Sun 10 Jun 2012: "War Horse": ChOC's film of the month
This event is in the past.
Memorial Hall, Charlbury 7.30pm
Doors and bar 6.45
War Horse
(2011) cert 12, 2 hours 20 mins
Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him.
When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets -- British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter -- before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man's Land.
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse-an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure.
Directed by Steven Spielberg. Stars Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Kebbell.
From the Daily Telegraph:
"This is a soaring, sprawling epic that harks back to the dream-big visionaries of old Hollywood: John Ford, David Lean, David O. Selznick. It was shot on real film stock in the rolling English countryside and on huge, hand-built sets, with barely a pixel in sight. Spielberg's regular director of photography, Janusz Kaminski, conjures up the romantic staginess of Ford's horse operas with scenes of horses and riders on the crests of hills, backlit by impossibly saturated sunsets. It's expansive, expensive, and long on both sincerity and running time. It's also the best thing Spielberg has made in at least ten years.
"Although War Horse is billed as an adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel, screenwriters Lee Hall and Richard Curtis have undoubtedly taken a lot of cues from Nick Stafford's savvy stage version: as in the play, thank goodness, there's no sign of the horse getting a first-person voiceover.
"This is filmmaking on a grand scale, bound by a grand vision, bolstered by grand performances and swept along by a grand old John Williams soundtrack. There's not quite something for everyone, but the cynics can trot on: there's something for everyone else."
www.chocfilms.info