War Horse is a sweeping epic that traces the journey of an especially spirited horse and its series of owners before and during World War I. It’s not a critical spoiler to let you know that the horse survives, although its various handlers are all savaged by war.
It’s a movie that we could have seen in the 1950s – but a very, very good 1950s movie. The story is sentimental, but neither simple nor dully plotted. The movie is beautifully composed and shot, and many scenes recall John Ford’s use of landscapes and action. The silhouettes and sky in the final shot are lit as in the similar climax of Gone With the Wind.
War Horse is also one of the better movies about World War I, of which the central fact was its massive, brutally stupid waste of lives on a thereto unimagined scale. Along the way we see clear and accurate depictions of trench warfare, No Man’s Land, foraging, and the relative utility of cavalry, infantry, artillery, machine guns, and tanks. Spielberg doesn’t distract us from the overall horror with unnecessary gore.