War Horse might just be Steven Spielberg's best looking film. It's simply beautiful to look at. One of the films he says he always watches before directing a new project is David Lean's Lawrence Of Arabia and the Lean influence couldn't be more obvious than it is here. Beautiful lush, textured photography, captivating landscapes, epic, cast-of-thousands battle scenes and rustic, authentic sets that all combine to give the audience on of the most visually satisfying films The Master has ever produced.
The film itself, while gripping, bombastic, emotional and action packed, never quite gets to the level of the visuals. That might be due to the nicey, nicey script which seems to be too toothless and pandering to the PG rating crowd to feel really weighty or the oddly structured script which sees War Horse Joey get traded from owner to owner as his European odyssey progresses. It also has a bit of the same trouble as Spielberg's Tin Tin in that the disparate selection of characters that take Joey into care are a bit too squeaky clean and lovely to truly connect with them.
Still it's still a damn fine story and it's great to see a children's film being made which tackles issues of history, war and death in a way that doesn't include fart gags or super heroes. Oh, and at long last, composer John Williams has produced a fine score worthy of his legendary status in the movie industry.
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