War Horse
Short description
War Horse follows Albert Narracott, a young man on an English farm whose bond with a horse named Joey is broken when his father, struggling to keep the family farm, sells the animal to the cavalry as the First World War begins. Joey passes through many hands during the conflict, from British officers to German soldiers and French civilians, while Albert, too young to enlist, nevertheless sets out for the battlefields of France hoping to find him and bring him home.
Steven Spielberg directed the film, the thirty-first of the forty features he has directed to date, arriving after Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and before The Adventures of Tintin. Lee Hall and Richard Curtis wrote the screenplay, and Spielberg produced with Kathleen Kennedy. Jeremy Irvine plays Albert, with Peter Mullan and Emily Watson as his parents, and Tom Hiddleston, Niels Arestrup and David Thewlis among the large credited cast and crew.
Released in December 2011, the film had a budget of about 66 million dollars and took roughly 178 million dollars worldwide, a solid return rather than an overwhelming one. Audiences rate it 7.2 out of 10 on IMDb from some 173,000 votes and 7.3 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample of around 3,800. Its critics' rating stands at 7 out of 10 from 241 reviews, close to the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- In the play based on the book, life-size puppets were used instead of live horses.
- Prince William Windsor and his wife, Kate Middleton, attended the British premiere of the film on January 8, 2012.
- Robert Emms, who starred in David Lyons' film, played the main character (Albert Narracott) in the West End stage production of the play.
- An animatronic model was used in the scene where the horse gets tangled in barbed wire and tries to free itself.
- In 2007, Michael Morpurgo's novel was adapted for the stage. The play based on the book premiered on October 17, 2007, at the Royal National Theatre in London. It ran there until February 14, 2008, and then returned to the repertoire for a period from September 10, 2008, to March 18, 2009. In April 2009, the play moved to the West End, to the New London Theatre, where its performances were almost sold out. Across the ocean, on Broadway, the play debuted on April 14, 2011.
- A special technician was responsible for dealing with horseshoes that regularly came off the horses' hooves in the middle of filming.
- In December 2009, the rights to Michael Morpurgo's book were purchased by the American studio DreamWorks Pictures. At the request of the film studio, Richard Curtis was invited to work on adapting the screenplay with Lee Hall and Michael Morpurgo. He initially received the offer without much enthusiasm, but after meeting Steven Spielberg, he changed his mind and agreed to take on the task.
- “War Horse” was the first film by Steven Spielberg to be edited using digital technology, rather than film.
- The maximum number of horses involved in a single scene of the film is 280.
- A total of 5,800 extras were involved in the film. Many of the war scenes were filmed on an abandoned airfield near the village of Wisley in Surrey. There, during the preparation for filming, it was possible to dig all kinds of trenches and dugouts without any restrictions. The initial stage of filming took place in the south of England, in Dartmoor, where the territory was a nature reserve. There, on the contrary, such actions were strictly prohibited, as was any impact on the environment.
- Fourteen horses played the role of Joey in the film. The “main” horse, Finder, also appeared in the film “The Favorite” (2003).
- An illustrated book by Steven Spielberg, dedicated to the making of the film, was released in the United States on December 27, 2011, and in the United Kingdom on January 1, 2012.
- Several preview screenings of the film were organized in the central states of the USA between November 1st and 10th, 2011. On November 16th, seven screenings for veterans were held in Canada to mark Remembrance Day.
- Representatives of the American Humane Association were constantly present on the film set. Upon completion of filming, they awarded the film the highest rating for its work with animals.
- The film is based on Michael Morpurgo's novel "War Horse" (1982).
- Producer Revel Guest, known for her documentaries, became enthusiastic about creating a film based on Michael Morpurgo's book back in the late 1990s. From 2006 to 2009, she worked with the book's author and renowned British screenwriter Lee Hall to develop a possible future film. They had no real funding sources, and the rights to the book were not officially transferred to anyone.
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