War Horse - Steven Spielberg

Watching movies and TV series on Netflix is the only thing that can keep me awake, especially when you are being stuck at home and have nothing better to do, except work on the pile of unfinished assignments. I do sometimes find it guilty to be lazing around in front of my laptop. After all, it’s unusual activity in this monotonous lockdown. Even so, my lecturer has assigned the new task to watch a film—War Horse. That means, another day with another film!

When I first saw the title, I was wondering what this film is actually going to look like? Is it about a horse that is involved in a war? Is it just a mere title that has an implicit meaning behind it? Then, I noticed that I had made a lot of unanswered guesses. Then, when I googled it afterwards, I was a bit exhilarated. Because my favourite English actors from Marvel’s movies were also in this film—Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch. As this assignment also requires me to write a journal, so this short writing will be encompassing with my personal feelings and reflections regarding the film. 

Before I get further into this journal, I would love to say that this film is genuinely a masterpiece and one of the best cinematography war films I have ever seen. It is simply stunning and marvellous. The director, Steven Spielberg, did a fine job in delivering many layers of realistic depiction of World War 1 and the unified plots along with the emotional aspects are superb!

Throughout the film, I could feel that there is some sort of soul-stirring feeling that moves me on an emotional level. It feels like the bond between the horse and human is real. When I watched this tale, I felt a sense of honesty through Joey's character—the horse. He was not faking his feelings towards his owner or someone who took care of him, because a horse is naturally not an actor. As you can see the strong friendship between Albert and Joey developed in the film is like nothing can break them apart, not until the day Albert’s father sold Joey to the cavalry. This scene broke my heart into pieces because Albert is a gentle and kind boy who devoted his time to Joey and treated him very well. Even though they did not have a ton of time together, their bond was real and certainly changed Albert’s life. 

The new Joey’s handler was Captain Nicholls who was played by my favourite actor, Tom Hiddleston. Frankly speaking, he looked way younger than I’d ever expected. In the film, I could describe him as a forgotten historical figure who was very brave and unflinching. He may be just a fictional character, but the character is somewhat real and brings a symbolism of all unsung heroes who had died in the battlefield. Captain Nicholls also showed a beautiful relationship between a horse and human. He treated Joey with so much care—kindness and respect—as he promised Albert to look after him. Despite the fact that Joey solely perceived Nicholls as a colleague rather than a companion, that never stopped Nicholls to always treat him well. This is because Nicholls knew, as a soldier himself, growing the soldier-horse relationship is important, and horses are not just an animal, but they become part of the comrade. Fighting side by side until the end!  

On top of that, this saccharine and sentimental warfare film is also unique because the main character was not a human, but a horse named Joey. The film is not like any other film, as it was told from the viewpoint of a horse. An animal who was in the middle of a war and did not even understand a single thing about it, would view it. He’d never claim that the English people who should win, and the Germans are the good guys. That is what I think this film is fantastic because it never took sides and that is exactly what an animal would think. As a matter of fact, this film is also able to describe how this horse touches the lives of people from all different types of side of this war. This adequately proves that this film perfectly depicted that an animal would obviously not take any sides or view which side is better—unbiased.

At the same time, it seemed like Joey had undergone so many different adjustments with regards to who he met and various stories followed by. Joey also met another horse, Topthorn, during his training for his role in the war, and became closely bonded with him. I got the impression that the relationship between these two horses was completely disparate from the bonding with humans. This is probably because they are from the same species and easy to build a natural herd setting. A good thing about Topthorn is that he is a good example of an ideal friend. He helped and inspired Joey to be a strong and faster warhorse and in return, Joey assisted him to pull the cart. They are most likely to acknowledge each other’s strengths and weaknesses. A friend in need is a friend indeed! Then, the film got on another level of overly emotional when Topthorn succumbed to an illness. I could not stand it, but I was really touched by Joey’s compassion to provide Topthorn a solace for the last time, and it was absolutely heartbroken to witness it. 

When the film reached its resolution, again, it left me with a throat lump when Joey eventually reunited with his long lost companion, Albert. Albert faithfully fulfilled his promise to find him and bring him home after this horrendous warfare. For Joey’s side, I can’t imagine how the horse could have survived after being through many things; from one handler to another, from an allied to the enemy, and even pulled a ton of artillery where the horse fairly had a chance of survival and was almost bought by a butcher. However, the most important thing is now that he is safe and reunited with his true companion.

On a side note, these two scenes were absolutely breathtaking and honestly I was trying so hard to hold back my tears, especially when Albert handed his father the flag and they embraced. I think it also describes the First World War perfectly as no one came back the same person as when they left, including the civilians waiting for loved ones to come home. That last shot of Joey really says a lot!