War Horse

War Horse is unmistakeably a Steven Spielberg picture. Its sweeping visuals, rousing John Williams score and sentimental tone have over the years become his staple, and its war time setting and animal protagonist remind us of many of his earlier films like Saving Private Ryan, Schindler's List, Jaws and Jurassic Park. As a result, War Horse encapsulates everything that is both good and bad about Spielberg; his ability to tell heart-warming, humane stories alongside expertly constructed set pieces, but also his tendency to lapse too far into schmaltz.

Whereas the shark in Jaws and the dinosaurs is Jurassic Park were the bad guys, here the animal of the title is our hero, and it is his journey the film follows. First he (Joey) is befriended by the teenage Albert (Jeremy Irvine) and bought by his proud but good natured father (Peter Mullan), nearly losing his farm and bankrupting his family in the process. But Joey turns out to be far more special a horse than meets the eye, and against all odds saves the family by heroically ploughing an unkempt section of land to allow them to plant. But at the onset of world war one Joey is sold to the army, and upon entering France finds himself moving from adventure to adventure, passing from the British army (featuring Benedict Cumberbatch and Tom Hiddleston), The German army, and a rural French family.

During the war, the film is structured into various chapters that cover an expansive range of the war. There is one chapter dedicated to The British cavalry, another to a pair of German deserters, another to the Second Battle of the Somme. As a result Spielberg is able to exercise his unquestionable ability to depict epic war sequences. The cavalry charges are spine-tingling, the muddy trenches soul-destroying and no-man's land appropriately hellish. These scenes are all very well conceived and impressive to look at, and there are some clever and excellent shots.

But as the film travels deeper and deeper into the horror of the war, it is hard to take the travails of the horse seriously. Among the human tragedy of soldiers being treated like animals led to the slaughterhouse, the plight of a single horse cannot help but look trivial. That said, there is a lot of humanity in the film, although its sentimentality requires that in order to appreciate it the cynical part of the brain must be shut down for the two and a half hour run time. Manage to shut it down though, and War Horse is an enjoyable watch.

War Horse is on at York City Screen. For more information click here

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