War Horse

[Psy]

Is it me or is Steven Spielberg incapable of directing anti-war movies? Here we are in World War I and the movie still gives us a bias against the Germans with most of the plight of the horse (the antagonist of the move) being at the hands of the German Army, while the British Army for the most part treated the horse with some respect.

I mean come on we are talking from the point of view of a horse yet the movie doesn't go into the futility of World War I, that really no mater which side the horse is on it will be nothing more then a expendable animal of burden.

There is even a minor truce in the film over treating the horse yet the film doesn't take advantage of the 1914 Christmas truce and have the soldiers wanting to befriend each other but the officers not wanting peace.

[TheGodlessUtopian]

Very strange direction for the film to take.While I haven't seen the movie yet I wonder if such direction was a meaningful intention or a casual direction that lacked real political content.

[brigadista]

SS films are riddled with sentimentality which takes away from and trivialises the subjects

[Firebrand]

Is it me or is Steven Spielberg incapable of directing anti-war movies? Here we are in World War I and the movie still gives us a bias against the Germans with most of the plight of the horse (the antagonist of the move) being at the hands of the German Army, while the British Army for the most part treated the horse with some respect.

I mean come on we are talking from the point of view of a horse yet the movie doesn't go into the futility of World War I, that really no mater which side the horse is on it will be nothing more then a expendable animal of burden.

There is even a minor truce in the film over treating the horse yet the film doesn't take advantage of the 1914 Christmas truce and have the soldiers wanting to befriend each other but the officers not wanting peace.

I haven't seen the film, but I read the book years back and actually the book didn't really take sides in terms of the war. In fact it didn't really put the humans in a very bad light. Where the humans neglect the horse its because of the pressures on them. As far as I can remember none of the humans actively tried to hurt the horse, it was just the nature of war that led to suffering for both humans and horses. it wasn't really a very political book, it was vaguely anti-war as being futile and miserable, but there was absolutely zero class politics discussed. Lets face it it was based on a kids book by Micheal Morpurgo, don't go expecting incisive political commentary.
If you want a kids book about horses that is political try black beauty. I had cause to reread it recently and it isn't actually about horses at all. the horse is just a device for examining social conditions for humans, horses, and other animals. Much better than warhorse.

[Psy]

I haven't seen the film, but I read the book years back and actually the book didn't really take sides in terms of the war. In fact it didn't really put the humans in a very bad light. Where the humans neglect the horse its because of the pressures on them. As far as I can remember none of the humans actively tried to hurt the horse, it was just the nature of war that led to suffering for both humans and horses. it wasn't really a very political book, it was vaguely anti-war as being futile and miserable, but there was absolutely zero class politics discussed. Lets face it it was based on a kids book by Micheal Morpurgo, don't go expecting incisive political commentary.
You have a German Officer wanting to kill horses to spite them not being any use to him, the same German Officer refuses to change horses and marches them to death for no good reason.

[ColonelCossack]

I saw the play. It wasn't sad at all, in my opinion. Then again, I was only 11 so i probably got bored and didn't understand it. Remember, at that time I was a crazy tankie who went around screaming that I was schizophrenic. Da fok?)

[Firebrand]

You have a German Officer wanting to kill horses to spite them not being any use to him, the same German Officer refuses to change horses and marches them to death for no good reason.

Pretty sure that never happened in the book