The silhouette of a horse is framed against a a background of hazy mist and moonlight as it speeds across a battlefield. Bullets whiz past, while cannonballs rain down from above, narrowly missing it. Fast-paced music is heard in the background while the horse races on, with no clear destination in mind. Such an image is one of many in the film “War Horse,” written by Richard Curtis and Lee Hall, based on the book “War Horse” by Michael Morpurgo; and directed by Steven Spielberg. The movie has received positive reviews, and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound Editing, and Best Sound Mixing. Entertaining and riveting, the movie was enjoyable to watch. Spielberg, at the age of 65, is still able to create a compelling film, which manages to entertain the audience while also conveying a deeper meaning.

“War Horse”  takes place in England immediately preceding and then during the course of World War I. A man named Ted Narracott (Peter Mullan) purchases a horse in the town of Devon, England. His son Albert (Jeremy Irvine) immediately falls in love with it, and names it Joey. The two spend a lot of time together, and form a tight bond. But one day, due to a shortage of money, the Narracott family is forced to sell it. Joey is sold to a soldier named Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston), who intends to use him as a war horse in the coming war against the Germans, which has just begun. We then follow Joey as he sets off to battle. But soon, Captain Nicholls is killed, and Joey moves on to other places. First he goes to the Germans, where he is used to pull an ambulance wagon; then to a young French girl named Emilie (Celine Buckens) and her grandfather ((Niels Arestrup), who grow to care for him; to then being taken by the Germans once again and used to pull heavy artillery; where he spends the next several years. At this time, Albert, who is now old enough, has also come to fight in the war. One of his main motivations for doing so is to find Joey, who he believes is still alive somewhere. He searches far and wide for his horse, determined to be reunited one day.

There have been times in the past when the main focus of a film was on an animal, such as with the classic Lassie or the film Black Beauty. To make the audience feel emotion for something that is not human must be a difficult thing to do. But nothing is too hard for the legendary Steven Spielberg. He is able to breathe life into non-humans with what seems to be a great ease, having done it in the past several times already with an alien in E.T., and a robot boy in A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Spielberg easily erases the notion that it is just a horse, and is able to get the viewer inside Joey’s head, even to understand his emotions when events occur around him.

“War Horse” doesn’t focus so much on the fighting and the battles of war, but instead chooses to dive deeper into the development of its many supporting characters. As we follow Joey around from the British side, to the Germans, to a French family living in the countryside, we are able to get a feel for the existence of humanity, no matter where we are. We are also able to see the effect war has on everybody around it, even to those that are not involved in the actual fighting. Despite a negative attitude to the Germans, due to them being the enemy, the they are not made out to be a purely evil force. They are people who have come to fight for their country, just like the British or the French. This can be seen at one point when Joey gets caught in barbed wire in the middle of a battlefield. A British soldier goes out on the field to attempt to free him, and is soon joined by a German soldier, who helps him out. The two form an unlikely bond, and talk to each other in a friendly manner, despite the fact that they are sworn enemies who have come here to fight.

Set among the rolling hills and wide-spanning green landscapes of rural England and France, “War Horse” seems to instill a contradictory impression.  It is hard to imagine why people would fight each other among the magnificent scenery surrounding them. As usual in almost all of Spielberg’s films, John Williams provides the soundtrack. His music sets the pace of the film, starting from when we first meet Joey, and we hear some light, happy tones; to the epic battle-scenes that follow, where the music, frantic and busy, sets the viewer on edge. There are some particularly impressive scenes here that perfectly combine the music with the events currently taking place, such as the battle between the British cavalry on horseback versus the Germans hiding in the trees with machine guns. Such scenes, while masterly created, also seem to express the growing destructiveness of war. The British, who fight on horseback with swords, feel that they have the upper hand from the Germans on foot. However, they soon discover how wrong they are when they are over-powered by machine guns, and quickly lose the battle. As old ways of fighting become obsolete, newer, more deadly methods are now the norm. This is a foreshadowing of even more powerful machinery used decades later in World War II, when the invention of heavy bombs and the use of air fighting made killing all the more effective.

Yet, despite the fact that “War Horse” takes place during World War I, and that there are several scenes that show battles of this war, it is not an unpleasant experience. The battle scenes are not gruesome or bloody, and we rarely see a character die on screen. The underlying concept of the film is about a boy trying to find his horse. As such, it is easily accessible for any audience. It is a film with heart, that entertains the viewers while also opening their eyes to the horrors of warfare. It’s hard not to shed a tear when we finally come to the end, and happily look on when we find boy and horse united at last.