Main Players: Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Emily Watson..and the Horse, (of course)
General Gist: This is a story that follows the life of a horse during World War I. The story captures its' many travels, and the people he encounters and touches through-out his journey.
Deb's Take:
Well...this movie was ok. It was long and very drawn out, to the point of losing my interest early on. I really like the idea of the movie and thought that maybe it would be like the "Black Beauty" of this time. In actuality, it wasn't. The story itself was touching, heartbreaking and pretty amazing when you consider all this horse had to go through in life. The hard part was, I just didn't feel a real connection to any particular character, and just couldn't find myself connected to the horse. I am a total animal lover. I had thought I would fall in love with this horse looking at the previews, but I really didn't. I did feel sorry for the horse a lot of the time, and was disgusted with the idea that horses were so brutally treated during the war, however, I just had a hard time not feeling like the story was drawn out and lengthy. I feel like the actors did a pretty good job, again though, nothing extraordinary. All in all I would recommend this movie as a renter, and although it appears to be made for all ages, I think the kiddos would be mighty bored..not to mention the parents. Tiff's Take:
Wow. I'm really surprised in the difference in opinion with Deb and I on this one. She wrote her review first so I had the luxury of reading what she had to say before I did mine. I actually went into this movie thinking I would feel almost the exact way Deb ended up feeling. But I didn't. This movie was long, I'll admit, but I didn't ever feel like I was looking at my watch wondering when it was going to wrap up. There was a lot to the story but I enjoyed the journey. I, like Deb, am an animal lover so I was concerned about the movie being too much. Because, let's face it, something not so pleasant almost always happens in a movie about an animal. This one was no different but for some reason the horse actually felt more like a person to me. So it wasn't so sad. (Not that I like seeing bad things happen to people but...) I would agree with Deb that the actors were good but nothing special. None of them really stood out to me. I'm not even sure I can say the horse did a fantastic job because well, how do you rate a horse's acting abilities? But I loved the history and connection between all the people that the horse's life touched. Another thing I found interesting about this movie was the different perspective it gave on a war. It was almost shocking how non-strategic everything seemed back then. How did anyone ever survive at all? It could have also been because most of the war movies I've seen are about WWII or later. No matter the reason, it was very interesting to me. So my rating would definitely be higher then just a rental. I've actually already recommended it to someone who was on the fence.
