War Horse (film)
Encyclopedia
War Horse is a 2011 British-American war
drama film
directed by Steven Spielberg
and is intended for release in the United States on 25 December 2011 and in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012. It is based on both War Horse, a children's novel
set during World War I
, by British author Michael Morpurgo
, first published in the United Kingdom
in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation of the same name
.
The cast includes David Thewlis
, Benedict Cumberbatch
, Jeremy Irvine
, Emily Watson
, Tom Hiddleston
and Peter Mullan
. The film is produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, and executive produced by Frank Marshall and Revel Guest
. Long term Spielberg collaborators Janusz Kamiński
, Michael Kahn
and John Williams
all worked on the film.
at the outbreak of World War I
, Joey, young Albert Narracott's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry
and shipped to France
. He serves in the British
and German
armies, which takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before being alone in No Man's Land
.
where he lived. One had been with the Devon Yeomanry, and was involved with horses; another veteran in his village, Captain Budgett, was with the cavalry
and told Morpurgo how he had confided all his hopes and fears to his horse. Both told him of the horrific conditions and loss of life, human and animal, during the Great War. A third man remembered the army coming to the village to buy horses for the war effort: horses were used for cavalry, and as draught animals, pulling guns, ambulances and other vehicles. Morpurgo researched the subject further and learned that a million horses died on the British side; he extrapolated an overall figure of 10 million horse deaths on all sides. Of the million horses that were sent abroad from the UK, only 62,000 returned, the rest dying in the war or slaughtered in France for meat. The Great War had a massive and indelible impact on the male population of the UK: 886,000 men died, one in eight of those who went to war, and 2% of the entire country's population.
After observing a young boy with a stammer
forming a fond relationship with and talking fluently to a horse at a farm run by Morpurgo's charity Farms for City Children
, Morpurgo found a way to tell the story, through the horse and its relations with the various people it meets before and during the course of the war: a young Devon
farmboy, a British cavalry officer, a German soldier, and an old Frenchman and his grand-daughter.
Morpurgo tried to adapt the book into a film screenplay, working over five years with Simon Channing-Williams
, but in the end they had to admit defeat. The book was successfully adapted for a stageplay
by Nick Stafford
in 2007. To work dramatically, the story could not be told solely through the viewpoint of the horse (as it was in the book), and so the film version with a screenplay by Richard Curtis
and Lee Hall
will be based on the narrative approach of the stageplay more than that of the book. Unlike the play with its puppet horses, the film uses real horses.
in London's West End
with her husband, fellow producer Frank Marshall and their two daughters. They were very impressed by the story and Marshall has recalled how he was amazed that no-one had already bought the film rights
to the book. Steven Spielberg
was told about War Horse by several people, including Kennedy, who was his colleague at Amblin Entertainment
. It was announced on 16 December 2009 that DreamWorks had acquired the film rights for the book, with Spielberg stating: "From the moment I read Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make ... Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country."
Spielberg saw the London production of the play on 1 February 2010 and met some of the cast afterwards. He admitted to being moved to tears by the performance.
Following the success of the stage production, Morpurgo had again tried to develop the book into a screenplay, this time working with Lee Hall
, who commented that "Weirdly the week that we finished it [the screenplay], Spielberg expressed an interest, we sent him the script, and within a couple of weeks he'd decided he was going to make the film – it was one of those situations that never happens in the world of film."
DreamWorks Studio executive Stacey Snider suggested Richard Curtis
to work on rewrites for the screenplay: she had worked with Curtis during her time at Universal Studios
, and his work on the World War I-set BBC television series Blackadder Goes Forth
meant he was already familiar with the period. Curtis was initially reluctant to take part, but on meeting Spielberg for the first time they got on so well that Curtis rethought and committed to work on the script. Curtis has stated that the screenplay is closer to the book than the play, and that 'the existence of the play itself helped him "be brave" about his own adaptation.'
Having previously only been slated to produce the film, Spielberg decided to direct "the second I read his first draft. It happened faster than anything else we've [Spielberg and Snider] done together." It was announced that Spielberg was to direct the film on 3 May 2010; the cast was announced on 17 June 2010. Speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival
in April 2011, actor Peter Mullan
said that he took the part not just because Spielberg was directing, but also because of the 'beautiful script, really nice script'.
According to an account of the book, play and film's development by Michael Morpurgo, within weeks of hearing from Kennedy about the London theatre production, Spielberg had "seen the play, met the cast, visited the Imperial War Museum
and decided this would be his next film. In the weeks that followed he worked with Lee Hall and Richard Curtis on the script, and within months the film was being made".
Spielberg has directed six films set during or just before World War II
(1941
, Raiders of the Lost Ark
, Empire of the Sun
, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
, Schindler's List
, and Saving Private Ryan
), and has produced two others, Flags of Our Fathers
and Letters from Iwo Jima
, as well as producing two major television series set during this period, Band of Brothers and The Pacific. In contrast, War Horse is Spielberg's first foray into World War I storytelling, as Spielberg admitted that prior to learning about the War Horse book and play "I had never been that interested in World War I". Kathleen Kennedy elaborated on the appeal of the story: "In cinema we've told very few stories about World War I and I think that's one of the things that attracted us to this ... It's a forgotten war in the United States, and that had a very powerful effect on Steven and I."
Dr David Kenyon and Andy Robertshaw of Battlefield Partnerships were military advisors on the film.
had been cast in the lead part as Albert Narracott; however, relatively unknown stage actor Jeremy Irvine
was chosen instead. Spielberg commented after seeing hundreds of young boys reading for the role, Irvine had come in and done a cold reading and that "his performance was very natural, very authentic." Irvine auditioned for two months, going in two or three times a week, and learned that he had the part when he was asked to read a piece of War Horse script on camera in order to check his West Country accent
, and the piece of mocked-up script that he read out was Albert was telling Joey that Steven Spielberg wanted him to play the part.
The cast is European, with British, French and German actors playing British, French and German characters respectively. Robert Emms
, who played the lead of Albert Narracott in the West End production of the play, was cast as David Lyons.
Casting for extras
took place in Devon in late July 2010. The grand-daughter of Captain Budgett, one of the World War I veterans who had inspired Morpurgo to write the story, acted as an extra in scenes filmed in Castle Combe, and Morpurgo himself filmed a cameo role.
Prior to the start of filming, some of the actors underwent two months of intensive horse training.
Filming of War Horse began with the cavalry scenes being filmed at Stratfield Saye House
in north Hampshire
, the estate of the Duke of Wellington
, where incidentally Wellington's war horse "Copenhagen" is buried. Here a cavalry charge involving 130 extras was filmed. Filming on location on Dartmoor
, Devon
started in August 2010. Dartmoor locations included the small villages of Meavy
and Sheepstor
, Burrator Reservoir
, and near Widecombe-in-the-Moor
. Ditsworthy Warren House
, an isolated Grade II listed building near Sheepstor on Dartmoor served as the Narracott family's farmhouse.
On 11 September 2010 the annual Dartmoor Yomp
was re-routed to allow filming to continue undisturbed. Spielberg praised the beauty of the Dartmoor countryside: "I have never before, in my long and eclectic career, been gifted with such an abundance of natural beauty as I experienced filming War Horse on Dartmoor ... And, with two-and-a-half weeks of extensive coverage of landscapes and skies, I hardly scratched the surface of the visual opportunities that were offered to me."
Although Devon rural locations were used, scenes in the main village in the story were filmed at the Wiltshire
village of Castle Combe
, despite the vernacular architecture
of Devon (predominantly cob walls and thatched roofs
) being very different from that of Wiltshire (stone walls and stone tiled roofs). Filming began there on 21 September 2010 and continued until 1 October 2010. Some residents of Castle Combe were angered by the imposition of tightened security within the village, claiming they could not enter the village without waiting at perimeter barriers until breaks in filming.
After Castle Combe, the production moved on to Wisley Airfield
in Surrey, where No Man's Land
battlefield scenes were filmed. Shooting of wartime camp scenes also took place for about two weeks from 4 October 2010 at Bourne Wood
near Farnham in Surrey, a frequent location for filming. On 13–14 October 2010 scenes were shot at the stately home
Luton Hoo
. Filming was also scheduled to be undertaken at Caerwent
in Wales. The film shoot was completed in the last week of October 2010, with the entire movie, French scenes included, being shot in the UK. Studio filming was undertaken at Longcross Studios, Chertsey in Surrey and at Twickenham Film Studios
.
The author of the book on which the film is based, Michael Morpurgo, visited the set while filming was being undertaken: "Spielberg’s a wonderful storyteller and a kid. He adores stories and that’s what he’s best at. It’s extraordinary to meet someone with that kind of enthusiasm, utterly unspoiled ... When I went to visit him on set, he was clearly enthralled by the countryside. He fell for Devon in a big way. He was warm, kind and open, and utterly without ego ... Spielberg was like a conductor with a very light baton. He hardly had to wave it at all. I was in awe.” Emily Watson
also praised Spielberg's approach: "It was intimate, passionate and about the acting. And every single priority that as an actor that you would want to be there was there. It felt very real and focused." ... On set, he'd come in, in the morning, and say, 'I couldn't sleep last night. I was worrying about this shot!' Which was great! He's human and he's still working in an impassioned way, like a 21-year-old, trying to make the best out of everything."
For lead actor Jeremy Irvine, starring in his first film role, the filming process was intense at times, in particular the scene where the British cavalry, 130 horses in total and many hundeds of extras, charged the German machine gun lines. He explained: "It’s the weapons of the old world — our men on horses — meeting the absolute destruction of these tools of mass slaughter. There was this line of machine guns and there’s this wall of lead coming out of these guns. There were real explosions at my feet, bodies flying through the air, stunt men getting shot at. It was terrifying. The smoke and the smell and the taste of the guns firing. It’s not difficult to act scared in that situation. There’s no doubt this was deliberate: not only to have the film look great, but to have that effect on the actors. It was an eye-opening scene."
When actor Peter Mullan
won the award for Best Film
at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
in Spain for Neds, the film he wrote, directed and in which he acted, Spielberg insisted that Mullan should attend the ceremony on 26 September 2010 to accept his award in person, and re-arranged the War Horse shooting schedule accordingly.
Spielberg commented on how he and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński
developed the 'look' of the film: "...it doesn't feel like Ryan
at all ... it has a much more daguerrotype feel, much more brownish. We're not using any of the techniques we used on Ryan. The only similarity is that it is war and it is handheld
."
During filming in the UK thirteen different horses were used as the main horse character Joey, ten of them portraying him as an adult animal; four horses played the other main equine character, Topthorn. A farrier
was on set to replace horseshoes sucked off in the mud during filming, and the horses playing the main horse characters had a specialist equine make-up team, with their coats dyed and markings added to ensure continuity. Equine artist Ali Bannister was responsible for the 'hair and make-up' of the horses, as well as drawing the sketches of horses that are featured in the film. Extra filming involving a bay foal took place in California in March 2011. Working with horses on this scale was a new experience for Spielberg, who commented: "The horses were an extraordinary experience for me, because several members of my family ride. I was really amazed at how expressive horses are and how much they can show what they’re feeling."
spoke of his work on the film: "We have some shots in War Horse that are just fantastic ... We shot it in Devon, and you know it's gorgeous down there, and the horses are beautiful and the farms are beautiful, beautiful scenery and every shot is gorgeous, and eventually you get to the war part of it and it's really, really something." Kahn had a trailer on set and edited the film during filming. Kahn and Spielberg cut the film digitally on an Avid
, rather than on film, a first time with this technology for Spielberg: "He decided that he’d like to try it", Kahn commented.
After filming, further editing was undertaken in the UK at Twickenham Film Studios, with the production moving back to the US in November 2010. Kahn also said of his work on the film: "We put together here in Hollywood. It worked well ... Those English actors are awfully good and so were the horses. The horses were beautifully trained. For an editor there were a lot of match [frame] problems with the horses but the shooting was so good that I got everything I needed.”
The film score by John Williams
was recorded in late March and early April 2011. Tuba player Jim Self reported in May 2011: "For John Williams I [sic] recently finished recording for the film War Horse. It's a war movie so the score has a lot of brass — but it was gentile [sic] music often." English folk singer John Tams
, who wrote the songs for the stage production of War Horse, was approached by Spielberg and Williams about including one of his songs from the stageshow in the film. In the liner notes to the film soundtrack cd
, Spielberg wrote "I feel that John has made a special gift to me of this music, which was inspired not only by my film but also by many of the picturesque settings of the poet William Wordsworth
, whose vivid descriptions of the British landscape inspired much of what you are going to hear." In the premiere of three of the tracks on New York radio station WQXR
’s "Movies on the Radio", broadcaster David Garland drew parallels with the work of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams
.
Visual effects
for the film were undertaken by Framestore, a London-based company. According to Spielberg, the only digital effects in the film are three shots lasting three seconds, which were undertaken to ensure the safety of the horse involved: "That's the thing I'm most proud of. Everything you see on screen really happened." Kathleen Kennedy elaborated, stating "We really did it very naturalistically. There isn't a lot of blood. Steven wasn't interested in bringing Private Ryan
into it, but we did want to make a PG-13 movie." Actor Tom Hiddleston
said of the film that Spielberg had "seen the stage play and he wanted to retain the magic and heartbeat of that ... It's a moving, powerful story you can take children to see, but it is still very upsetting ... People die, and it is war."
Only a very few unofficial on-set photographs and clips of video footage were published in the press and online during the filming period. Due to the usual embargo on photographs and videos being taken and made public during Spielberg shoots, very few photographs emerged, with the majority being snatched paparazzi shots. In October 2010 Spielberg's cinematographer on the film, Janusz Kamiński
, put an on-set photograph of himself on a battlefield set on his Facebook page. The first ten official photographs were made public by DreamWorks in several releases between 11 and 14 March 2011, in Empire
magazine, in an article in the Daily Mail
and in an article in Entertainment Weekly
. On 16 March 2011 a British blogger published an account of her unofficial visit to the War Horse set at Ditsworthy Warren House
, and despite the security on-set, was able to take photographs of the interior of the set and of Steven Spielberg. On 29 March 2011 DreamWorks presented behind-the-scenes footage, introduced on film by Spielberg, to theatre owners at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Spielberg was unable to attend in person as he was still working on the post-production of the film.
On 29 June 2011 the first official teaser trailer for the film was released, and the official website was launched. On its launch, the website was rather a sparse affair, with just the official trailer and synopis, and only two of the ten previously-released official photographs. Further footage, introduced on film by Spielberg, was shown at the Empire magazine 'Big Screen' event in London in August 2011. Jeremy Irvine talked about his experiences making the film at the same event. The full theatrical trailer was released on 4 October 2011, and more on-set photographs were released on 17 November 2011.
The publicity strategy for War Horse unusually featured preview screenings for the public in US heartland areas before either the critics were shown the film or it was screened to the public in major metropolitan areas. The first preview screenings of War Horse were held at various locations across the U.S. on 1, 2 and 10 November 2011. Military veterans
in Canada were invited to seven different screenings on 16 November, in honour of Remembrance Day
. More preview screenings in the US took place on 27 November, with Spielberg attending a question and answer session at the New York screening that was beamed to the other screening cinemas and shown live on the internet. Preview screenings in the UK have been scheduled for early December.
Press screenings for critics were first held in New York and Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 2011, although there was an embargo on official reviews being published at that time. On 27 November there was a special screening in London for the crew and cast, the first time anyone involved with the film (apart from Spielberg and his close collaborators) had seen it.
Three television advertisements for the film were released in the US on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 2011, shortly followed by four others.
The world premiere of the film will be held on Sunday 4 December at the Avery Fisher Hall
of the Lincoln Center
in New York, where the Tony award winning Broadway production of the play of War Horse
is currently playing in the neighbouring Vivian Beaumont Theatre
.
on 3 November. Although there is an embargo on official reviews of the film being published before 21 December 2011, reviews started appearing in mainstream press such as The Daily Telegraph
from 26 November onwards.
in London, which runs from 22 October 2011 until August 2012. A Channel 4
documentary inspired by the film and telling the true-life stories of horses sent from the UK to the battlefields of World War I is planned.
War film
War films are a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. At times war films focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles...
drama film
Drama film
A drama film is a film genre that depends mostly on in-depth development of realistic characters dealing with emotional themes. Dramatic themes such as alcoholism, drug addiction, infidelity, moral dilemmas, racial prejudice, religious intolerance, poverty, class divisions, violence against women...
directed by Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
and is intended for release in the United States on 25 December 2011 and in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012. It is based on both War Horse, a children's novel
Children's literature
Children's literature is for readers and listeners up to about age twelve; it is often defined in four different ways: books written by children, books written for children, books chosen by children, or books chosen for children. It is often illustrated. The term is used in senses which sometimes...
set during World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, by British author Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo
Michael Morpurgo, OBE FKC AKC is an English author, poet, playwright and librettist, best known for his work in children's literature. He was the third Children's Laureate.-Early life:...
, first published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1982, and the 2007 stage adaptation of the same name
War Horse (play)
War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by acclaimed children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. Originally Morpurgo thought "they must be mad" to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel. He was proved wrong by the play's instant success...
.
The cast includes David Thewlis
David Thewlis
David Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...
, Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Cumberbatch
Benedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English film, television, and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking ; William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace ; the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy ; Paul...
, Jeremy Irvine
Jeremy Irvine
-Early life:Irvine was educated at Bedford Modern School, an independent school in the county town of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, followed by the National Youth Theatre and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.-Acting career:...
, Emily Watson
Emily Watson
Emily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
, Tom Hiddleston
Tom Hiddleston
Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston is an English actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.-Early life and education:...
and Peter Mullan
Peter Mullan
Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor and film-maker who has been appearing in films since 1990.-Early life:Mullan, the sixth of eight children, was born in Peterhead in the northeast of Scotland, the son of Patricia, a nurse, and Charles Mullan, a lab technician who worked at Glasgow University. He...
. The film is produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, and executive produced by Frank Marshall and Revel Guest
Revel Guest
Revel Guest is a filmmaker, journalist, author and farmer and is chair of the Hay Festival. Revel is also the Chair of The Golden Valley Pony Club.- Early career :...
. Long term Spielberg collaborators Janusz Kamiński
Janusz Kaminski
Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1993's Schindler's List.-Life and career:...
, Michael Kahn
Michael Kahn (film editor)
Michael Kahn is an American film editor. His credits range from TV's Hogan's Heroes to feature films directed by George C. Scott and Steven Spielberg, with whom he has had an extended, notable collaboration over more than thirty years.Kahn is a member of the American Cinema Editors...
and John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
all worked on the film.
Plot
In DevonDevon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
at the outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Joey, young Albert Narracott's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and shipped to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
. He serves in the British
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....
and German
German Empire
The German Empire refers to Germany during the "Second Reich" period from the unification of Germany and proclamation of Wilhelm I as German Emperor on 18 January 1871, to 1918, when it became a federal republic after defeat in World War I and the abdication of the Emperor, Wilhelm II.The German...
armies, which takes him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before being alone in No Man's Land
No man's land
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
.
Cast
- Jeremy IrvineJeremy Irvine-Early life:Irvine was educated at Bedford Modern School, an independent school in the county town of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, followed by the National Youth Theatre and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.-Acting career:...
as Albert Narracott - Emily WatsonEmily WatsonEmily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
as Mum, Rose Narracott - Peter MullanPeter MullanPeter Mullan is a Scottish actor and film-maker who has been appearing in films since 1990.-Early life:Mullan, the sixth of eight children, was born in Peterhead in the northeast of Scotland, the son of Patricia, a nurse, and Charles Mullan, a lab technician who worked at Glasgow University. He...
as Dad, Ted Narracott - David ThewlisDavid ThewlisDavid Thewlis is an English actor of stage and screen. His most commercially successful role to date has been that of Remus Lupin, in the Harry Potter film series...
as Lyons - Benedict CumberbatchBenedict CumberbatchBenedict Timothy Carlton Cumberbatch is an English film, television, and theatre actor. His most acclaimed roles include Stephen Hawking in the BBC drama Hawking ; William Pitt in the historical film Amazing Grace ; the protagonist Stephen Ezard in the miniseries thriller The Last Enemy ; Paul...
as Major Stewart - Toby KebbellToby KebbellTobias Alistair P. "Toby" Kebbell is a British actor.-Life and career:Kebbell, the fourth of five children, was born in South Elmsall, on the A638 between Doncaster and Wakefield, Yorkshire, but grew up in Nottinghamshire...
as Geordie - Geoff BellGeoff Bell (actor)Geoff Bell is an English actor.-Career:He has appeared in many films, mostly as a cameo appearance or as a supporting role.He has appeared in Girl with a Pearl Earring, Stardust, The Long Firm, Making Waves, The Business and RocknRolla.One of his most well-known films is Green Street, where he...
as Sgt. Sam Perkins - Tom HiddlestonTom HiddlestonThomas William "Tom" Hiddleston is an English actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.-Early life and education:...
as Captain Nicholls - Patrick KennedyPatrick Kennedy (British actor)Patrick Kennedy is an English actor. His largest role to date is in the BBC's Bleak House as Richard Carstone. He again appeared in a BBC drama having been chosen for a role in the 2008 re-make of The 39 Steps and also appeared in the BBC drama Einstein and Eddington.He has also appeared in...
as Lieutenant Waverly - Niels ArestrupNiels ArestrupNiels Arestrup is a French actor.Born in Paris into a family of modest means, his father was Danish and his mother was French...
as Grandfather - Celine Buckens as Emilie
- David KrossDavid KrossDavid Kross is a German actor. He is best known internationally for his role as Michael Berg in The Reader.- Early life :...
as Gunther - Rainer BockRainer BockRainer Bock is a German actor. Bock was born in Kiel. He had already worked as a stage actor for about 25 years, beginning in 1982, in Kiel, at the National Theatre Mannheim, the Staatstheater Stuttgart, and at the Bavarian State Theatre in Munich, before his film work increased by the end of the...
as Brandt - Nicolas BroNicolas BroNicolas Bro is a Danish actor born in Copenhagen, Denmark.He has grown up in the family of actors – mother is Danish actress Helle Hertz and father is an actor Christoffer Bro....
as Friedrich - Leonard CarowLeonard CarowLeonard Carow is a German actor. He has appeared in several German television films and series, and most recently in Steven Spielberg's forthcoming film, War Horse....
as Michael - Robert EmmsRobert Emms-Career:Emms studied at The BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology from 2002-2004, and is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art ....
as David Lyons - Beth Ogden as David Lyons girlfriend
Origins
Michael Morpurgo wrote the 1982 children's novel War Horse after meeting World War I veterans in the Devon village of IddesleighIddesleigh
Iddesleigh is a village in Devon, England....
where he lived. One had been with the Devon Yeomanry, and was involved with horses; another veteran in his village, Captain Budgett, was with the cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
and told Morpurgo how he had confided all his hopes and fears to his horse. Both told him of the horrific conditions and loss of life, human and animal, during the Great War. A third man remembered the army coming to the village to buy horses for the war effort: horses were used for cavalry, and as draught animals, pulling guns, ambulances and other vehicles. Morpurgo researched the subject further and learned that a million horses died on the British side; he extrapolated an overall figure of 10 million horse deaths on all sides. Of the million horses that were sent abroad from the UK, only 62,000 returned, the rest dying in the war or slaughtered in France for meat. The Great War had a massive and indelible impact on the male population of the UK: 886,000 men died, one in eight of those who went to war, and 2% of the entire country's population.
After observing a young boy with a stammer
Stuttering
Stuttering , also known as stammering , is a speech disorder in which the flow of speech is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds...
forming a fond relationship with and talking fluently to a horse at a farm run by Morpurgo's charity Farms for City Children
Farms for City Children
Farms for City Children is a UK registered charity which aims to provide experience of farm and countryside life for inner-city children.-Foundation:...
, Morpurgo found a way to tell the story, through the horse and its relations with the various people it meets before and during the course of the war: a young Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
farmboy, a British cavalry officer, a German soldier, and an old Frenchman and his grand-daughter.
Morpurgo tried to adapt the book into a film screenplay, working over five years with Simon Channing-Williams
Simon Channing-Williams
Simon Channing-Williams was a British film producer. He was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire. He formed Thin Man Productions with Mike Leigh...
, but in the end they had to admit defeat. The book was successfully adapted for a stageplay
War Horse (play)
War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by acclaimed children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. Originally Morpurgo thought "they must be mad" to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel. He was proved wrong by the play's instant success...
by Nick Stafford
Nick Stafford
Nick Stafford is a British playwright and writer. He is best known for writing the stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, which garnered him a Laurence Olivier Award nomination for Best New Play in 2008, and the Tony Award for Best Play in 2011.-Career:Stafford trained at Rose...
in 2007. To work dramatically, the story could not be told solely through the viewpoint of the horse (as it was in the book), and so the film version with a screenplay by Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
and Lee Hall
Lee Hall (playwright)
Lee Hall is an English playwright and screenwriter. He is best known for the 2000 film Billy Elliot.-Early life:...
will be based on the narrative approach of the stageplay more than that of the book. Unlike the play with its puppet horses, the film uses real horses.
Development
In 2009, film producer Kathleen Kennedy saw the critically acclaimed production of War HorseWar Horse (play)
War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by acclaimed children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. Originally Morpurgo thought "they must be mad" to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel. He was proved wrong by the play's instant success...
in London's West End
West End of London
The West End of London is an area of central London, containing many of the city's major tourist attractions, shops, businesses, government buildings, and entertainment . Use of the term began in the early 19th century to describe fashionable areas to the west of Charing Cross...
with her husband, fellow producer Frank Marshall and their two daughters. They were very impressed by the story and Marshall has recalled how he was amazed that no-one had already bought the film rights
Film rights
Film rights are the rights under copyright law to make a derivative work—in this case, a film—derived from an item of intellectual property. Under U.S...
to the book. Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
was told about War Horse by several people, including Kennedy, who was his colleague at Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment
Amblin Entertainment is an American film and television production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1981. Amblin is only a production company, and has never distributed its own movies, nor has it fully financed its...
. It was announced on 16 December 2009 that DreamWorks had acquired the film rights for the book, with Spielberg stating: "From the moment I read Michael Morpurgo's novel War Horse, I knew this was a film I wanted DreamWorks to make ... Its heart and its message provide a story that can be felt in every country."
Spielberg saw the London production of the play on 1 February 2010 and met some of the cast afterwards. He admitted to being moved to tears by the performance.
Following the success of the stage production, Morpurgo had again tried to develop the book into a screenplay, this time working with Lee Hall
Lee Hall
Lee Hall may refer to:People:* Lee Hall , US lawyer and animal rights activist* Lee Hall , English playwright and screenwriter* Lee Hall , news anchor for WEEK-TV in Peoria, Illinois...
, who commented that "Weirdly the week that we finished it [the screenplay], Spielberg expressed an interest, we sent him the script, and within a couple of weeks he'd decided he was going to make the film – it was one of those situations that never happens in the world of film."
DreamWorks Studio executive Stacey Snider suggested Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...
to work on rewrites for the screenplay: she had worked with Curtis during her time at Universal Studios
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
, and his work on the World War I-set BBC television series Blackadder Goes Forth
Blackadder Goes Forth
Blackadder Goes Forth is the fourth and final series of the BBC situation comedy Blackadder, written by Richard Curtis and Ben Elton, which aired from 28 September to 2 November 1989 on BBC One....
meant he was already familiar with the period. Curtis was initially reluctant to take part, but on meeting Spielberg for the first time they got on so well that Curtis rethought and committed to work on the script. Curtis has stated that the screenplay is closer to the book than the play, and that 'the existence of the play itself helped him "be brave" about his own adaptation.'
Having previously only been slated to produce the film, Spielberg decided to direct "the second I read his first draft. It happened faster than anything else we've [Spielberg and Snider] done together." It was announced that Spielberg was to direct the film on 3 May 2010; the cast was announced on 17 June 2010. Speaking at the Tribeca Film Festival
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Film Festival is a film festival founded in 2002 by Jane Rosenthal, Robert De Niro and Craig Hatkoff in a response to the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the consequent loss of vitality in the TriBeCa neighborhood in Lower Manhattan.The mission of the festival...
in April 2011, actor Peter Mullan
Peter Mullan
Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor and film-maker who has been appearing in films since 1990.-Early life:Mullan, the sixth of eight children, was born in Peterhead in the northeast of Scotland, the son of Patricia, a nurse, and Charles Mullan, a lab technician who worked at Glasgow University. He...
said that he took the part not just because Spielberg was directing, but also because of the 'beautiful script, really nice script'.
According to an account of the book, play and film's development by Michael Morpurgo, within weeks of hearing from Kennedy about the London theatre production, Spielberg had "seen the play, met the cast, visited the Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum
Imperial War Museum is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. The museum was founded during the First World War in 1917 and intended as a record of the war effort and sacrifice of Britain and her Empire...
and decided this would be his next film. In the weeks that followed he worked with Lee Hall and Richard Curtis on the script, and within months the film was being made".
Spielberg has directed six films set during or just before World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
(1941
1941 (film)
1941 is a 1979 period comedy film directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, and featuring an ensemble cast including John Belushi, Ned Beatty, John Candy, Toshiro Mifune, Christopher Lee and Dan Aykroyd...
, Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Raiders of the Lost Ark is a 1981 American action-adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, produced by George Lucas, and starring Harrison Ford. It is the first film in the Indiana Jones franchise...
, Empire of the Sun
Empire of the Sun (film)
Empire of the Sun is a 1987 American coming of age war film based on J. G. Ballard's semi-autobiographical novel of the same name. Steven Spielberg directed the film, which stars Christian Bale, John Malkovich, Miranda Richardson, and Nigel Havers...
, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade is a 1989 American adventure film directed by Steven Spielberg, from a story co-written by executive producer George Lucas. It is the third film in the Indiana Jones franchise. Harrison Ford reprises the title role and Sean Connery plays Indiana's father, Henry...
, Schindler's List
Schindler's List
Schindler's List is a 1993 American film about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman who saved the lives of more than a thousand mostly Polish-Jewish refugees during the Holocaust by employing them in his factories. The film was directed by Steven Spielberg, and based on the novel Schindler's Ark...
, and Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944....
), and has produced two others, Flags of Our Fathers
Flags of Our Fathers (film)
is a 2006 American war film directed, co-produced and scored by Clint Eastwood and written by William Broyles, Jr. and Paul Haggis. It is based on the book of the same name written by James Bradley and Ron Powers about the Battle of Iwo Jima, the five Marines and one Navy Corpsman who were involved...
and Letters from Iwo Jima
Letters from Iwo Jima
is a 2006 war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood, and starring Ken Watanabe and Kazunari Ninomiya. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers and is a companion piece to Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers, which depicts the same battle from the...
, as well as producing two major television series set during this period, Band of Brothers and The Pacific. In contrast, War Horse is Spielberg's first foray into World War I storytelling, as Spielberg admitted that prior to learning about the War Horse book and play "I had never been that interested in World War I". Kathleen Kennedy elaborated on the appeal of the story: "In cinema we've told very few stories about World War I and I think that's one of the things that attracted us to this ... It's a forgotten war in the United States, and that had a very powerful effect on Steven and I."
Dr David Kenyon and Andy Robertshaw of Battlefield Partnerships were military advisors on the film.
Casting
After some speculation, the cast for War Horse was announced on 17 June 2010. It had been rumoured in the previous week that Eddie RedmayneEddie Redmayne
Edward John David "Eddie" Redmayne is an English actor and model. Redmayne won the 2010 Tony Award as best featured actor in a play for his performance in Red.-Early life:...
had been cast in the lead part as Albert Narracott; however, relatively unknown stage actor Jeremy Irvine
Jeremy Irvine
-Early life:Irvine was educated at Bedford Modern School, an independent school in the county town of Bedford in Bedfordshire, England, followed by the National Youth Theatre and the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art.-Acting career:...
was chosen instead. Spielberg commented after seeing hundreds of young boys reading for the role, Irvine had come in and done a cold reading and that "his performance was very natural, very authentic." Irvine auditioned for two months, going in two or three times a week, and learned that he had the part when he was asked to read a piece of War Horse script on camera in order to check his West Country accent
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....
, and the piece of mocked-up script that he read out was Albert was telling Joey that Steven Spielberg wanted him to play the part.
The cast is European, with British, French and German actors playing British, French and German characters respectively. Robert Emms
Robert Emms
-Career:Emms studied at The BRIT School for Performing Arts & Technology from 2002-2004, and is a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art ....
, who played the lead of Albert Narracott in the West End production of the play, was cast as David Lyons.
Casting for extras
Extra (actor)
A background actor or extra is a performer in a film, television show, stage, musical, opera or ballet production, who appears in a nonspeaking, nonsinging or nondancing capacity, usually in the background...
took place in Devon in late July 2010. The grand-daughter of Captain Budgett, one of the World War I veterans who had inspired Morpurgo to write the story, acted as an extra in scenes filmed in Castle Combe, and Morpurgo himself filmed a cameo role.
Prior to the start of filming, some of the actors underwent two months of intensive horse training.
Filming and locations
Spielberg films are renowned for the levels of secrecy and security during filming, and War Horse was no exception: filming took place under the codename Dartmoor.Filming of War Horse began with the cavalry scenes being filmed at Stratfield Saye House
Stratfield Saye House
Stratfield Saye House is a large stately home at Stratfield Saye in the north-east of the English county of Hampshire. It has been the home of the Dukes of Wellington since 1817.-Early history:...
in north Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, the estate of the Duke of Wellington
Duke of Wellington
The Dukedom of Wellington, derived from Wellington in Somerset, is a hereditary title in the senior rank of the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The first holder of the title was Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , the noted Irish-born career British Army officer and statesman, and...
, where incidentally Wellington's war horse "Copenhagen" is buried. Here a cavalry charge involving 130 extras was filmed. Filming on location on Dartmoor
Dartmoor
Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers .The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The...
, Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
started in August 2010. Dartmoor locations included the small villages of Meavy
Meavy
Meavy is a small village and civil parish in the English county of Devon. Meavy forms part of the district of West Devon. It lies a mile or so east of Yelverton. The River Meavy runs near the village...
and Sheepstor
Sheepstor
Sheepstor is a village and civil parish on the western side of Dartmoor in the county of Devon, England. In 2001 its population was 53, down from 95 in 1901. For administrative purposes the parish is grouped with the parishes of Meavy and Walkhampton to form Burrator Parish Council, and for...
, Burrator Reservoir
Burrator Reservoir
Burrator Reservoir is a reservoir on the south side of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. It is one of a number of reservoirs and dams that were built over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries in the area now covered by Dartmoor National Park to supply drinking water to the rapidly...
, and near Widecombe-in-the-Moor
Widecombe-in-the-Moor
Widecombe-in-the-Moor is a small village located within the heart of the Dartmoor National Park in Devon, England. . The name is thought to derive from 'Withy-combe' which means Willow Valley....
. Ditsworthy Warren House
Ditsworthy Warren House
Ditsworthy Warren House is a Grade II listed building near Sheepstor in Devon, England. It is an isolated building on the south-western edge of Dartmoor, and was built for the keeper of the rabbit warren near the house. It was used in 2010 as a filming location for the Steven Spielberg film, War...
, an isolated Grade II listed building near Sheepstor on Dartmoor served as the Narracott family's farmhouse.
On 11 September 2010 the annual Dartmoor Yomp
Dartmoor Yomp
The Dartmoor Yomp is an annual charitable fundraising event run in aid of the various charities that support injured British Armed Forces Royal Marines...
was re-routed to allow filming to continue undisturbed. Spielberg praised the beauty of the Dartmoor countryside: "I have never before, in my long and eclectic career, been gifted with such an abundance of natural beauty as I experienced filming War Horse on Dartmoor ... And, with two-and-a-half weeks of extensive coverage of landscapes and skies, I hardly scratched the surface of the visual opportunities that were offered to me."
Although Devon rural locations were used, scenes in the main village in the story were filmed at the Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
village of Castle Combe
Castle Combe
Castle Combe is a small village in Wiltshire, England, with a population of about 350. It is renowned for its attractiveness and tranquillity, and for fine buildings including the medieval church. The 14th century market cross, erected when the privilege to hold a weekly market in Castle Combe was...
, despite the vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture
Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorize methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs and circumstances. Vernacular architecture tends to evolve over time to reflect the environmental, cultural and historical context in which it...
of Devon (predominantly cob walls and thatched roofs
Thatching
Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw, water reed, sedge , rushes, or heather, layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates...
) being very different from that of Wiltshire (stone walls and stone tiled roofs). Filming began there on 21 September 2010 and continued until 1 October 2010. Some residents of Castle Combe were angered by the imposition of tightened security within the village, claiming they could not enter the village without waiting at perimeter barriers until breaks in filming.
After Castle Combe, the production moved on to Wisley Airfield
Wisley Airfield
-History:Built in 1944, the airfield was built for the flight testing of aircraft built at Vickers aircraft factory at the nearby Brooklands. New aircraft types making their first flights from Wisley included the Vickers VC.1 Viking, Valetta, Varsity, Viscount and Valiant...
in Surrey, where No Man's Land
No man's land
No man's land is a term for land that is unoccupied or is under dispute between parties that leave it unoccupied due to fear or uncertainty. The term was originally used to define a contested territory or a dumping ground for refuse between fiefdoms...
battlefield scenes were filmed. Shooting of wartime camp scenes also took place for about two weeks from 4 October 2010 at Bourne Wood
Bourne Wood
Bourne Wood is an area of predominantly coniferous woodland just south of Farnham, Surrey, England. It is named after The Bourne, a ward of Farnham. A promontory above a large heathland clearing provides views over the surrounding woodland...
near Farnham in Surrey, a frequent location for filming. On 13–14 October 2010 scenes were shot at the stately home
Stately home
A stately home is a "great country house". It is thus a palatial great house or in some cases an updated castle, located in the British Isles, mostly built between the mid-16th century and the early part of the 20th century, as well as converted abbeys and other church property...
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo
Luton Hoo straddles the Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire borders between the towns of Harpenden and Luton. The unusual name "Hoo" is a Saxon word meaning the spur of a hill, and is more commonly associated with East Anglia.- Early History :...
. Filming was also scheduled to be undertaken at Caerwent
Caerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
in Wales. The film shoot was completed in the last week of October 2010, with the entire movie, French scenes included, being shot in the UK. Studio filming was undertaken at Longcross Studios, Chertsey in Surrey and at Twickenham Film Studios
Twickenham Film Studios
Twickenham Film Studios is a film studio located in St Margarets, London, England used by many motion picture and television companies. It was established in 1913 by Dr. Ralph Jupp on the site of a former ice-rink. At the time of its original construction, it was the largest film studio in the...
.
The author of the book on which the film is based, Michael Morpurgo, visited the set while filming was being undertaken: "Spielberg’s a wonderful storyteller and a kid. He adores stories and that’s what he’s best at. It’s extraordinary to meet someone with that kind of enthusiasm, utterly unspoiled ... When I went to visit him on set, he was clearly enthralled by the countryside. He fell for Devon in a big way. He was warm, kind and open, and utterly without ego ... Spielberg was like a conductor with a very light baton. He hardly had to wave it at all. I was in awe.” Emily Watson
Emily Watson
Emily Watson is an English actress. She gave an acclaimed debut film performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves.- Early life :...
also praised Spielberg's approach: "It was intimate, passionate and about the acting. And every single priority that as an actor that you would want to be there was there. It felt very real and focused." ... On set, he'd come in, in the morning, and say, 'I couldn't sleep last night. I was worrying about this shot!' Which was great! He's human and he's still working in an impassioned way, like a 21-year-old, trying to make the best out of everything."
For lead actor Jeremy Irvine, starring in his first film role, the filming process was intense at times, in particular the scene where the British cavalry, 130 horses in total and many hundeds of extras, charged the German machine gun lines. He explained: "It’s the weapons of the old world — our men on horses — meeting the absolute destruction of these tools of mass slaughter. There was this line of machine guns and there’s this wall of lead coming out of these guns. There were real explosions at my feet, bodies flying through the air, stunt men getting shot at. It was terrifying. The smoke and the smell and the taste of the guns firing. It’s not difficult to act scared in that situation. There’s no doubt this was deliberate: not only to have the film look great, but to have that effect on the actors. It was an eye-opening scene."
When actor Peter Mullan
Peter Mullan
Peter Mullan is a Scottish actor and film-maker who has been appearing in films since 1990.-Early life:Mullan, the sixth of eight children, was born in Peterhead in the northeast of Scotland, the son of Patricia, a nurse, and Charles Mullan, a lab technician who worked at Glasgow University. He...
won the award for Best Film
Golden Shell
The Golden Shell is the highest prize given to a competing film at the San Sebastián Film Festival. It was introduced in 1957. In 1953 and 1954, the highest prize had been called the Gran Premio. In 1955 and 1956 it was replaced by the Silver Shell...
at the San Sebastián International Film Festival
San Sebastián International Film Festival
The San Sebastián International Film Festival is an annual FIAPF A category film festival held in the Spanish city of San Sebastián .-History:The festival was founded in 1953...
in Spain for Neds, the film he wrote, directed and in which he acted, Spielberg insisted that Mullan should attend the ceremony on 26 September 2010 to accept his award in person, and re-arranged the War Horse shooting schedule accordingly.
Spielberg commented on how he and cinematographer Janusz Kamiński
Janusz Kaminski
Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1993's Schindler's List.-Life and career:...
developed the 'look' of the film: "...it doesn't feel like Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944....
at all ... it has a much more daguerrotype feel, much more brownish. We're not using any of the techniques we used on Ryan. The only similarity is that it is war and it is handheld
Hand-held camera
Hand-held camera or hand-held shooting is a filmmaking and video production technique in which a camera is held in the camera operator's hands as opposed to being mounted on a tripod or other base. Hand-held cameras are used because they are conveniently sized for travel and because they allow...
."
The horses
The pre-production period only allowed for three months to train the horses before shooting commenced. The main horse trainer was Bobby Lovgren, and other horse trainers included Bill Lawrence and Zelie Bullen.During filming in the UK thirteen different horses were used as the main horse character Joey, ten of them portraying him as an adult animal; four horses played the other main equine character, Topthorn. A farrier
Farrier
A farrier is a specialist in equine hoof care, including the trimming and balancing of horses' hooves and the placing of shoes on their hooves...
was on set to replace horseshoes sucked off in the mud during filming, and the horses playing the main horse characters had a specialist equine make-up team, with their coats dyed and markings added to ensure continuity. Equine artist Ali Bannister was responsible for the 'hair and make-up' of the horses, as well as drawing the sketches of horses that are featured in the film. Extra filming involving a bay foal took place in California in March 2011. Working with horses on this scale was a new experience for Spielberg, who commented: "The horses were an extraordinary experience for me, because several members of my family ride. I was really amazed at how expressive horses are and how much they can show what they’re feeling."
Post-production
Film editor Michael KahnMichael Kahn (film editor)
Michael Kahn is an American film editor. His credits range from TV's Hogan's Heroes to feature films directed by George C. Scott and Steven Spielberg, with whom he has had an extended, notable collaboration over more than thirty years.Kahn is a member of the American Cinema Editors...
spoke of his work on the film: "We have some shots in War Horse that are just fantastic ... We shot it in Devon, and you know it's gorgeous down there, and the horses are beautiful and the farms are beautiful, beautiful scenery and every shot is gorgeous, and eventually you get to the war part of it and it's really, really something." Kahn had a trailer on set and edited the film during filming. Kahn and Spielberg cut the film digitally on an Avid
Avid Technology
Avid Technology, Inc. is an American company specializing in video and audio production technology; specifically, digital non-linear editing systems, management and distribution services. It was created in 1987 and became a publicly traded company in 1993...
, rather than on film, a first time with this technology for Spielberg: "He decided that he’d like to try it", Kahn commented.
After filming, further editing was undertaken in the UK at Twickenham Film Studios, with the production moving back to the US in November 2010. Kahn also said of his work on the film: "We put together here in Hollywood. It worked well ... Those English actors are awfully good and so were the horses. The horses were beautifully trained. For an editor there were a lot of match [frame] problems with the horses but the shooting was so good that I got everything I needed.”
The film score by John Williams
John Williams
John Towner Williams is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career spanning almost six decades, he has composed some of the most recognizable film scores in the history of motion pictures, including the Star Wars saga, Jaws, Superman, the Indiana Jones films, E.T...
was recorded in late March and early April 2011. Tuba player Jim Self reported in May 2011: "For John Williams I [sic] recently finished recording for the film War Horse. It's a war movie so the score has a lot of brass — but it was gentile [sic] music often." English folk singer John Tams
John Tams
John Tams is an English actor, singer, songwriter, composer and musician.- Folk musician :John Tams was a member of Derbyshire folk group Muckram Wakes in the 1970s, then worked with Ashley Hutchings as singer and melodeon-player on albums including Son of Morris On, and as a member of the...
, who wrote the songs for the stage production of War Horse, was approached by Spielberg and Williams about including one of his songs from the stageshow in the film. In the liner notes to the film soundtrack cd
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
, Spielberg wrote "I feel that John has made a special gift to me of this music, which was inspired not only by my film but also by many of the picturesque settings of the poet William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth
William Wordsworth was a major English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with the 1798 joint publication Lyrical Ballads....
, whose vivid descriptions of the British landscape inspired much of what you are going to hear." In the premiere of three of the tracks on New York radio station WQXR
WQXR-FM
WQXR-FM is an American classical radio station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, and serving the New York City metropolitan area. It is the most-listened-to classical-music station in the United States, with an average quarter-hour audience of 63,000...
’s "Movies on the Radio", broadcaster David Garland drew parallels with the work of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
.
Visual effects
Visual effects
Visual effects are the various processes by which imagery is created and/or manipulated outside the context of a live action shoot. Visual effects involve the integration of live-action footage and generated imagery to create environments which look realistic, but would be dangerous, costly, or...
for the film were undertaken by Framestore, a London-based company. According to Spielberg, the only digital effects in the film are three shots lasting three seconds, which were undertaken to ensure the safety of the horse involved: "That's the thing I'm most proud of. Everything you see on screen really happened." Kathleen Kennedy elaborated, stating "We really did it very naturalistically. There isn't a lot of blood. Steven wasn't interested in bringing Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan
Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 American war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. It was directed by Steven Spielberg, with a screenplay by Robert Rodat. The film is notable for the intensity of its opening 27 minutes, which depicts the Omaha Beach assault of June 6, 1944....
into it, but we did want to make a PG-13 movie." Actor Tom Hiddleston
Tom Hiddleston
Thomas William "Tom" Hiddleston is an English actor. He is perhaps best known for playing Loki in the 2011 Marvel Studios film Thor.-Early life and education:...
said of the film that Spielberg had "seen the stage play and he wanted to retain the magic and heartbeat of that ... It's a moving, powerful story you can take children to see, but it is still very upsetting ... People die, and it is war."
Publicity and release
War Horse is intended for release in the US on 25 December 2011. The US release date was originally set for 10 August 2011, but after a meeting in London in early October 2010 between DreamWorks and Disney executives, when some footage was screened, the decision was taken to move its release to 28 December 2011 in the holiday period. and in the UK on 13 January 2012. DreamWorks executive Stacey Snider said: "The reaction to the footage – which he [Spielberg] usually never shows – was that it feels like a big, holiday movie ... It just became inevitable that we would move it. (Spielberg) feels great about it." In late September 2011 the release date was moved again, to Christmas Day 2011.Only a very few unofficial on-set photographs and clips of video footage were published in the press and online during the filming period. Due to the usual embargo on photographs and videos being taken and made public during Spielberg shoots, very few photographs emerged, with the majority being snatched paparazzi shots. In October 2010 Spielberg's cinematographer on the film, Janusz Kamiński
Janusz Kaminski
Janusz Zygmunt Kamiński is a Polish cinematographer and film director. He has photographed all of Steven Spielberg's films since 1993's Schindler's List.-Life and career:...
, put an on-set photograph of himself on a battlefield set on his Facebook page. The first ten official photographs were made public by DreamWorks in several releases between 11 and 14 March 2011, in Empire
Empire (magazine)
Empire is a British film magazine published monthly by Bauer Consumer Media. From the first issue in July 1989, the magazine was edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap. Bauer purchased Emap Consumer Media in early 2008...
magazine, in an article in the Daily Mail
Daily Mail
The Daily Mail is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper owned by the Daily Mail and General Trust. First published in 1896 by Lord Northcliffe, it is the United Kingdom's second biggest-selling daily newspaper after The Sun. Its sister paper The Mail on Sunday was launched in 1982...
and in an article in Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
. On 16 March 2011 a British blogger published an account of her unofficial visit to the War Horse set at Ditsworthy Warren House
Ditsworthy Warren House
Ditsworthy Warren House is a Grade II listed building near Sheepstor in Devon, England. It is an isolated building on the south-western edge of Dartmoor, and was built for the keeper of the rabbit warren near the house. It was used in 2010 as a filming location for the Steven Spielberg film, War...
, and despite the security on-set, was able to take photographs of the interior of the set and of Steven Spielberg. On 29 March 2011 DreamWorks presented behind-the-scenes footage, introduced on film by Spielberg, to theatre owners at CinemaCon in Las Vegas. Spielberg was unable to attend in person as he was still working on the post-production of the film.
On 29 June 2011 the first official teaser trailer for the film was released, and the official website was launched. On its launch, the website was rather a sparse affair, with just the official trailer and synopis, and only two of the ten previously-released official photographs. Further footage, introduced on film by Spielberg, was shown at the Empire magazine 'Big Screen' event in London in August 2011. Jeremy Irvine talked about his experiences making the film at the same event. The full theatrical trailer was released on 4 October 2011, and more on-set photographs were released on 17 November 2011.
The publicity strategy for War Horse unusually featured preview screenings for the public in US heartland areas before either the critics were shown the film or it was screened to the public in major metropolitan areas. The first preview screenings of War Horse were held at various locations across the U.S. on 1, 2 and 10 November 2011. Military veterans
Veteran
A veteran is a person who has had long service or experience in a particular occupation or field; " A veteran of ..."...
in Canada were invited to seven different screenings on 16 November, in honour of Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day
Remembrance Day is a memorial day observed in Commonwealth countries since the end of World War I to remember the members of their armed forces who have died in the line of duty. This day, or alternative dates, are also recognized as special days for war remembrances in many non-Commonwealth...
. More preview screenings in the US took place on 27 November, with Spielberg attending a question and answer session at the New York screening that was beamed to the other screening cinemas and shown live on the internet. Preview screenings in the UK have been scheduled for early December.
Press screenings for critics were first held in New York and Los Angeles on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 2011, although there was an embargo on official reviews being published at that time. On 27 November there was a special screening in London for the crew and cast, the first time anyone involved with the film (apart from Spielberg and his close collaborators) had seen it.
Three television advertisements for the film were released in the US on Thanksgiving Day, 24 November 2011, shortly followed by four others.
The world premiere of the film will be held on Sunday 4 December at the Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall
Avery Fisher Hall is a concert hall, in New York City and is part of the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts complex. It is the home of the New York Philharmonic, with a capacity of 2,738 seats.-History:...
of the Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts
Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of New York City's Upper West Side. Reynold Levy has been its president since 2002.-History and facilities:...
in New York, where the Tony award winning Broadway production of the play of War Horse
War Horse (play)
War Horse is a play based on the book of the same name by acclaimed children's writer Michael Morpurgo, adapted for stage by Nick Stafford. Originally Morpurgo thought "they must be mad" to try to make a play from his best-selling 1982 novel. He was proved wrong by the play's instant success...
is currently playing in the neighbouring Vivian Beaumont Theatre
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a theatre located in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The structure was designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, and Jo Mielziner was responsible for the design of the stage and interior.The Vivian...
.
Reception
The first unofficial reviews by bloggers started appearing online the day of the first preview screening, 1 November 2011, with a review appearing on Ain't It Cool NewsAin't It Cool News
Ain't It Cool News is a website founded and run by Harry Knowles, dedicated to news, rumors and reviews of upcoming and currently playing films and television projects, with an emphasis on science fiction, fantasy, horror, comic-book and action genres...
on 3 November. Although there is an embargo on official reviews of the film being published before 21 December 2011, reviews started appearing in mainstream press such as The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
from 26 November onwards.
Impact of the film in popular culture
Digital content from the film, as well as the pencil sketches by equine artist Ali Bannister that are used in the film, are currently part of the War Horse: Fact & Fiction free exhibition at the National Army MuseumNational Army Museum
The National Army Museum is the British Army's central museum. It is located in the Chelsea district of central London, England adjacent to the Royal Hospital Chelsea, the home of the "Chelsea Pensioners". The National Army Museum is open to the public every day of the year from 10.00am to 5.30pm,...
in London, which runs from 22 October 2011 until August 2012. A Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
documentary inspired by the film and telling the true-life stories of horses sent from the UK to the battlefields of World War I is planned.
External links
- War Horse page on DreamWorks official website
- War Horse at Rotten Tomatoes
- War Horse at Box Office Mojo
- Photographs of filming on location on Dartmoor
- Photographs of the film set at Ditsworthy Warren House on Dartmoor
- Photographs of the film set at Ditsworthy Warren House on Dartmoor being dismantled
- Photographs of Castle Combe dressed as a location for filming