War Horse

         Up for review today is another one of this year's 9 Best Picture nominees. As like many of the other nominees, I don't think it should have been in contention for the Oscar's highest honor. In all opinion this year was a bit of a dud. Thus because of that is why I believe 9 films still made the contention. The fact that only a couple of films really stood out to people caused all the voters to vote for many films to be in contention. That's my theory anyway, but let's move on to the actual review shall we.
        Well what is there too say about War Horse. It's a WWI set drama and directed by Steven Spielberg. So far, so good right? Well unfortunately it doesn't get much better from here. But let me say, the movie is not bad. It's just not great. When it comes right down to it all you have is a movie about a horse. A miraculous horse, yes, but a miraculous one that isn't real and is the main character of the movie. Thus in lies the biggest problem.
         In other movies about a horse, though the horse is the main center point of the plot of the movie it isn't your lead character. Look at Seabiscuit and Secretariat. First off, both are about true horses with amazing stories. That helps in itself. Secondly, though the story of the horse is what we're watching, there are main characters along side that help the story move forward and progress. In Seabiscuit you have Tobey Maguire and Jeff Bridge's characters and in Secretariat there's Diane Lane who carries the show. But in War Horse, there's just a bunch of supporting characters to the horse that filter in and out of the movie before you can even really form an opinion of them.
         War Horse at its core is a story of friendship between a horse named Joey and his owner Albert (Jeremy Irvine). Albert is the son of a Scottish farmer who buys Joey at an auction. Albert becomes responsible for training Joey and in turn their deep friendship begins. When the war begins, despite Albert's pleas Joey is sold to the British cavalry. From here we watch as Joey goes and makes his way through the war facing many different challenges along the way in an effort to hopefully be reunited with Albert once its over.
          Sadly, this bond of friendship is the driving force behind this movie and it just isn't strong enough. There are some good things though as there's a reason it was nominated for 6 Oscars. However, these are mainly on the technical side. The cinematography is very good as the shots of the vast Scottish landscape and others throughout Europe are quite vivid and beautiful. Plus, John Williams score is quite good as well. As for acting, I think the best job goes to David Thewlis (Lupin in the Harry Potter series) who plays the villainous landlord of Albert's family's farm.
         In the end though, there's just not enough good to make up for the bad or just average. The movie runs at 146 minutes which is far too long. If this had been cut down to a solid two hours it could have potentially helped itself immensely. However, all we're left with is an overly long war story about a horse. At least with Seabiscuit and Secretariat you had the excitement of races to drive the viewers interest. This one doesn't and like I said it just becomes a movie about a horse. Big whoop.
         Overall, I give this movie a thumbs down and 2 out of 4 stars. I'm bumping it up from 1.5 strictly for its technical achievements.  But the story in itself combined with running time only gather a 1.5 for me. This movie may still be able to be found at a random theater here and there, but otherwise you can get it on DVD and Blu-Ray beginning April 3rd. Enjoy!

Editor's Note:  My next film will be the 2012 Best Picture nominee The Tree of Life starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, and Sean Penn.