“War Horse”: The story of the friendship between a horse and a young man, the reason why master director Spielberg was fascinated by it

"War Horse" synopsis

Joey is a beautiful horse who is lovingly raised by a young boy, Albert, in a poor British farm. However, when World War I breaks out, Joey's beloved horse is sold to the cavalry as a military horse and sent to the battlefield in France. To Joey, who doesn't know the difference between friend and foe, war only appears foolish and tragic. Meanwhile, even though Albert is under draft age, he leaves for France during the fierce war in order to meet Joey.

Index

• World War I seen from an animal's perspective
• Contact between different species that runs through Spielberg's works
• Operation of cavalry in modern warfare

World War I seen from an animal's perspective

It is no exaggeration to say that the history of humanity is the history of war. We humans have experienced many conflicts, and the history of these wars has been recorded in great detail in movies. Due to their nature, movies and war are inseparable. That can be said to be an undeniable fact.

During World War II, a wide variety of propaganda films were produced by many countries, and many people were collectively incited by the one-sided propaganda of their ideas. Postwar works required more narrative than ever before, and many anti-war works appeared. In a sense, it can be said that war films laid the foundations of film history.

It's been a long time since a variety of war films, with completely different appeals and conveyances, have been making waves on screens, including Stanley Kubrick's ` `Full Metal Jacket '' (1987) and Christopher Nolan's `` Dunkirk '' (17). Among them, ``War Horse'' (11), which depicts World War I, is a work that captures the tragedy of war in detail, while also focusing on the gentle charm that resides in its corners.

What sets it apart from similar war films is that it depicts the harsh realities of war from an animal's perspective. Past war movies depict the lives of people in various situations, such as soldiers fighting on the harsh front lines or citizens caught up in war. However, in this work, animals are essentially placed as the protagonists, and the method of objectively depicting the many humans living on the battlefield, and the war itself, is precisely from the animal's perspective.

The film is based on British author Michael Morpurgo's children's novel `` War Horse '' (published by Hyoronsha) and the stage play of the same name based on that literature. The story depicts a young man, Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine), and his beloved horse, Joey, caught up in the flames of World War I, as they race against each other on a foreign battlefield.

Director Steven Spielberg read the original Morpurgo novel and also saw the well-received stage version. He was so impressed by Morpurgo's heartwarming writing style that he immediately set out to make it into a film. From the beginning of film history to the present, "war" has been an immortal theme treated in movies. ``War Horse'' borrows the perspective of an innocent animal and exposes a side of ``war'' that has not yet been seen.

Contact between different species that runs through Spielberg's works