Watch the Official Trailer for Steven Spielberg's 'War Horse'
Are we looking at a Best Picture winner?
The official trailer for Steven Spielberg's sure-to-be-Oscar-contender War Horse has arrived. Based on Michael Morpurgo's novel of the same name, the film is set against the backdrop of World War I and follows the extraordinary friendship between Albert (Jeremy Irvine) and his horse, Joey. The two are separated but their fates continue to intertwine over the course of WWI as Joey is sold into the British army and sent off to serve on the battlefields of France.
Earlier this month the stage play adaptation took home five Tony awards, including Best Play. Reporting on the play's Tony win over at BlackBookMag, Ben Barna seems quite confident the film is going to find similar success at the Oscars, declaring it a "lock to pick up a Best Picture nomination" and after the Tony wins saying it is now the "odds-on favorite" to win Best Picture. Bold Ben… bold.
Barna also adds the following statement:
[The] opening 27 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, when the allied troops storm the beaches at Normandy, remains some of the most visceral and brutally realistic filmmaking we’ve ever seen. There’s a part in War Horse where the title character finds himself in so-called No Man’s Land, that hellish purgatory between the enemy trenches on the WWI battlefields, and we’re jonesing to see what he can do with that kind of terror. Anyway, let the Oscar forecasting begin!
Wow, Ben sure seems to have confidence in his Oscar prognostication abilities, but it is also hard to disagree with him given Spielberg's history.
War Horse doesn't boast a cast of major Hollywood draws, but I suspect you'll recognize the majority of the names which include Emily Watson, Peter Mullan, David Thewlis, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Graham, Tom Hiddleston, Niels Arestrup, David Kross, Rainer Bock, Nicolas Bro and Robert Emms.
Check out the trailer below and tell me if you agree with Ben or if you aren't quite ready to hand the Oscar to Spielberg's film just yet. Just think, should War Horse take home a bunch of hardware this Oscar season Spielberg is following that up with Lincoln next year… He also has The Adventures of Tintin this December, which is to say the man is working his ass off.
From director Steven Spielberg comes War Horse, an epic adventure for audiences of all ages. Set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during the First World War, War Horse begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets — British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter — before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man's Land.
The First World War is experienced through the journey of this horse — an odyssey of joy and sorrow, passionate friendship and high adventure. War Horse is one of the great stories of friendship and war — a successful book, it was turned into a hugely successful international theatrical hit that is arriving on Broadway next year. It now comes to screen in an epic adaptation by one of the great directors in film history.
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Okay…it got the sappy side of me. I'll definitley see it this christmas. And it sounds like John Williams has still got it.
Looks pretty schmaltzy. With Lincoln coming next year I doubt this will win Best Picture…also, it will almost certainly be PG, and a PG film hasn't won Best Picture since Driving Miss Daisy.
I think it looks boring.
I fully respect your opinion as a blogger; however, I am a bit confused. The sweeping landscapes, the epic (and quite stunning) wide shots of war – what exactly was boring about this trailer? Just curious.
Thems the facts
I guess I just found it dull. Sure it has pretty shots but it looks bland to me.
Glad you respect my blog.
Spielberg seems to be making a lot of movies real quick. Perhaps he should slow down…
Holy crap! According to wikipedia this and Tin Tin are being released in December! 23th and 28th this year. Wonder what would happen if they both flopped.
Spielberg has a track record of releasing films within a year of each other AND of releasing multiple films within the same year.
1981-82 Raiders of the Lost Ark & E.T.
1993 Jurassic Park & Schindler's List
2002 Catch Me if You Can & Minority Report
2005 War of the Worlds & Munich
I think Spielberg is fully capable of delivering two Best Picture nominees in consecutive years.
Thems the facts
1. Spielberg
2. Movie about a horse
3. ??????
4. Profit and Oscar
Do I have that right?
This looks fantastic! Best Picture winner, I don't know, but it definitely looks worth seeing.
This might be incredibly premature but Spielberg might be going for the honor of being the first director to win two consecutive best director Oscars in a row in about 40 years. As far as I know only Mankiewicz and John Ford have achieved this feat.
i love the score.
whoa… this year's movies are awesome!
can Bridesmaids be nominated for Best Picture as well? :)
Richard Curtis learned everything he knows about cornball schmaltz from early Spielberg films…having him co-writing on one of Steve's films just can't be a good idea.
Beautiful to look at, but I hope they release a trailer with some hint of plot line soon. Tis was like watching the film version of a calendar.. Great shots, no context.
It looks like a Parody of an Oscar winning film. The painterly lighting and the parallel shots and the lingering on soulful eyes. It looks terrible. I was excited. Now I am genuinely worried.
Thank you! I can't believe no one else is seeing this!
Looks pretty good, much better than I originally thought it would. But it's wayyy too early for to tell about Oscar chances.
It looks very…. well, Spielbergian, although I'm having a hard time imagining how intense these "hellish purgatory" no-mans land scenes will be if the film is PG or even PG-13.
i don't understand all the hate! i think it looks amazing! something tells me that this is going to pack an emotional punch, to go along with some seriously beautiful visuals.
i for one am highly anticipating the release.
Jesus Christ, what the hell do you people want, the horse to get blown up.
Fuckin fanboys
Uh, One of the above comments said Spielberg seems to be making films too fast…why? because he has two films coming out in December that are completely different. Indy 4 was released in 08' he's been working since October 08' on TINTIN and WAR HORSE filming commenced September 10'how is that too quick. If you're passionate about a project (which he always is) then give this man a camera and get out of the way. In my humble opinion, Mr. Spielberg can do no wrong, even when he does see (INDY 4) forgiven. War Horse looks like it could be greatness btw.
Looks really boring, based off of the storyline it looks like the movie would be better severed if it was animated. Since it has the sappy feel good sense to it the animated route would do well, just make it PG and maybe even have the horse talk for the kids. Lately Spielberg's stuff hasn't done anything for me since Munich and that was a good few years ago. I think War Horse and The Adventures of Tintin are just going to be lackluster in terms of quality. Hopefully Lincoln next year will live up to its potential next year considering its great cast.
The score sounds amazing. Spielberg, horses, wars….I'll see it.
Sorry, but that reeked of pretension, something I very rarely complain about.
Good trailer, beautiful music and cinematography. I'm looking forward to seeing it.
Does anyone else think that War Horse looks like cheese? Seems like Golden Compass all over again. How you might ask.
To me, Albert and his relationship with the horse feels a lot like Lyra's relationship with Iorek.
lol
Okay, this is a morbid thought, but what will Steven Spielberg do if John Williams dies before he's done with his directing career?
Alan Silvestri?
Well Judy Moody may not think it's a bummer summer, but it hasn't exatly been memorable either – especially considering the major disappointments (to me anyway) which were Green Lantern & Transformers 3. However, the 2011 is not a complete loss. We've had quality films like Hanna, X-Men: First Class, Super 8, & even a modern masterpiece in The Tree Of Life.
And we still have the last Harry Potter, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and now WAR HORSE.
This trailer was simply stunning. It looks like the kind of sweeping epic that Steven Spielberg does so well. The beautiful and stark imagery, the soundtrack by John Williams – WOW! The shots of the advancing Germans and the British calvary charge were just amazing. Mission Impossible IV, War Horse, Girl With Dragon Tattoo – can Christmas get any better?
Thems the facts
Not to mention Shelock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.
As for the younglings? I suppose they'll be satisfied with Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked.
I'm just asking but why did you think transfrmers was a disappointment? If you hated the 2nd one then you shouldn't have had to high of expectations for the 3rd one and if you were one of the few liked the 2nd one, well then I can see how you hated this one because they aren't very similiar.
I'm just glad Spielberg's back to his directing roots, he's one of my top 2 fave directors of all-time. Nearly all his movies except Indiana Jones movies (I hate those movies, they are really boring to me) & Minority Report are excellent. Half of those movies, are in my fave films list. John Williams as well.
This looks pretty good not great but pretty good, when I see it (I will, i'm interested in this) maybe it'll be better than the preview. As for it being potential Best Picture Winner, we still got a few months left but it'll probably get a Best Picture nod, Oscars LOVE Spielberg. It looks good enough (to me) to be a Best Picture nominee.
The Adventures Of Tintin looks very good as well.
That screen capture at the top of the article looks like Gone with the Wind, only instead of Vivien Leigh, there's a horse. The trailer looks pretty corny, but the movie could still be good. It's certainly filmed beautifully. It is Spielberg so I'll be optimistic about this one.
if the horse dies i'm gunna weap…damn you spielberg
While the imagery, cinematography and score are undeniably stand-out, the nearly dialogue free trailer suggests what I feared most about this movie: that it will be light on dialogue. Yeah epics shots of a horse running through war is visually stunning but without strong character developed through dialogue I can see it becoming a little boring. I will definitely see it though and hope for the best.
This didn't do a lot for me, I have to say.
It wasn't really generating much interest for me prior to the trailer though I would have to confess.
It's a pretty bog-standard type trailer for the blatant Oscar-baiter War Horse is setting itself up as being.
I do not see how anyone could think this film could be a Best Picture contender from that trailer. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ