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Category:    Home > Reviews > Drama > Historic > WWI > British > England > War Horse (2011/Disney/DreamWorks Blu-ray w/DVD)

War Horse (2011/Disney/DreamWorks Blu-ray w/DVD)

 

Picture: B/C     Sound: B+/B-     Extras: B-     Film: B-

 

 

Steve Spielberg can be defined by three film types he makes.  The most recent throw out his famed feel good approach to do serious adult historic material, then there is that feel good side and making big blockbusters.  Any of his films can have any combination of the three and even all three, which is difficult and contradictory.

 

War Horse (2011) is one of the serious films to enough of an extent that I could take its narrative’s serious side as solid work that it is not undermined by its maturely humorous moments (none of the humor is condescending) and then there are the feel good moments that are at least lightly manipulative, but Spielberg at his best can do this with ease without being phony like his endless imitators in this respect.  We could refer to that as The Spielberg Touch and in that respect, this is the first film we have seen it in full force in many years and that helps the picture overcome its clichés and limits to some extent.

 

The first part of the film (set in 1914) is a family farm in danger of being lost due to a drunken father (Peter Mullan) and mean landlord (David Thewlis).  Son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) wants to make things work, but his mother (Emily Watson) is cautious and trying to be the moral center in everything against all odds.  Ted (the father) buys a horse instead of his usual alcohol or to pay the landlord off (in a scene that echoes Jack & The Beanstalk on some level) and Albert is determined to train the horse, including to work on the farm.

 

Just as that is moving along, WWI begins and Albert is among those who join in for the U.K., but can he bring his horse.  Spielberg and the screenplay by Lee Hall (Billy Elliot) & Richard Curtis (Black Adder and Mr. Bean franchises, Four Weddings & A Funeral) is a new attempt to balance the two sides of Spielberg as filmmaker and though this is not a classic, it is interesting how it stays darker no matter what (and not just visually) and how the WWI battle scenes work particularly well (inspired by Kubrick’s Paths Of Glory and also anti-war in tone, which is why the film may have been ignored by some in the media like nothing since Spielberg’s Munich, reviewed elsewhere on this site) along with the pacing and atmosphere.

 

The rest of the cast is also impressive and I like the locations and production design work, but this did not find the audience it deserved and is a nice back-to-form film for Spielberg after the last Indiana Jones film was such a miss.  The biggest mistake I think was not sticking with the original shooting title for the film, Dartmoor, which with Spielberg’s name next to it would have made people more curious so they would not think it was just another “horse movie” even though he uses the horse itself as a narrative tie.  Very interesting all around.

 

 

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer looks good and offers detail I did not see in my theatrical screening that used digital projection, though the film was offered that way and in 35mm prints depending on the theater and it was shot in the Super 35mm format by Spielberg’s now-longtime Director of Photography Janusz Kaminski.  Though stylized down, you can see how even current state-of-the-art theatrical digital projectors are too soft and have been introduced too soon (not worth it to save a few bucks), cutting off the visuals to some extent.  Fortunately, the Blu-ray looks better showing how well the 35mm film was used.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD is weaker than expected and only worth dealing with if you have to.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 7.1 lossless mix is often dialogue-based, but as with all Spielberg films does not stop the mix from being rich, exceptional, filled with ambience and a standard John Williams dramatic score.  It is well recorded and mixed, not suffering from being stretched a few more channels.  The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD has a soundfield to some extent, but it is no match for the DTS-MA on the Blu-ray.

 

Extras in this four-disc set include Digital Copy for PC and PC portable devices and seven featurettes, the DVD-only War Horse: The Look, Blu-ray One’s War Horse: The Journey Home and An Extra’s Point Of View and Blu-ray Two’s A Filmmaking Journey, Editing & Scoring, The Sounds Of War Horse and Through The Producer’s Lens.  See them all after watching the film.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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