War Horse by Steven Spielberg, 2011 (PG-13)

with Emily Watson (Fireflies in the Garden, Breaking the Waves), David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup (Farewell, Un Prophete), Tom Hiddleston(Thor, Avengers, Deep Blue Sea), Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch (Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy), Toby Kebbell, David Kross (The Reader), Eddie Marsan (Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows), Nicolas Bro, Rainer Bock, Patrick Kennedy, Leonhard Carow, Celine Buckens
Duration: 146 minutes

Adapted from a novel by Michael Morpurgo, this majestic World War I drama centers on Devon lad Albert and his steadfast horse, Joey, whose faithful bond cannot be shaken -- even when Joey is sold to the cavalry and sent off to France.

It is an interesting construction of the plot. For a very natural reason, we are always attached the good human being. In this movie, our feelings get challenged and perhaps manipulated into getting to know and love the horse more than the humans, but still, the humans remain our center of attachement, just because they are good to the horse. The other exercise that the movie does is the make you more and more confused about which side are the people, so you get equally attached to the German boys, the British captain, the French jam maker and his granddaughter, the German animal caretaker, the British and the German on the field trying to get the horse out of the wire, everyone from every side who turned out to be good to the horse.
It is beautifully shot, perfectly acted, with a great sense of action, the only upsetting thing is the music and the forced emotions into making you cry, while the story is so futile, in the sense that at the end of the day, it is just one horse, so many more have died, so many humans have died. The movie turns out to be a strange fairy tale, an out of context story, as beautiful as it is...

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