tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post7090721048852245366..comments2024-03-27T21:42:56.131-05:00Comments on 1001plus: Seeing a Man About a HorseSJHoneywellhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comBlogger22125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-13751295756041712752017-08-07T13:13:11.063-05:002017-08-07T13:13:11.063-05:00I still think this is ultimately sentimental hogwa...I still think this is ultimately sentimental hogwash. This is Spielberg at his most Spielberg-y, and that doesn't usually fly for me. SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-73963579590526238692017-08-07T13:03:36.846-05:002017-08-07T13:03:36.846-05:00I finished War Horse last night. I don't usual...I finished War Horse last night. I don't usually stay up to 3 am to finish a movie, but I really wanted to see the end after I got off work. <br /><br />I really love most of the battle sequences as the film nears the end. The scene where Albie and his cannon fodder comrades are running across No Man's Land really show the idiocy of WWI tactics. My favorite depiction of WWI trench life is the fourth series of Blackadder, but it's also really well done in War Horse.<br /><br />And the scene with Joey running around, escaping a tank by running over the roof and then darting across the battlefield and getting stuck in the barbed wire. And the tommies and the jerries coming together to rescue him. It may be the best single scene ever from a WWI movie.<br /><br />Now that I've seen the whole thing, I can (almost) see why it's on the List. People remember the good stuff and forgot that much of the first hour was a load of bollocks. It makes me think of the people who think Saving Private Ryan is a great movie because the first forty minutes is awesome.Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17921029597363212734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-54745042809627655072017-08-07T03:08:13.112-05:002017-08-07T03:08:13.112-05:00Geez Louise! It's been over a year since I sai...Geez Louise! It's been over a year since I said I was going to watch it pretty soon. But I watched half of it before I went to work and I'm just about to finish it.<br /><br />It's dumb, but wondrously so. I roll my eyes a lot but it's never boring. Just stupid. (For example, I very much doubt that the German Army was in the habit of executing suspected deserters just minutes after finding them in a windmill in the middle of the night without a trial.)<br /><br />I have no idea what this is doing on a list of movies that YOU MUST SEE BEFORE YOU DIE! Spielberg is one of the directors lucky enough to have a worshipper among the editors.<br /><br />I should add that I'm a sucker for World War I movies. I don't think I've ever seen one that was so bad that I didn't find something to like about it. (Scratch that. As I was typing this, I remembered Legends of the Fall.) Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17921029597363212734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-50614625340517109432016-06-30T08:58:02.648-05:002016-06-30T08:58:02.648-05:00Good luck with this one. It's worth noting tha...Good luck with this one. It's worth noting that the critical praise for this is substantially better than what I have to say about it or what most of the commenters here have had to say about it. SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-40442394859279688302016-06-29T20:29:56.389-05:002016-06-29T20:29:56.389-05:00I will probably be seeing this pretty soon because...I will probably be seeing this pretty soon because I decided to start trying to watch more of the recent films from the 1001 List that I haven't already seen and <b>War Horse</b> is one of the films readily available at the local library.<br /><br />I'm wondering how many people know about a 1934 film called <b>Keep 'Em Rolling</b>, a film about an artillery sergeant whose love for his horse helps him keep it together during World War I. It has two things going for it that (to me) make it sound a lot more inviting than <b>War Horse</b>: Walter Huston is the artillery sergeant; and it's only 69 minutes. I watched it on AMC more than 20 years ago and it's one of the movies that comes to mind when the discussion turns to World War I movies. Tonyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17921029597363212734noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-8487678707262413952012-10-24T17:22:31.221-05:002012-10-24T17:22:31.221-05:00Tough scene, but an important one. It tells us eve...Tough scene, but an important one. It tells us everything about Homer that we need to know.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-92221739791587242092012-10-24T17:21:44.904-05:002012-10-24T17:21:44.904-05:00For the number of people who seemed to like this f...For the number of people who seemed to like this film, I'm a bit surprised that all of the comments so far have echoed my sentiments.<br /><br />Evidently, "Other Horse" is actually named Topthorn.<br /><br />@Chip--exactly. I'm not sure who the intended audience for this film actually was.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-80320596831661145122012-10-24T16:37:45.940-05:002012-10-24T16:37:45.940-05:00This was one of the 2011 Oscar Best Picture nomine...This was one of the 2011 Oscar Best Picture nominees that I didn't write a full review of because I didn't feel it was good enough to recommend. It was a combination of cute kid's movie about a boy and his horse, and a gritty war movie. The combination of the two just didn't work for me. And only Spielberg could have gotten a PG-13 rating for this film with crowds of men and horses getting mowed down my machine gun fire. It's R level violence meant I wouldn't recommend it to kids, and its sappy, only-for-kids animal story meant I wouldn't recommend it to adults.Chip Laryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-1104581013535237872012-10-24T14:54:12.250-05:002012-10-24T14:54:12.250-05:00Adolytsi - Yeah, I've seen Hud. Yeah, I know ...Adolytsi - Yeah, I've seen Hud. Yeah, I know the scene you're talking about. Yeah, I'll NEVER be watching Hud again. It was awful. Just... awful. Good movie, but I can't bring myself to go through that again. It was devastating.siochembiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11487373396181856763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-73790600590831622392012-10-24T14:48:48.210-05:002012-10-24T14:48:48.210-05:00Just re: your comment about watching films with an...Just re: your comment about watching films with animals, I thought I'd give you a little forewarning about one of the list's films I watched recently: Hud, with Paul Newman. There's a scene in the middle that will utterly destroy you; I actually had to stop the movie just to sit back and go "whoa", it was that intense.Adolytsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12266038228108057617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-87430801156997527042012-10-24T14:45:17.491-05:002012-10-24T14:45:17.491-05:00Pretty much exactly as my review went, only with a...Pretty much exactly as my review went, only with added humor; I laughed every time you mentioned "Other Horse", and I wouldn't have known its name either if it weren't for Wikipedia's page on the film.Adolytsihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12266038228108057617noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-18416451651477331322012-10-24T13:06:55.706-05:002012-10-24T13:06:55.706-05:00You are okay with it. If I weren't a list comp...You are okay with it. If I weren't a list completist, I probably would have skipped it. I really had no interest in it, particularly since I had the ending pretty close to pegged before I started the DVD spinning.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-91134025640199531622012-10-24T11:42:32.724-05:002012-10-24T11:42:32.724-05:00Given my hatred for overt manipulation, combined w...Given my hatred for overt manipulation, combined with my crippling emotional inability to watch films about animals, I think I shall be skipping this one. And I am OK with that.<br /><br />Nice review. Made me laugh. And totally spot on re: Spielberg. His stuff works really well... for some films. But when he's trying too hard, it just FEELS like he's trying too hard.siochembiohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11487373396181856763noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-18647912898878306502012-10-24T11:21:25.690-05:002012-10-24T11:21:25.690-05:00You're pretty safe not seeing it, regardless o...You're pretty safe not seeing it, regardless of its supposed importance.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-66504496109685170262012-10-24T11:20:58.759-05:002012-10-24T11:20:58.759-05:00Well, he's the most specialest horse ever ever...Well, he's the most specialest horse ever ever ever! How could you not fall in love with it or see his qualities?<br /><br />Anyway, I prefer Penelope Cruz.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-89888738237958207972012-10-24T08:15:15.734-05:002012-10-24T08:15:15.734-05:00This is precisely why I have avoided watching it s...This is precisely why I have avoided watching it so far. Robert M. Lindseyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04859539802875463995noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-17109376121283068922012-10-24T07:38:26.502-05:002012-10-24T07:38:26.502-05:00I just remember liking the sequence where the hors...I just remember liking the sequence where the horse it trapped in the barbed wire and the two dudes from opposing armies come out to help it. Schmaltz or not, that was a good section of the film.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08092564511948736386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-29737281601132974422012-10-24T06:17:52.246-05:002012-10-24T06:17:52.246-05:00I hated this film. Like passionately hated. Manipu...I hated this film. Like passionately hated. Manipulative? Absolutely. But how many times can we watch a horse lose his owner, only to be found by someone who looks at the beast and immediately falls in love? Seriously. Recast Angelina Jolie as the horse and nothing changes. 100 Years of Movieshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05576004166082807745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-27804816802108180102012-10-24T01:28:14.723-05:002012-10-24T01:28:14.723-05:00But with the cheese, that horse is a step away fro...But with the cheese, that horse is a step away from being Jesus the Horse, no?SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-80287639289891608852012-10-23T23:41:05.600-05:002012-10-23T23:41:05.600-05:00This was so bloody sappy. It was probably my most ...This was so bloody sappy. It was probably my most hated film of last year. I mean if you cut the cheese, that horse (however pretty) was like the horse of death. And do not get me started on that score.Nikhathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10379713171889712078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-77467425153010264292012-10-23T23:29:27.192-05:002012-10-23T23:29:27.192-05:00Yeah, I can see that, although I disagree about an...Yeah, I can see that, although I disagree about an hour of really good. I thought it was schmaltz for pretty much the whole running time.SJHoneywellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13550007053995112090noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3166297507174717122.post-175417816104680372012-10-23T23:05:29.848-05:002012-10-23T23:05:29.848-05:00I think I told you this before... but I felt the f...I think I told you this before... but I felt the film was an hour and a half of silly schmaltz, an hour of really good, and then a terrible last 5-10 minutes. And all throughout, it was just Sunsets: The Movie.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08092564511948736386noreply@blogger.com