"Went to see "War Horse" last night." Topic

So my wife and I went to see the movie. First off lets get the important stuff out of the way. I am no expert on WWI uniforms and equipment but I thought they were spot on. Maybe the British officer uniforms were a little too green, but maybe they were.

SD Caps/Picklehaubles and steel helmets worn at the appropriate times in the war. German artillery scene was great. British tank scene great. Over the top by the British at the Somme was well done. British officer wearing one of those breast plates you could buy was a nice touch.

Small arms all seem to be correct. British Cavalry charge was very well done. The infantry unit shown at the Somme was the South Staffordshire Regiment, I think.

I have no idea which cavalry regiment Joey the horse was in and I could not find it anywhere on-line. So if someone has the book please let me know. Can't believe it is not mentioned somewhere! In one scene the Brit. Cavalry Regiment wore their parade uniforms. They were dark blue with white cap covers.

Now for the rest. This is a classic Disney animal tear-jerker. There wasn't a dry eye in the place. Yes the story is somewhat predictable but not in the twist and turns Spielberg added. There is a lot going on in this movie and if someone did not know the history of WWI and the Boer War it can get confusing. I had to explain it to my Wife.

If you are a real horse lover, there are scenes you will love and some you may not be able to handle. My Wife was appalled at the way the German Artillery Crews were treating the horses. Had to explain to her that 300,000 plus horses died in the war. Probably way more than that.

Having looked around the Internet there is some Oscar buzz but maybe that is all hype. Overall it is a well done movie. When the movie was over I was surprised that the audience was applauding.

I haven't seen a movie audience do that in a long time. I would not hesitate to bring kids 10 years old or older. It is based on a children's book written from Joey's perspective.

warhorsemovie.com

We heard you the first time!

Who asked you! I could not get the message to post. Then after I reposted it showed up. Complain to Bill.

I'm glad you liked it. Thank you for your thoughts on the movie. I have been waiting to see it with my daughter. I thought that it wasn't supposed to be released until Christmas day?

You already answered my question in the other post:)
Thanks

Thanks for the review, Rallynow. The trailers looked very good, but it was nice to get more detail. Boer War scenes, too? Or is it just referenced in the film?

Referenced. Don't want to give too much away.

Yes. My wife is a big horse-y person and she is really looking forward to seeing this.
We will be going in a few weeks.

A friend of mine worked on the film as a carpenter and worked on the trench sets. He has some fascinating behind the scenes shots of them dressed as British and German.

Tells an amusing story of Speilberg stepping into a puddle whilst on-set only to find it was a 6-foot deep drainage pit that had been uncovered for maintenance and not coned off. Dissapeared up to his eyes in muddy water.

G.

Rallynow wrote:

My Wife was appalled at the way the German Artillery Crews were treating the horses. Had to explain to her that 300,000 plus horses died in the war. Probably way more than that.

I believe that the Great War killed a lot more horses than people.

That's a lot of horses.

All the best,

John.

I haven't seen Old Yeller in 50 years. No need to see this.

My grandfather served in the Royal Canadian Field Artillery in WW1 as a driver on the limbers. He always used to cry when he talked about "his" horses getting killed. He never understood why so many of them had to die just because people couldn't get along.

Ah, War Horse. Or as I like to call it, "Seabiscuit: The Prequel." The historical stuff sounds good enough to warrant a theater viewing.

I will be going, but the missus is a sensitive animal lover type, and this probably is not one for her.

Rallynow,

What is your estimate on the percentage of the movie that is history oriented and of interest to a gamer vs the rest of the movie.

Nice review and much appreciated.

My wife is a big horse person, I think we'll skip this… Animals getting capped makes a bad movie for her.

"Rallynow, how were you lucky enough to see this? An advance screening? I'm looking forward to this one and your nice review is encouraging."

My city was one of the cities selected to preview the movie. The PR Department where I work got two tickets. No one else wanted them so I snatched them up. After the movie they asked people what they thought about it.

"Rallynow,What is your estimate on the percentage of the movie that is history oriented and of interest to a gamer vs the rest of the movie."

That is a good question I would say maybe 60/40 warfare scenes/non-warfare scenes. Don't hold me to that because the stories are intertwined.

The first third of the movie will please horse lovers and family farm life types. My wife liked that part best. The views of the English country side will take your breath away.

I try not to judge past cultures too much by our standards of today. Horses were tools/equipment to most people. I realize how harsh that sounds, but for the most part they used them up and got another one. They were too expensive to feed to keep as pets.

My grandfather would disagree.

I think there have always been people who loved animals but I agree with Leadjunky. Previous generations were much more likely to put old Yeller down where as today we seriously contemplate hip replacement surgery for our pets.

Sorry this topic got posted twice. For some reason it didn't post the first time. So I tried again and they both posted. Strange.

I did find it a little difficult to watch some of the scenes in the movie. There is one scene that was trying to be humorous but I thought it was in poor taste. But I heard people laughing so maybe I am a bit too sensitive. The reality is horses were considered tools. Some people still feel that way.

Who knows how many millions of horses and other animals have died in various wars. Why be concern with horses when so many people have died. Good point, but horses have no choice in the matter.

Some people don't have a choice either. But horses don't understand why. They only feel pain and can never understand why. The ultimate innocents.

My Wife just said "It's different with horses, can't explain why, it just is." She was raised on a ranch and had a pet horse.

Reminds me of a TV movie from several years ago. It had Don Johnson in it. Don't remember the name of it. It was about the winding down of the U.S. Cavalry branch.

The Army wanted to sell off a regiments worth of horses for slaughter and the troopers decided to steal them and herd them to Canada. It was set in the 1930s when Douglas MacArthur was Chief of Staff. Good Movie.

In Pursuit Of Honor, a nice little film about an overlooked part of US military history, that being the interwar years and the sunset of the old "frontier constabulary" aspect of the Regulars. Rod Steiger was perfect as the old Cavalry colonel.

The scene where they herd the horses into a pit and machine-gun them is horrific.

Did the machine-gunning really happen or was that fiction?

Apparently fiction.

I never understood why, in the middle of the Great Depression and with the Army so starved for funds, they would just kill the horses. The desert Southwest would have been a prime place to sell excess mounts! In any case, there is no record of such a slaughter ever happening; quite the opposite as the Army was very particular about record-keeping for every single horse on strength.

I bought my wife a belgain Warmblood horse when she retired from US Army in 2004…She has been researching Army (1900's) cav horses and remount centers since then. We are both very excited to see teh movie on X-mas day.

Bing

I saw War Horse over the weekend with the wife. She cried all the way through. being a Brit living in the USA I am constantly amazed at how little Americans know or understand the First World War. The movie was really very good and certainly captured the mood at the time. Lots of uniform details are incorrect and some of the incidents would have been unlikely … but thats Holywood!!

"I am constantly amazed at how little Americans know or understand the First World War." Including Mr Spielberg, it seems

I saw the trailer last year and was quite amazed that a horse could run through no-mans land under heavy fire without breaking its legs or something…
A few moments later I saw the same horse running through a German trench which was wider and straighter than a modern day German autobahn…., and then I was convinced; this must be just another Hollyweird historical disaster (as they already have produced so many there).
I gladly let it pass and did not bother to see it.
Actually I totally forgot about this movie up till reading this thread.
By the way, I did visit Ypres and Passendale several times, so I do have some idea how it must have been…..

Monash; I don't think visiting Ypres or Paschenadaele today would give one any idea of what they were like nearly a century ago. Better to try a subdivision under construction after a torrential rainstorm with backed up porta-potties and a lunatic shooting at you!

I just bought War Horse yesterday and watched it last night. I found it to be a very enjoyable movie, and whilst there were some improbabilities in it, there were no impossibilities. Some very weird things happened in WWI with full documentation, so…

I did find some of the officers in the cavalry unit to be a bit young to have an Imperial Yeomanry badge. They'd have had to been in the Boer War 14 years ealrier.

By the way, has any body an idea which regiment they were supposed to portray? My books on yeomanry cavalry are mostly restricted to Scottish regiments.

Spontoon; I am afraid it does give one a good impression. With way over 100 war cemeteries, big craters, remnants of trenches and so on, combined with the museums over there it is very well possible to imagine how horrible it must have been. It is nearly impossible to avoid the horrors of the war in that area. People can not dig there without finding remnants or even casualties of war. Walking through plowed fields, you can find shrapnel everywhere. It is really a sad area there…….

Having said that, your image of the devastated subdivision under construction would indeed start to resemble the area. Probably needs a lot more lunatics shooting :-)
Such an area would not contain long straight trenches through which a horse can run…., that scene in the trailer really turned me off.
Being allergic to " tear jerking, historical incorrect and shallow Hollywood stories I have chosen not to watch that movie. But of course it probably will contain good scenes as well.

Monash;
Just think of all the real estate on the planet that has been fought over for millenia. Folks do tend to slaughter each other in the same places, over and over! The WWI battlefields are just a bit more concentrated, and have the advantage of being well commemorated with monuments and cemetaries. I think it's left over Victorian morbidity. A lot of the WWII battlefields aren't as well marked and commemorated.

I didn't find War Horse to be too tear-jerking. Not too many inaccuracies, either. Lot's of improbabilities, but not impossiblities. That long straight trench would be highly improbable, but there might have been some reason for such a thing. Maybe it was dug precisely to allow horse transport to the front? Anyway, the film was not as bad as I had feared.

I watched Sir John Mills' Dunkirk last night, for the first time in about 30 years; and found a lot more inaccuracies in it! They were correct in having the British infantry not carrying intrenching tools in the 1940 BEF, though!

Colonel Chabert tonight!