Movie · 2011 · War, History, Adventure · 2h 26m · PG-13 · English
Curator score: 4.6/10 (313.2K ratings)
Separated by war. Tested by battle. Bound by friendship.
Overview
On the brink of the First World War, Albert's beloved horse Joey is sold to the Cavalry by his father. Against the backdrop of the Great War, Joey begins an odyssey full of danger, joy, and sorrow, and he transforms everyone he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Albert, unable to forget his equine friend, searches the battlefields of France to find Joey and bring him home.
Ratings
Curator score: 4.6/10
IMDb: 7.2/10
Letterboxd: 3.38/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 74%
Metacritic: 72
TMDB: 7.3/10
Director
Steven Spielberg
Production
DreamWorks Pictures, Reliance Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment, The Kennedy/Marshall Company
Cast
Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Emily Watson, Niels Arestrup, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Céline Buckens, Toby Kebbell, Patrick Kennedy, Leonard Carow, David Kross, Matt Milne, Robert Emms, Eddie Marsan, Nicolas Bro, Rainer Bock, Hinnerk Schönemann, Gary Lydon, Geoff Bell
Curator Review
Verdict
A sweeping, old-fashioned Spielberg war melodrama with gorgeous craft, sincere emotion, and a very clear sentimental streak. If you respond to earnest storytelling, animal-centered adventure, and battlefield spectacle, it can be moving; if you want a tougher, more psychologically complex war film, its simplicity may frustrate you.
Best for
viewers who like heartfelt, classical Spielberg storytelling
fans of animal-led adventure stories
people interested in World War I as a human-scale epic
audiences who appreciate lush cinematography and orchestral scoring
Skip if
you dislike overt sentimentality
you want a gritty or anti-war deconstruction
you need a tightly focused character drama
you are impatient with long setup before the war material begins
Overview
War Horse is one of Spielberg’s most unabashedly emotional films: a story of loyalty, separation, and endurance told with the confidence of a classic studio epic. It begins as a rural fable and expands into a World War I odyssey, using Joey’s journey to connect soldiers, civilians, and strangers across a fractured landscape.
Worth noting
The film’s strengths are obvious and substantial. Janusz Kamiński’s imagery is luminous, the production design is immersive, and John Williams’ score does a lot of heavy lifting in the best way. Spielberg stages the battlefield sequences with real clarity and feeling, finding moments of wonder and grief without losing the story’s childlike sense of wonder.
Bottom line
Its reputation suffers mostly because it is so openly sentimental. The emotional beats are broad, and the film can feel more like a mythic war parable than a psychologically nuanced drama. But if you accept its terms, War Horse is sincere, beautifully made, and often moving in exactly the way it wants to be.
Top Letterboxd reviews
James (Schaffrillas) (1.5★) · 1869 likes
I thought he was gonna kiss the horse multiple times
David Sims (3★) · 683 likes
there's a great movie here if you get rid of the horse
Johnny Roastbeef (4.5★) · 633 likes
I am genuinely dumbfounded by the negativity War Horse (2011) receives. Overly sentimental, unrealistic, not brutal enough and too manipulative, all seem to be the favoured opinions. For what it’s worth I think the cinematography and production design is incredible and the screenplay very effective, focusing on a cyclical structure that delivers both emotion and bags of heart. The war scenes are really impressive and respectfully done considering the demographic the book was written for. John Williams score is beautiful and Steven Spielberg’s direction graceful. A wonderful experience that would not have had the same impact had the sentimentality been toned down and the violence turned up.
Joe A (2.5★) · 551 likes
War Horse feels like it was made solely for 9th grade history teachers to show it to their class before starting the chapter on World War I.
Vanina (2★) · 370 likes
What a shitfest. I would probably have liked this film better if it had been about a cat. Or, hell, even about that goose that walks around on the farm at the beginning of this film. That was a great goose.
For a film called 'War Horse', it takes a long time for the 'war'-element to enter, so for the first 50 minutes, it's mainly 'horse' - and I happened to skip the horse part in my coming of age.… more
A prestige war epic that combines spectacle with character-driven moral tension.
Topics
World War I, war epic, animal adventure, sentimental drama, coming-of-age, period piece, battlefield spectacle, lush cinematography, orchestral score, humanism