"Us Against The War" (War Horse Film Review)

‘War Horse’ is an insightful historical fiction film, based on the best-selling novel by Michael Morpurgo about a horse’s journey in World War I. The film is directed by Steven Spielberg, an Academy Award winner, who also directed films such as ‘E.T’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’, ‘Jurassic Park’ etc. The cast includes a breakout performance by Jeremy Irvine (Albert Narracott), Tom Hiddleston (Captain Nicholls), who is best known for his character Loki, in Thor and Benedict Cumberbatch (Major Jamie Stewart), who is also best known as Sherlock Holmes from the TV Series, “Sherlock”. The ‘War Horse’ film is set in a beautiful breezy place called Devon, in South England.

            The story begins with an unbreakable friendship between a loyal gallant brown horse called Joey and young tender Albert, who lives in a village, that trains him. Albert and his father, Ted Narracott, a heavy drinker and is also a veteran from the Second Boer War in South Africa, has an unpleasant relationship. When the war comes, the friendship of Albert and Joey is separated when Joey is taken for war. The film then leads us on a wonderful journey with Joey taking a look at sceneries in three different countries, England, Germany and France during the First World War. Will this condition utterly break the friendship or will it bring them back together?

            This film amazes me, though mostly, by the costumes. Joanna Johnston, an Academy Award winner in 2012, is very clever and has done an amazing job with designing the costumes for each country and basing them on each character. As an example, we can see that Ted Narracott, Albert’s father, is an alcoholic and he has never worn different clothes and hat in the entire film. It is no wonder that Steven Spielberg is fascinated by the work of Joanna, and built a good partnership with her as she worked with him in his other films like ‘Lincoln’, ‘Munich’, ‘Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade’. Apart from the costumes, I also admire Gary Rydstorm’s hard work in making the sound effects. There are so many sound effects in this film and they all sound really realistic. Using coins to make the sound of running horses and using nitrogen to make the sound of bombs has proven his brilliance in this film and made this film more realistic and believable.

I strongly recommend this movie because this movie has powerful and insightful features. Every part of the scene is enjoyable and you might not even blink during the movie. ‘War Horse’ is one of the best films that Spielberg has ever done. It will change the way think after watching this film as it will touch your heart and brings you joy to your heart. It is definitely worth seeing and is bound to be a box-office hit!