Eye Candy #592 - "War Horse"

War Horse:  Director Steven Spielberg is no stranger to staging large-scale war set pieces, but this is his first foray into World War 1.  Based on the children’s book of the same name by Michael Morpurgo and its subsequent critically-acclaimed theater production (which used life-sized puppets for the horses), it’s the story of a young farm boy Albert (Jeremy Irvine) from Devon in England, who raises a willful colt name Joey to be more than others expect him to be.  On the eve of World War 1, Joey is sold to the military as a cavalry horse out of desperation by Albert’s destitute father Ted (Peter Mullan).  A young captain (Tom Hiddleston) promises to care for Joey, but as the realities of the war set in and its convention-shattering nature is realized (for example, the cavalry charge is now moot in the face of the machine-gun), Joey finds himself, changing hands through various “owners” on both sides of the conflict and in-between, as he and Albert’s fates converge to bring them back together on the battlefields of Europe.  Benedick Cumberbatch, Emily Watson, Liam Cunningham, and David Thewlis are here in support.  Harrowing, violent without being gory, with a fairly even hand (I.e. the Germans aren’t portrayed as inhuman villains, nor are all the British the ’good guys”) with some truly impressive battle sequences (both military charges; one a cavalry charge, the other an infantry charge across no man’s land that equals anything you’ve seen in “Saving Private Ryan”, sans all the blood and entrails).  The film is well-made, with several emotionally powerful moments, but still seems awkward straddling the line between children’s story and adult narrative.  It’s as if it can’t commit to either, so it’s exceptional at neither.  Still it’s a very watchable movie.  Woodchuck sez, “Check it out.”