ATM review for:

Thursday, February 9, 2012

War Horse

What caught my attention most was the title of the movie. War. Horse. Enough said, and my mind went wild with imagination. I saw little trailer and avoided reviews of the movie, but i knew this movie has been nominated for 7 awards. And directed by Steven S. So there came the expectation.

In short, this movie is about the love and loyalty between a horse and its owner. At the beginning, i was introduced to the horse, Joey, and Joey was trained and cared by Albert (played by Jeremy I). Albert's father won the bid for the horse in which he thought the horse was special. But because his father could not pay rent, the horse was 'loaned' to the then English army to serve in the war.

The plot thickened with the horse playing the lead role, and his life story traveled three-sixty. I felt like the horse was cursed, that whoever was with him suffered a misfortune. It was until Albert reached his legal age to serve in the army, he enlisted himself and began his quest in search of his beloved horse.

This movie is pure drama, at its best. It has a strong cast and a great setting. Expecting it as a drama movie, there are times when my heart raced through the scenes, and there are times which the movie mellowed down for development.

One of my favourite scenes of the movie was the war scene- explosions and gunfire. It was brilliantly captured and frankly, one of the best war scenes in movies. While war points at the weakness of man's humanity, this movie shed light on the power of a horse to unite two parties, even if it might mean temporary. A strong message.

I thought, as a human-animal relationship story, that i would tear up at the end of the movie. But thankfully, i didn't. The movie was moving and it touched straight to the heart, but it was inspiring with a happy ending. The love and loyalty between Albert and Joey are difficult to be expressed in words here, that only in the movie do you really get to see them shine- even the eyes were not needed to recognize.

My rating: 7.4 / 10
Genre: Drama, War
Year: 2011

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