War Horse

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Jordan, Amberly, Tyler, Michael

There was a Horse. There was a War. What more do you want?

I think if you go into this film, after having seen the trailer and not expect blatant emotional string pulling from Spielberg you're bound to be disappointed. On the whole I thought it was pretty good, has a classic hollywood feel to it. Including the melodrama. You'll either go along with it or recoil in horror. I went along for the most part. But then again, I teared up in the trailer, Spielberg just pushes my buttons.

I have had major issues with Janusz Kaminski's cinematography in the past (why must everything glow like it's shot through Vaseline?) but the episodic nature of this allows for changes in the look so the happy glow timers at the start can give way to some gritty war stuff later. And a lot of orange filters at the end.

I loved the war scenes, I'll be honest I didn't care too much about the horse but the war was depicted fantastically. And John Williams gets to cut loose with big epic sweeping melody so that's good.

I like the film ok. I do't think it's fair to just write it off as lesser Spielberg or defend by using the excuse that it's just a kids film. It's definitely overtly sentimental and if you're in the right mood that's great, for me it was alright.