War Horse [12A]

War Horse [12] Memorial Hall, Charlbury Sun 10th June: 7.30pm (doors/bar 6.45), £5

Steven Spielberg, arguably the most famous film director in the world, gives Daily Info’s Glenn Watson a few words about his latest film, War Horse. And takes us on a quick canter through the highs, lows and influences of his forty year career.

In making War Horse, what research did you do about the First World War?
I feel deeply responsible making a movie that touches on historical fact. So we did a lot of research beyond what you may perceive. One of the things I learned was the vast number of casualties among horses. This was the death knell of the horse, the end of the horse as an instrument of warfare. This was the era of the machine, the tank, the aeroplane, chemical warfare. It all converged on the First World War; a kind of experimental war.

Did you draw your inspiration more from the book or the stage play?
This is Michael Morpurgo’s baby but I drew more from Richard Curtis’ script. He was my principal writer throughout. I was very drawn to the way Richard saw the story. He didn’t want Albert to come back into the movie until very late. So we have a hiatus from our central character. We don’t see him again until the third act. That was something Richard brought to the equation.

It’s a very British film in both location and cast. What was it like shooting in Devon?
The Devon location has some of the most natural wonders in all of England – the tors are so beautiful. I’ve only seen something like that once and that was in New Zealand. We couldn’t believe it. The original script didn’t have the budget to allow us to go there – but we stretched it so that we could. It was worth every penny.

So were the beautiful skies in the film real or digital?
The skies and sunsets you see in the movie are the ones we experienced on set. But it took three days to shoot the sunset at the end of the film. I had this idea based on a spectacular sunset but I only got about five shots - the sun goes down awful fast in Devon. So we had to come back again and again to get matching skies.

In War Horse you seem to be showing your appreciation of your director-heroes.

Yes of course. John Ford, Howard Hawks, Raoul Walsh, Lewis Milestone, Victor Fleming, Michael Curtiz. Many more than that. The works of John Ford – How Green Was My Valley, The Quiet Man – are very evocative. He painted beautiful landscapes. That’s what the old directors did. They shot the land they were standing on and included it as part of the storytelling. It’s fun putting on a wide angle lens and not having to shoot close-ups.

Do you consider War Horse to be a war film (since it feels much more than that)?
I don’t see it as a war story. It’s not like Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. There’s hardly any blood in it; only about 15 minutes of combat. I wanted families to see this picture. In Private Ryan I was trying to acquit the actual testimonies of the young men that fought on D-Day. I took a different approach with War Horse.

You seem to have a special interest in making historical films.
Europeans are closer to history than we Americans are. Social media has taken over to such an extent in America that even to get my own kids to look back a week is a miracle - let alone a hundred years. History was the only thing I did well at school. I’m not ashamed to admit I wasn’t a good student. But I was great at history.

Many of your films are about ‘the common man’. Is the horse symbolic of that here?
You’ve asked a wonderful question. That’s something I thought about a lot and is part of my thematic raison d’etre for getting involved in War Horse. Joey represents common sense. Good question.

How did you keep the animals safe when shooting the film?
Nothing was ever done to put the animals under stress. That was important to all of us. If I had a crazy idea, the trainer would say “I can do that safely” or “I can’t do that safely”. The Humane Society were there every day. I said to them, you’ve got the power over me. If you ever see an animal under any kind of duress you can say ‘cut’ and stop the take.

Looking back on your career, where did it all start to go right for you?
The turning point was Jaws. Before Jaws I was a director for hire. Afterwards I could do any movie I wanted. Hollywood just wrote me a cheque. I wanted to make a movie about flying saucers but nobody wanted to make it before Jaws. Thought I was crazy and wouldn’t give me the time of day. When Jaws was a hit, everyone said “What about that mothership movie?”

You’ve also famously worked with very new and young actors, as you do here.
I’m accustomed to working with actors with no experience. Drew Barrymore in ET, Christian Bale in Empire of the Sun. I trust their authenticity. My job is to get them to be themselves. Often you get a newcomer in front of the camera and they freeze up. Or imitate other performances they’ve admired. My job as director is to return them to what I first saw in them. An uncensored human being.

In a time of financial crisis, is Hollywood preoccupied with money and budgets?
It might look that way if you read the papers. The media is obsessed with business, numbers and studios. But as filmmakers we don’t feel that way. We just go off and tell our stories. And it’s the same torture we endure as our forefathers endured making movies in the golden era.

So how do you choose which films to direct?
It sounds glib but they choose me. I don’t go through a tortuous intellectual process. I know what I want to direct when it grabs me in a certain way. Then I spend the next six months trying to talk myself out of it. Kathleen my producer tries to trap me. She knows I want to make it so she starts spending money so I’ll have to do it.

Do you ever feel like stopping? Are there ever any ‘downs’ for Steven Spielberg?
The perceived downs are about managing my time. Feeling I haven’t enough time for my family and friends. I have seven children. When my career gets me in a chokehold so that I can’t see my kids’ soccer games or horse races that really depresses me. Everything else you take with a grain of salt. Your movie does well or it doesn’t do well. You move through that.

But your daughter had a hand in you taking on War Horse didn’t she?
My daughter Destry has been competitively riding for about eleven years. We love horses and have ten of them at home. My wife rides dressage. When Destry heard Kathy had found the book - and the play - of War Horse, and before I saw it, she said you have to make it…‘for me’!

Why do think John Williams’ music suits your films so much?
John and I have worked together for forty years this year, starting on Sugarland Express in 1972. In about three months, he’ll score my next film, Lincoln. John’s the most important collaborator I’ve ever had. Other collaborators don’t get singled out for credit – even though my films wouldn’t have the same impact without them. But John’s music immediately goes straight to the heart.

Glenn Watson (DI Reviewer), 15/01/12

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Film Review Sunsets as wide as a John Ford sky set the tone for Steven Spielberg’s War Horse. Nostalgic and lyrical, this is no Saving Private Horse. Avoiding bloodshed and cloying sentiment, Spielberg creates a finely judged family film that neither spares us nor shows us the horrors of war. Referencing his film-directing heroes John Ford and Howard Hawks, Spielberg deftly displays his own originality.

War Horse, adapted from Michael Morpurgo’s novel, is the story of Joey: a working horse owned by Albert, a Devon teenager on the eve of the First World War. Albert (newcomer Jeremy Irvine) is dismayed when the horse is seized and deployed to the battlefields of France. Passing to the care of kindly Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), Joey’s journey is only just beginning. Amid the clamour of war, will he ever find his way back home?

True to the spirit of Morpurgo’s book – and finding a cameo for its writer – War Horse stops short of being narrated by the nag. Instead, the film is seen through Joey’s eyes. Across war-torn landscapes and encountering German troops and a French family, we experience the vicissitudes of the human heart.

Hope – Spielberg’s favourite theme – shines through. In Schindler’s List, Munich and Saving Private Ryan, it was hard won. In War Horse, the touch is lighter, relying less on intensity and more on sleight of hand. Like Duel and Jaws, the power is visual not verbal.

No one overturns expectations like Spielberg, for serious or comedic effect. A cavalry charge thunders heroically towards the guns. As the horses reach the treeline the perspective profoundly changes. Racing Joey alongside a love-rival’s car, Albert’s ego is promptly upended. In Tintin, Jurassic Park and Raiders, it’s done for fun. Here, it drives the narrative; it shows, instead of telling.

Blackadder Goes Forth provided British television audiences with the most memorably poignant remembrance of the trenches of recent years. So Spielberg cleverly nicked its co-writer, Richard Curtis (Love Actually), to script Morpurgo’s tale. To Spielberg, it’s a British story, cast and voiced accordingly. Pared down, alive to the nuances of British language and humour, War Horse certainly rings true. A Geordie British Tommie meets a German soldier in no man’s land to free an entangled horse. Poignant and wryly funny, it typifies Spielberg’s aim for authenticity: not many blockbuster movies have jokes about South Shields.

Benedict Cumberbatch (Sherlock; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy) and Tom Hiddleston (Thor, Wallander) – formerly of Oxford’s Dragon School - effectively evoke the brittle heroism of the soldier class. Newcomer Jeremy Irvine is a touch wooden as Albert, called on to show little more than puppy dog love for a horse. But the ever-reliable Eddie Marsan, as an irascible sergeant, lends realism to the ending.

The film is stunningly shot by Spielberg’s long-time cinematographer Janusz Kaminski. War Horse glows with sunsets and rural colours, then explodes with earthy textures as the world turns inside out. Exhilarating movement - Joey barrelling down a trench or leaping over a tank, the cavalry charge – contrasts with quiet detail as a child’s entrance is reflected in a horse’s eye.

Less is more with Spielberg. Adapting a children’s book about an animal in peril, you might expect the sentimentality which marred Schindler’s List and Private Ryan. Mercifully not. Rather, Spielberg achieves an almost perfect distillation of everything that’s best about his art, matched by John Williams’ haunting score.

‘But isn’t it sad?’ some would-be watchers have asked. In places, yes. But ultimately, War Horse is an understated, beautiful film about loyalty, courage and hope by a director at the peak of his powers.

Glenn Watson (DI Reviewer), 12/01/12

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