Curator Watchlist
A sweeping, old-fashioned Spielberg war melodrama with gorgeous craft, sincere emotion, and a very clear sentimental streak. If you respond to earnest storytelling, animal-centered adventure, and battlefield spectacle, it can be moving; if you want a tougher, more psychologically complex war film, its simplicity… Read more
Where to watch: Buy
Sun · 2h 26m
Director: Steven Spielberg
Starring: Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Emily Watson
On the brink of the First World War, Albert's beloved horse Joey is sold to the Cavalry by his father. Against the backdrop of the Great War, Joey begins an odyssey full of danger, joy, and sorrow, and he transforms everyone he meets along the way. Meanwhile, Albert, unable to forget his equine friend, searches the battlefields of France to find Joey and bring him home.
Steven Spielberg
Jeremy Irvine, Peter Mullan, Emily Watson
A sweeping, old-fashioned Spielberg war melodrama with gorgeous craft, sincere emotion, and a very clear sentimental streak. If you respond to earnest storytelling, animal-centered adventure, and battlefield spectacle, it can be moving; if you want a tougher, more psychologically complex war film, its simplicity may frustrate you.
War Horse is one of Spielberg’s most unabashedly emotional films: a story of loyalty, separation, and endurance told with the confidence of a classic studio epic. It begins as a rural fable and expands into a World War I odyssey, using Joey’s journey to connect soldiers, civilians, and strangers across a fractured landscape.
The film’s strengths are obvious and substantial. Janusz Kamiński’s imagery is luminous, the production design is immersive, and John Williams’ score does a lot of heavy lifting in the best way. Spielberg stages the battlefield sequences with real clarity and feeling, finding moments of wonder and grief without losing the story’s childlike sense of wonder.
Its reputation suffers mostly because it is so openly sentimental. The emotional beats are broad, and the film can feel more like a mythic war parable than a psychologically nuanced drama. But if you accept its terms, War Horse is sincere, beautifully made, and often moving in exactly the way it wants to be.
James (Schaffrillas) (1.5★) · 1869 likes
I thought he was gonna kiss the horse multiple times
David Sims (3★) · 683 likes
there's a great movie here if you get rid of the horse
Johnny Roastbeef (4.5★) · 633 likes
I am genuinely dumbfounded by the negativity War Horse (2011) receives. Overly sentimental, unrealistic, not brutal enough and too manipulative, all seem to be the favoured opinions. For what it’s worth I think the cinematography and production design is incredible and the screenplay very effective, focusing on a cyclical structure that delivers both emotion and bags of heart. The war scenes are really impressive and respectfully done considering the demographic the book was written for. John Williams score is beautiful and Steven Spielberg’s direction graceful. A wonderful experience that would not have had the same impact had the sentimentality been toned down and the violence turned up.
Joe A (2.5★) · 551 likes
War Horse feels like it was made solely for 9th grade history teachers to show it to their class before starting the chapter on World War I.
Vanina (2★) · 370 likes
What a shitfest. I would probably have liked this film better if it had been about a cat. Or, hell, even about that goose that walks around on the farm at the beginning of this film. That was a great goose. For a film called 'War Horse', it takes a long time for the 'war'-element to enter, so for the first 50 minutes, it's mainly 'horse' - and I happened to skip the horse part in my coming of age.… more
A lyrical, emotionally direct story centered on a child and a nonhuman companion, with the same kind of innocent wonder and melancholy.
A warm, sincere animal-led film that balances tenderness, humor, and a surprisingly strong emotional core.
A beautifully photographed bond-between-human-and-animal adventure with a strong sense of visual poetry.
Spielberg’s most famous example of earnest, childlike emotion and wonder, with a similar faith in pure feeling.
Another Spielberg war-era story filtered through a young protagonist’s awe, fear, and longing for home.
For viewers drawn to Spielberg’s war craft, this offers a harsher, more visceral companion piece.
A romantic, war-shadowed search narrative that mixes loss, persistence, and historical devastation.
A powerful World War I film that pairs battlefield horror with a sharp moral perspective.
A poignant war drama about youth, innocence, and the tragic machinery of conflict.
For a more meditative and philosophical war experience, with beauty and grief in uneasy balance.
A classic war film that emphasizes human cost, emotional clarity, and the transformation of innocence.
A foundational World War I anti-war film that deepens the historical context and emotional devastation.
friendship, loyalty, separation and reunion, World War I, coming-of-age, animal perspective, humanity in wartime, home and belonging
World War I, war epic, animal adventure, sentimental drama, coming-of-age, period piece, battlefield spectacle, lush cinematography, orchestral score, humanism