War Horse

12/28/2011 | himyar

[Himyar]

Saw War Horse today. Great movie for those that enjoy the "old" way of making movies. Very tastefully done. Magnificent cineamatography. Great score. Showed the horror of war without burying you in gore. Cheesy in some places but a very uplifting movie.

[simplesimon]

I cry when they play the National Anthem.
Just between us, I do too, or at least, I get misty. I wonder what that’s all about.
_________________________________________________

OMG I do too ~!!!!!

One time , my gramma asked me if I was NUTS....... I said nope Gramma; just a humble patriot that loves her country.

[nuconvert]

Thanx. I will think about seeing it.
I just heard from someone that almost 1/2 million horses were killed in WWI. Did they mention anything like that?

[Mears]

“
I just heard from someone that almost 1/2 million horses were killed in WWI. Did they mention anything like that?”

---

Of course not——why would they? I never hear death totals quoted when I see WWll movies.

[Mears]

“The Artist” is the “old” way of making movies.

Silent,and filmed in black and white.

[Nepeta]

I've read that the horses used in making the movie were very well treated, and kept happy. They particularly enjoyed having mud massaged into their coats, which rings true.

WW1 was the last western war with large use of cavalry, but millions of equines saw service in WW2, from the horses that hauled German arms into Russia to the mules parachuted into Asia. Millions of them died in that service, too.

[Lando Lincoln]

He’s heard THAT before!!

(Just kidding... ) Happy New Year!

[nuconvert]

I thought maybe at the end of the film they had a little written bit about how mnay horses served & died.

[Siena Dreaming]

I felt that there was something lacking. It needed something

Agreed. The story seemed somewhat choppy and it needed some oomph.

I thought it only fair.

[moviefan8]

I think we are so accustomed to gory, wall-to-wall action, characters with all kinds of angst and just flat out weird movies. When a movie that is simplistic and in the old style, it’s kind of jarring in it’s “quietness” so to speak. I actually liked the first hour, being a horse person. It showed the development and bonding of the two main characters. It was a tribute to the grit of the thoroughbred horse, so often considered just a flighty race horse.

I loved Tinker Taylor Soldier Spy. There wasn't that much action and it is not your typical Hollywood movie. TTSS is on my top ten list for the year.

[Old Valley Girl]

I’m still very leary of seeing it. I mean if ya think about it, all the horses are running through bombs going off, etc. How do they know it’s just pretend? I’m pretty sure they don’t think they’re actors. LOL

[dupree]

Great. Let’s all give our hard-earned money to Steven Spielberg so he and his other Hollywood cronies can give millions to Barack Obama for his billion-dollar campaign. Why don’t you all just go to work for the Obama campaign or better yet, cast your vote for him.

[csense]

I haven't been to the movies in a long time, but I think I'll make an exception for this:

The Three Stooges Movie

Warning, the lobster scene at the end may cause fits of hysterical laughter.

[SuziQ]

Is the movie about the horse, or more about those who ride or come in contact with?

It's my understanding that it's both.

[philled]

I loved Tin Tin! I thought it looked absolutely beautiful and was a fun animated ‘Indiana Jones’-style matinee delight with my kids. Really want to see Warhorse but unsure about bringing my elementary school-aged girls.

[cuban leaf]

My wife and I saw it wednesday. We are big “horse movie” fans and own quite a few of them on DVD/Blue ray. I’m also a WWI/WWII history buff so I was looking forward to it for “non-horse” reasons.

We were beyond disappointed. In fact, the only reason we didn’t walk out was because we thought it might eventually redeem itself. It didn’t. You can tell they spared no expense to bring realism to the film but we just never “felt” for any of the characters, including the horses.

And what was up with the lighting? It was really weird from start to finish. It was as if it had been film on an “earth like” planet but not quite earth. And interestingly we both were reminded of “Gone With the Wind” as we watched the last few minutes.

Speaking of the similarity to other movies, the whole thing was a comedy of film formulas. We both knew what was going to happen long before it did. The formulas were so obvious that it was hard to take the movie seriously.

We own and really enjoy Dreamer, Secretariat, Black Beauty, The Black Stallion, Seabiscuit.

I really cannot fully communicate how disappointed we were with this film. And to be clear, it was not a “overboard expectations” thing. I’ve had that happen before. This was different. Maybe they were trying to stuff too much in, as with the Dune movie. I dunno.

One thing that may be a part of it and why I’m not as big a fan of Black Beauty as the others. Specifically, it is about the horse and the human stories are a side story. I cannot empathize with an animal, so I put more weight on the stories behind the human characters, and those stories were too thin in this movie.

Seabiscuit, Dreamer and Secretariat were masterpieces in this area. They were all about the people, with the horse being a sort of reason for their stories.

But that doesn’t explain why my wife didn’t like the movie. She loves horses. We’re looking at getting a couple.

[cuban leaf]

See my post 35.

And I can’t help bringing up the lighting again. It was over the top. It was weird in the bad way.

[cuban leaf]

—Silent,and filmed in black and white.-

I’m not into “silent”, but I enjoyed “The Last Picture Show”.

[cuban leaf]

—I thought maybe at the end of the film they had a little written bit about how mnay horses served & died.—

You bring up an interesting point. In most “touching” movies, that is exactly what you would have. And it touches on an impression while watching the movie: It jumped through all the hoops a movie like this is supposed to, but in a “technical” way. That is, it was like a movie where everyone mailed in their part, from the photographers to the lighting crew and the actors. For us it didn’t have any “heart”. It was like a movie created by a company that makes movies solely to earn profit for their stockholders, rather than because they are motivated to put their vision to film.

Don’t get me wrong. Most movies fall into that category, but at least they are good at masking it. With this movie it seemed that way from the git-go.

[nuconvert]

Lots of different views on this movie. Talked to couple who saw it 2wks ago and they both said it was kind of a tearjerker, and they were glad they had tissues.
Some people enjoyed the 1st 1/2 and not the 2nd, or vice versa. Some thought it really lacked character development but the cinematography was wonderful.
Some thought it was a bit bloody and others not so much.
I’ve decided to not go see it.

[cuban leaf]

It was bloody in a PG sort of way. I thought that was a good thing. I am notorious for bawling my brains out at movies. The worst one ever, for me, was The Time Traveller’s Wife, but I did plenty of tearing up during all the horse movies I mentioned. But not this one. At first I thought it was me. But after the movie I asked my wife what she thought and, bottom line, we both thought the movie, on an emotional level at least, was a turd.

We even noticed the same problems. I avoid discussing them here to avoid spoilers.