautifully made.
Watching
Joey's journey from the hands of the boy who raised him through the battlefields
and barbed wire of war is greatly moving, especially when animal lovers among
the soldiers on both sides reach out to protect him. We appreciate Steven
Spielberg's camera, John Williams' music, and the performers who create the
characters who brave trouble and death to respond to Joey. Among them are Peter
Mullan, Emily Watson and Jeremy Irvine as Joey's farm family, and Tom Hiddleston,
Benedict Cumberbatch, and Niels Arestrup who help Joey after he is sold to the
army.
Several
stretches of sentimentality in the film offer welcome respites from the
battlefield slaughter. For a few minutes, we can breathe, and we need to. The
bloodshed here is essential to the essence of the story - the innocence of the
young men and their horses in wars that are man's traditional solution to
disputes.
There is one
scene that comes as nearly a physical blow, its power a credit to director
Spielberg. Horses and their riders are lined up across a vast field. The
commander orders them to draw their swords which they do, as one. Then the order
comes to extend the arm and sword forward, again as one, and to charge. Across
the lovely field these several hundred horses and men charge, unknowing and
armed with civil war weapons, into carefully placed nests of Germans with their
new weapons: machine guns. The idiocy of swords vs. machine guns brings a gasp
of anguish from the audience as Spielberg pulls the camera back to reveal the
field littered with the bodies of men and their horses. He has reminded us of
the generational folly of weapons and war - always new weaponry, always young
men who die under its force.
The
overwhelming credit for creating the credible on-screen carnage with superb
action scenes belongs to Steven Spielberg. Hundreds worked on the film, but his
vision makes it soul searing. He has taken a visceral look at war and death and
random cruelty. The story gives him a broad canvas for his compassion for
victims - human and animal alike. The only consolation? Horses like the
beautiful Joey are no longer needed as weapons of war.
To the people
who say to me "Tell me the ending or I won't go," I can only say that the ending
is breathtaking. It's ok, just go.
Copyright (c) Illusion