"War Horse": the buoyancy of hope

I saw the movie "War Horse" tonight. Honestly I hadn't been that interested in seeing it: the trailer played such an emphasis on the epic and dramatic that I feared it would be over-done. But because the film has been awarded several Oscar nominations - including Best Picture - I decided that I should see it.

It was a certainly a beautiful movie, well deserving of the Best Cinematography nomination. The colors were all very lush and vivid, giving it more the feel of the novel and play it was based on rather than of something trying to be realistically dramatic. It felt a little long, weaving together a slew of encounters and taking time for sweeping panoramic views or heart-felt close-ups, while the music pulled one along emotionally throughout. There may have been moments when it tried a little too hard to pull on one's heart-strings, almost going into the cliche. Yet overall it was a good movie in that it portrayed the harshness of war coupled with the buoyancy of hope. It came together in a classic sigh-happily-at-the-screen Hollywood ending. Cliche probably, but satisfying.

One scene struck me particularly. I won't give it away: I'll just say that it was a scene which brought two enemies together for a little bit, and as is any moment of peace in the savage muddle of war, it was lovely. As the two men worked together, suspicious and cautious at first, then almost becoming comrades as they began to be bound in a common goal, it made me think how no man ever wants to go to war and kill people. Men go to war because they want peace, not death. They go to war because they want liberty, freedom, and the pursuit of happiness, but not because they want another man's blood on their hands. In a fictional scene where two men worked together in the ravaged, bloody field between two armies, I could almost imagine the war dissolving right then. Those two men didn't want to kill each other. The men watching from the trenches didn't want to kill each other. Yet there they were. It makes one wonder: how is it that things can get so bad that men have to make weapons and fight against each other, everything only being called off when one side has finally had too many of their people die?

"War Horse" is an interesting film because it focuses on the one being who had absolutely no choice about war or anything relating to it. Joey, the horse, it thrown about here and there. You don't know what he's thinking except that he wants to be home. So the viewer roots for him, hopes for him. Faith, hope, and love: what else is there in wartime, or anytime? Just those three things. Yet they're enough.