Very rarely has a Spielberg movie been ignored for the Oscars. Of the 27 full length features that the master has directed, only 4 have not received a nomination of any kind. They are Sugarland Express, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Firelight & Always. Even movies which have not really upto the mark such as Minority Report and the atrocious The War of The Worlds have been nominated at least. So when you have a very good movie such as War Horse, it is not very surprising that it has received 6 nominations including Best Picture.
Spielberg continues to weave his magic in this adaptation of a book by Michael Morpurgo and the stage play of the same name which has run to full houses across the world (wonder how they would get a horse on stage though). However, the silver screen doesn’t limit the master by any length and ergo he has created some magic. I have, as I tweeted earlier, always loved movies that feature animals – the serious ones like Sea Biscuit and not the ridiculous ones like Shaggidy. Surprisingly the well made movies featuring animals have all been those with horses. It was only a matter of time that Spielberg found a story that caught his interest.
War Horse traverses the life of a colt born in Devon and bought by a stubborn self respecting farmer who goes by the name of Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) for the princely sum of 30 guineas in a head to head auction against his landlord. The horse although not cut out for farm work builds a strong relationship with Ted’s son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) who names the horse Joey and eventually gets Joey to do the impossible – plough the fields. However, with misfortune befalling the Narracott family, Ted is forced to sell the well bred horse to the Army just when World War I breaks out. The horse then moves from Devon to France with the Brits. He then moves onto the German Army, a French girl, back to the German Army, the British Army and then finally back to Albert over time. The story of how he goes about this and the spirit that is so often shown by animals is just stunningly portrayed by the master.
While I would not say that War Horse is the best movie of the year, it isn’t surprising that it is in the top 10 movies of 2011 for certain. I cannot claim to know much about Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Art Direction but I can say for certain that Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography continues to come upto the standards that he has set for himself over his past 4 nominations, 2 of which converted to Oscars (Schindler’s List & Saving Private Ryan). War Horse’s cinematography is quite similar to the 2 movies which have won this for Kaminski in the past. Plus the fact that he has won it every alternate time he has been nominated must be playing on his mind as well.
War Horse is a typical serious slow Spielberg movie but it does enough to keep your interest alive all through. Do I think it will win the Oscar for best movie? Nopes. But should it be in your “must watch” list for 2011 – HELL YES!!! 7.5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3969097241/
Spielberg continues to weave his magic in this adaptation of a book by Michael Morpurgo and the stage play of the same name which has run to full houses across the world (wonder how they would get a horse on stage though). However, the silver screen doesn’t limit the master by any length and ergo he has created some magic. I have, as I tweeted earlier, always loved movies that feature animals – the serious ones like Sea Biscuit and not the ridiculous ones like Shaggidy. Surprisingly the well made movies featuring animals have all been those with horses. It was only a matter of time that Spielberg found a story that caught his interest.
War Horse traverses the life of a colt born in Devon and bought by a stubborn self respecting farmer who goes by the name of Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) for the princely sum of 30 guineas in a head to head auction against his landlord. The horse although not cut out for farm work builds a strong relationship with Ted’s son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) who names the horse Joey and eventually gets Joey to do the impossible – plough the fields. However, with misfortune befalling the Narracott family, Ted is forced to sell the well bred horse to the Army just when World War I breaks out. The horse then moves from Devon to France with the Brits. He then moves onto the German Army, a French girl, back to the German Army, the British Army and then finally back to Albert over time. The story of how he goes about this and the spirit that is so often shown by animals is just stunningly portrayed by the master.
While I would not say that War Horse is the best movie of the year, it isn’t surprising that it is in the top 10 movies of 2011 for certain. I cannot claim to know much about Sound Editing, Sound Mixing and Art Direction but I can say for certain that Janusz Kaminski’s cinematography continues to come upto the standards that he has set for himself over his past 4 nominations, 2 of which converted to Oscars (Schindler’s List & Saving Private Ryan). War Horse’s cinematography is quite similar to the 2 movies which have won this for Kaminski in the past. Plus the fact that he has won it every alternate time he has been nominated must be playing on his mind as well.
War Horse is a typical serious slow Spielberg movie but it does enough to keep your interest alive all through. Do I think it will win the Oscar for best movie? Nopes. But should it be in your “must watch” list for 2011 – HELL YES!!! 7.5 on 10.
Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3969097241/
On your word, I'll have to watch it now!
ReplyDeleteI had missed it in theatre!