War Horse

Picture from: www.filmofilia.com

War Horse comes out on Christmas Day, but I had the honour of watching the advanced screening. Directed by Steven Spielberg and based on the children's novel, War Horse stars Jeremy Irvine (Albert) as a young boy and the first owner of a horse whom he named Joey.

Albert's father was supposed to buy a strong workhorse at an auction, but he instead came home with a young, weak, and overpriced horse. In order to keep their house, Albert puts in all his love to train the horse to plow the fields. Because it is 1914, World War I comes and Joey is sold to a young lieutenant to serve in the war. From here, Joey takes us to the lives of other people that he comes across and stories are told. Albert eventually enters the war as a soldier to serve his country in WWI, with a small hope of reuniting with Joey again as they have been separated for many years.

Picture from: collider.com

This is a great family movie and it definitely touched my heart. It shows the great ranges in which WWI is able to affect families. As a war movie, it expectantly contained horror scenes, death situations, and fighting and killing scenes in which I thought that they are kept at just the right amount. Hence, the war and the situations that it affected felt realistic and believable. Expect laughter, feelings of a warm heart, numbness, and perhaps both joyful and joyless tears.