War Horse
Film analysis by Andreas Williams
Six-time Oscar nominee and six-time Academy Award nominee, “War Horse”, directed by Steven Spielberg and based off of Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 novel, is a movie that brings the viewer on an adventure of love, passion, and terror and along for an outright battle of survival across the battlefields of the First World War. But unlike so many other movies on what many said was to be the war to end all wars, “War Horse” doesn’t just follow the journey of a soldier fighting on the front lines or a nurse fighting to help those very soldiers; it instead brings the viewer on an intense journey of a horse’s very own experiences on the dangerous and deadly front lines and the unbreakable bond between man and animal that not even bloody warfare can hope to break. The friendships made, bonds formed, and the very choices that had to be made to simply survive on the muddy, bloody, and brutal battlefields of France all contributed to the intense atmosphere that this movie brought. Due to this, the movie does a great job at keeping the viewer sucked in and on edge with every scene that it brings, all done through the marvelous acting, cinematics, and attention to detail in every tense and heart-pounding moment.
Albert Narracott, otherwise known as the main protagonist, had formed an unbreakable bond with a horse named Joey. He watched him grow up, trained him, and cared for him as if he were his brother, and their bond and friendship had ultimately been sealed the moment that Albert’s father, Ted, had purchased the horse from a high-bidding auction when looking for a horse that could work and plow fields. But just when it seemed that nothing could go wrong, the family of our main protagonist and his beloved horse were threatened with the loss of the family’s farm, ultimately forcing Albert’s father to sell Joey to the British cavalry in order to relieve the financial burden that they had found themselves in. Much too late to stop the deal from happening, Albert is forced to watch his beloved companion be taken to the front lines as the personal mount of Captain James Nicholls with the promise of being taken care of and returned to Albert once the war has come to an end. Unfortunately for all parties involved, the war was only just getting started, and the horrors to come were unimaginable on every level, with an endless and unforgiving battlefield waiting to test the limits of both man and animal.
Lives were changed overnight; no matter the background, belief, or traditions, the war’s firm grasp was just too overbearing, and I believe that’s one of the aspects that this movie touches on the best. The war was known to take, and take it did with lives lost, families broken, bonds destroyed, and in many cases, hope being completely lost. Consequently, Joey’s life quickly changed under the command of Captain Nicholls, going from a treasured stallion to one of the many rugged horses in the British cavalry, showing not only just how sudden a human’s life changed during these treacherous times, but even an animal’s. But I also believe “War Horse” does an incredible job of showing just how warfare was changing and how quickly horseback warfare had begun to become almost obsolete when it came to sharing the same battlefield with tanks, machine guns, and newfound strategies and tactics centered around these implementations.
Clip #1 – Changes of war https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IcBjd18ccIRcD9vv9fwtxP7dprhhRxoS/view?usp=sharing
After the death of Captain Nicholls, the movie continues to follow Joey’s journey through the war, being captured by the Imperial German forces and used to support the German army’s war effort for quite some time. But the most notable and telling scene to me is when Joey is used to pull heavy German artillery up a hill in order to commence heavy shelling of British positions during the Second Battle of the Somme. There’s much more to this scene though than just heavy artillery fire upon a scarred and charred battlefield, and that’s because our main protagonist, Albert, who had just enlisted, finds himself on the receiving end of this very shelling. It’s a moment that really stuck with me throughout the rest of the movie; such a large battlefield and such a large theater of war found two souls that had formed an unbreakable bond now fighting on opposite sides.
Clip #2 – Big guns https://drive.google.com/file/d/1svEOYY7OwX6xdEBtqSsmwThm3kTtaRPU/view?usp=sharing
As the movie continued onwards into its final stretch, the action only got more intense, the emotions heavier, and the scenes more gruesome and graphic than ever before shown throughout the course of the movie. With the British side ordered to charge across the war-torn battlefield, a scene of chaos and horror erupted. Gunfire, exploding shells, screams of terror and agony, and an unimaginable amount of death were shown to me in ways that made me feel as if I were there with these men. Out of every war movie that I have watched over the years, this scene was one of the most chilling and intense in ways that made my hair stand up and my heart sink. But in the end, this scene could not have been any more perfect in terms of showing just how gruesome and horrific these battles were, essentially marching across muddy, barbed-wire-littered fields to their imminent demise. And while it’s important to talk about just how gruesome this scene was, it’s also equally important to point out how incredible the acting and graphics were, with everyone giving it their all to make this scene as passionate and captivating as possible, and to me, it did just that. Jeremy Irvine’s is some of the best that I’ve seen, and he clearly played his role with heart and soul in a way that, once again, made me feel as if I was right there fighting with him.
Clip #3 – The charge https://drive.google.com/file/d/19FcU1ioZdDkwSlpcP1TfVqMpkw_Z-K8O/view?usp=sharing
After nearly dying in an enemy trench due to a gas attack, Albert’s dangerous journey to reunite with Joey still has yet to come to an end. Even being temporarily blind wasn’t enough to deter him, as his determination to reunite with the horse whom he saw as a brother was simply too strong. As for Joey himself, after escaping the German side amidst the chaos of war, he found himself in a mad dash for freedom, but on the battlefields of France, freedom was hard to come by, and before Joey knew it, he was wrapped in barbed wire in the middle of no man’s land between both the English and German trenches, but with a helping hand, he was set free. It was a moment that I couldn’t help but smile at, because just when it seemed as if the world couldn’t stop burning, it came together with a common goal in mind, and that was to lend a helping hand to one in need.
Clip #4 – Saving Joey https://drive.google.com/file/d/14NxlfzpIzDbgEJr4nSTpBwYLsWNQsoo7/view?usp=sharing
I wholeheartedly believe that this scene went on to show that no matter their differences, and no matter what they stood or fought for, each side still had humanity and care in their hearts at the end of the day. And while I wish I could tell the tale of what happened next, I think it’s best for you to find that out for yourself, because with a movie like “War Horse”, you have to experience it to truly feel and understand it. It had me hooked with every moment, and I truly believe it to be one of, if not the best movie about the First World War out there and a must-watch, which is why I would rate it a very solid 8.5/10.
