War Horse

[elski]

The Astonishing WAR HORSE Animatronic Test Footage
http://badassdigest.com/2012/01/16/the- ... st-footage

[midian]

finally managed to see this. saw with he nephew as we 'read' the book together (listened as an audiobook on long journeys). he enjoyed it - i love it. (now we are listening to the neil gaiman's 'graveyard book' - also wonderful!!!)

i thought the was a very beautiful and but the devonshire accents were a bit strange and put me off a few times. i appreciated seeing the trenches as they were very intriguingly realised. i am familiar with the poetry from that age but i had no idea that trenchs might look like that.

what i remember of the book, and admired, is its very sympathetic treatment of the germans. bad things happened obviously, as it is about war, but it was clear that many different types of soldiers were both suffering up the british and german ranks and across the 'them' and 'us' divide of the war. several germans were very kind to joey. the book paints the death of one as part of the awfulness of war whereas in the film he is made to simply, and cruelly, just abandon joey. there are a few more incidents which made me wince as it struck me quite forcefully how the germans were portrayed as almost cartoonishly evil characters. i felt quite sad that something about the deeper message of the book was lost.

book 10/10. film 6/10

[weirdfilms33]

I very much liked this. Although I haven't read the book and can't remember much of the stage play (I must have been 11 when I saw it) I admired its cinematography and great performances. I didn't like how they left out so much of Albert's journey to find his horse (such as him lying about his age to sign up), it sort of detracted from the emotion of the closing few minutes. Still enjoyed it though. You can read my more legible thoughts below:

http://jacobthehobnob.wordpress.com/201 ... war-horse/

8/10.

[andrews]

Total Oscar nominations: Six, including best picture, art direction, cinematography, original score, sound editing and sound mixing.

Best chance for a win: Never root against John Williams, who has more Oscar nominations than any other living person: 47. (He's nominated twice this year, also for "The Adventures of Tintin." Only Walt Disney, among individuals, has more.) Williams has won five times previously, but not since 1993 (for "Schindler's List").The Academy may also choose to honor the film's beautiful cinematography (by Janusz Kaminski).