If you look far and wide at this reviewer's comments on this site, you'll note that he rarely pans a film. I tend to be quite positive, seeing the good in most films, if at all possible. Gotta really stretch to say anything laudatory about this dog (horse?) of a film!
Guess my dear spouse and I were fooled by the hype. See the yellow headline in the picture above? Yeah, it's a Spielberg production. So stupid us, thinking, well, if it's Spielberg, it must be good, run out and see the Warhorse! We left about 5/6 of the way through the film.
What's the film about? No spoiler, of course. It's a two part deal: In the first two thirds of the film, the story is about a boy and his horse (see the pic above?). A boy and his horse? Isn't that sort of a kids' theme? PRECISELY! See, the boy lives on a farm and he loves his horse, and only he can make the wild thing obey. They make eyes at each other, that horse and boy, for at least an hour and a quarter.
Then, when you think you can't take another minute of this maudlin, soapy, unctuous plot, there is a shift in the story: Suddenly, the horse is off in the middle of WWI! Poor horse! Suffering amidst human misery. OH: Don't let the kids see this part...it's gory, gritty, violent, and, well, meaningless.
Guess it's all a question of honesty in advertising. This film should have been touted as follows: Take the kids to a boy-and-his-horse story, but leave before the violence starts!
Haha!
Oh, Steven, you can do so much better! I remember ET, and Jaws, and Schindler's List, and so many other masterpieces.
Will the real Spielberg please stand up?
OK, one redeeming value: There are wonderful outdoor panoramas of landscapes. Yeah, the camera work is good.
Grade of D-.... Don't go near this loser of a flick!
Whenever I have sat through the trailer for this, I have thought: oh, I just know I'll be crying at every scene. It's gotta be good but I won't be able to bear it. I couldn't go near it for that reason. Son, however, avoided for the opposite reason: suspected it was a cheesy, shameless pull at sentimentality strings at the expense of any quality. Turns out, according to you, he was right! Wow. I have only walked out of three movies I can recall, so this must have been unbearable.
ReplyDeleteOne other note: I have noticed a big difference between a Spielberg PRODUCED and a Spielberg DIRECTED movie.
OK, the lines have been drawn! You might love this one...your son and I felt it was indeed cheesy. Maybe best for you to go to the flick and enter into the fray!
ReplyDeleteNo. No. No, thanks.
ReplyDelete