War Horse (2014) User Reviews

Morpurgo magic

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 15 June 2019]

Grew up loving Michael Morpurgo's work, and 'War Horse' has always being a particular favourite from his work. Had to have a reading book every week to read to an assistant on a regular basis, and Morpurgo's books and stories were popular picks, because they are beautifully written and accessible. It is a very powerful story, one that wrenches the gut and heart every time and with a titular character that is identifiable every step of the way.

It was productions like this that got me into watching the National Theatre Live cinema screenings regularly in the first place, being someone who was already going to frequent opera and ballet productions. Can't believe it took me so long to review 2014's 'War Horse', but it is a production that stuck with me for a long time, is a real treasure and it absolutely does the book justice. Actually loved Spielberg's 2011 film, not a popular opinion online it seems, but consider this production more powerful, more poignant and more interesting visually even with not as big a budget.

Visually, 'War Horse' looks fabulous. The lighting really struck me on first glance, the bright glow for the Devon sequences and the bleakness of those depicting the war is beautifully contrasted, while there is from personal opinion some of the best use of projection screen for anything on stage. There have been instances elsewhere where this distracts and serves little purpose, the projection screen not only looked beautiful and a good alternative to large scale sets but also a good way of solving problems with scene changes. Scene changes has sometimes in other productions overlong and clumsy but the projections move swiftly and allows the story to flow naturally. The effect both elements together have is remarkably cinematic.

This seamlessness is also evident in the use of music. Really liked the idea to not have pre-recorded and potentially schmaltzy music and have instead have nostalgic folk songs performed live. Then there are the sound effects, which were even more effective, those in the No Man's Land scenes being frighteningly authentic. 'War Horse' keeps sentimentality at bay, while the nostalgic charm of the Devon scenes again like the lighting contrasts superbly with the uncomprisingly gut-wrenching No Man's Land scenes.

While all the performances are strong, it was the puppetry for the horses that stole the show. So expertly done and blended so well with the projection screen and lighting that one cannot believe how they were really done.

Overall, magical. 10/10

Whoa!

[sesht · 24 March 2015]

I've not read the book this is based on. I haven't watched the Spielberg movie either, which is considered lightweight Spielberg btw. I will check it out sometime though.

This one was screened as part of a new endeavor where Nation Theater LIVE art works are being screening, 1 show / week, across various multiplexes, to audiences of 2-20 (2, including me and my friend).

As always, consistent with specialty releases, this one also arrived with almost no publicity, and many who might be interested to purchase tickets and watch this missed out.

Of course, there were those who got up and walked out as well, a la most of the audience-members during NTL (Danny Boyle's) Frankenstein. And those who came in 20 minutes late and stayed, enraptured, like we were.

There was also a bad interruption during a segment where NTL staff interviewed one of the directors and the book's author, which was very informative, but another thing that was great about this was the behind-the-scenes look at the puppeteers and their teams. Magnificent!

There are many great things about this visualization of 'War Horse'. 2 key decisions:

1. The horse does not talk. The horse's thoughts are not read-out of alluded to. It's all mime and responding to the human characters.

2. The puppeteers are visible in their handling of the horse puppets, bringing each and every moment, their very breath, to glorious life. Initially, I was distracted, but the amazing teamwork demonstrated by the puppeteer teams put plaid to further reservations from us.

Well, those were the key decisions made by the makers, that they spoke about during the segment at the end of the 1st act.

The score's magnificent. Ordinarily, for an epic work such as this one, I'd expect it to be all robust and clichéd, but what they have composed here is simply magnificent, and warrants a to be part of your music collection.

The choice to have a torn screen on top for certain sequences, and the overall art design, like everything else, is simply magnificent, nay, perfect.

The performances are all magnificent, but I'd like single 2 of those out: 1, from the stellar Ian Shaw (Johnny English Reborn, sigh), who plays a German officer integral to the 2nd act, and 2, From Alex Avery (Last chance Harvey) who put faces to the fact that people on both sides of a war are usually the same, with the ones who are noble that suffer the most, and are easily taken away from us, and the ones who're evil, keep pulling everyone's strings (with the exception of the horses' puppeteers, 0of course).

There's a liberal interspersing of English with Belgian French and German, and I was lucky to understand 2 of the 3 languages, but the friend I was accompanying was sure that English subtitles for those portions was unnecessary (I am a little nitpicky about that, so I'd have preferred it - just saying), and essentially the artistic decision to have it this way was, I'm sure, like everything else about this play, carefully considered, thought out and decided upon. I will not second-guess these makers. Ever.

I'll surely go to another viewing of this, if ever there was another, and look forward to other works from the talents behind this one. I do wish I had the chance to catch this live, at the National Theater. Bucket list item for sure.

I am in the minority, it seems

[bloopville · 3/10 · 6 May 2014]

I went to this with a group of people who thought it was wonderful and delightful, while I found it tedious an not compelling.

The story is: Boy finds horse Boy loses horse Horse causes world peace Boy finds horse again for a tearful homecoming

Within this fairly trite framework could have been an interesting story, but the script replaced drama with melodrama. The plot development wasn't just uncomplicated. It was simplistic. The good Germans were just like the salt of- the- earth British, but the bad Germans were frothing and unhinged certified animal haters.

There was a British folk singer with a nice voice singing late 60s style Pentangle/ Richard THompson British folkie songs that had nothing to do with the story being presented in the play. In the songs a ploughboy meets a girl, and John Barleycorn rises from the grave. Now, that might have been a more interesting movie.

The acting was not up to British stage standards, with the mother and the German cavalry officer being particularly wooden. Only the British Sargent playing the gruff- but- kindly stereotypical sarge with a nice comedic touch rose above tawdry tedium.

The real stars were supposed to be the animal, played by clever puppets, but, in essence, it was like low tech CGI in that all effort seemed to be spent on the puppets, while the script and acting suffered.

However, I was in the minority. Everybody else thought it was fantastic.