tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15283666.post266902366807346136..comments2024-03-14T03:15:28.803-07:00Comments on The End of Cinema: On War HorseSean Gilmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16124894627028920508noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15283666.post-51398299585145424852012-02-11T12:44:56.829-08:002012-02-11T12:44:56.829-08:00The only thing I especially liked in the film was ...The only thing I especially liked in the film was the scene where the two soldiers cut Joey out of the barbed wire. Not that the rest of the film was unlikable, necessarily, but that's the only bit that had any sticking power with me. That scene felt like it could have been part of a better movie.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15283666.post-40712546214291532962012-02-04T22:45:30.264-08:002012-02-04T22:45:30.264-08:00I think you're mixing up "melodrama"...I think you're mixing up "melodrama" with "bad melodrama". Just because a film has emotional ups and downs doesn't make it good just because you can slap a convenient generic label on it. I haven't seen <i>Lucky Star</i>, so I can't comment on that Borzage in particular, but something like <i>Street Angel</i> is built out of coincidence and unreality but that is always secondary to the emotional reality of the characters. What makes the film magical is not the ups and downs, but the strength of the relationship between the characters. Something like <i>War Horse</i> apes the emotional payoffs without doing the work of building the characters, instead it uses generic types as stand-ins, as shortcuts.<br /><br />I really can't imagine this film being made in any other decade. Those just no old movie that's anything like it (<i>Old yeller</i> is the closest I can think of, and that isn't particularly close at all). It's not that "they don't make 'em like that anymore", they <i>never</i> made 'em like that. The only person who makes movies like this is Steven Spielberg.<br /><br />The scene that's really sticking with me from the film, almost as much as the final image, is when the horse is being chased around the battlefield by a tank. It kind of encapsulates my reaction to the film, both good and bad. On the one hand, it's a thoroughly haunting image, mechanical modernity ruthlessly running down the forces of nature, dignity and honor. On the other hand, it's totally contrived and absurd: why the fuck is a tank chasing a horse?Sean Gilmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16124894627028920508noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15283666.post-36858436882660905372012-02-04T19:24:56.215-08:002012-02-04T19:24:56.215-08:00I guess I can try to explain why it's old fash...I guess I can try to explain why it's old fashioned. You say that those films have the melodrama grow organically out of the characters. For me, the point of comparison was something like Lucky Star, which really doesn't have that much nuance to the characters. Sure, it spends for time developing them, but then it has an entire film to do so. Many of the characters in War Horse feel rounded enough to me anyway. In terms of comparison to Ford, well, from a visual standpoint the way Spielberg approaches the landscapes in the film is what recalled it most for me. Not the specific look, but the way the lanscape becomes fuel for the characters and the drama. This is also drawn from Lean, of course.<br /><br />But most of all it comes down to the style of melodrama. First of all, melodrama has nothing to do with characters and everything to do with emotional state. A film like Lucky Star has great characters to draw us in, but the mode of the film is one of emotional ups and downs. Obviously a lot of films have emotional ups and downs, but the simplicity of them in War Horse felt old school. That's not to be confused with the simplicity or complexity of the themes, mind you, just the emotional states. The scene where Joey and Albert reunite felt a lot like the magical scenes you'd find at the end of Lucky Star or Seventh Heaven.<br /><br />The movie doesn't couch itself in emotional ambiguity almost ever, expect maybe the very final scene. But even there it's bold in a way you very rarely see in modern films. I find that films today try as hard as possible to ground things in "reality". Even Slumdog Millionaire has a level of grittiness to it, as though it's a form of stylized hyper-reality. War Horse doesn't do this. It's not hyper-real or particularly fantastical, but it goes big in all directions.<br /><br />That's really where the old fashioned feeling comes from. I can very easily imagine War Horse as basically the same film but shot black-and-white and 1.33:1 and it would really feel at home as a film from the 40s. Certainly the filmmaking is modern, and it reflects Spielberg's sensibilities, but I'd propose that a lot of the silliness of the film would seem less silly if it had been released 70 years ago.<br /><br />Not sure if you buy that explanation, but really, to me it at least felt more old fashioned than, say, The Artist, which is way too self-aware to ever feel truly like a film from the period it imitates.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04024456685231695086noreply@blogger.com