# War Horse



## Rifleman62

Set for release at Christmas 2011. Director - Steven Spielberg

Trailer and movie info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/

Synopsis

At the outbreak of World War I, Joey, young Albert's beloved horse, is sold to the cavalry and shipped to France. His rider Captain Nicholls is killed while riding Joey. He's soon caught up in enemy fire; death, disease and fate take him on an extraordinary odyssey, serving on both sides before finding himself alone in No Man's Land. But Albert cannot forget Joey and, still not old enough to enlist in the *British Army*, he embarks on a dangerous mission to find the horse and bring him home to Devon.

 See more info including how the book came about.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Horse_%28novel%29


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## PMedMoe

I'll wait for the DVD so I can bawl my eyes out in private.   :-[


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## The Bread Guy

Rifleman62 said:
			
		

> Set for release at Christmas 2011. Director - Steven Spielberg
> 
> Trailer and movie info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1568911/
> (....)



Didn't know about the film - thanks for sharing.

Heard it's also coming through Toronto as a play around mid-February 2012.  Almost tempted to Porter Airlines it down for it....


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## PMedMoe

milnews.ca said:
			
		

> Heard it's also coming through Toronto as a play around mid-February 2012.



I _knew_ going to Toronto would have some perks.  I'm definitely up for that one.   :nod:


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## BernDawg

Just dug up this little gem:

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/11/10/spielberg-preview-war-horse/

There is a preview screening for Canadian Vets on the 16th of Nov, details are in the article.

_The screenings will take place on Wednesday, November 16th in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver.  Veterans are invited to contact their local Royal Canadian Legion branch in one of the aforementioned markets for complete details, including information on how to RSVP, as well as screening times and theatre locations. Veterans may also call 1-800-263-2853 ext. 4163398 or visit Facebook.com/WarHorseMovieCanada for more information._


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## Mandy55

Searched the site and didn't see this posted, thought some of you might be interested.

http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/11/10/spielberg-preview-war-horse/


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## jollyjacktar

And, nothing for those of us on the East coast.


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## Pat in Halifax

That said, we did get the pre-screeniing of Paul Gross's Passchendeale.


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## BernDawg

Mandy55 said:
			
		

> Searched the site and didn't see this posted, thought some of you might be interested.
> 
> http://blogs.vancouversun.com/2011/11/10/spielberg-preview-war-horse/



Didn't think to look up ^ though eh?


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## camouflauge

This film will no doubt increase awareness of the First World War of 1914-1918. Hopefully this will be accurate and will not trot out (no pun intended) the usual prejudices and well -worn cliches that are all too often repeated about this conflict.


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## dapaterson

The play has received great reviews on both sides of the Atlantic; the puppet work is apparently incredible.

NY Times review: http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/theater/reviews/war-horse-from-national-theater-at-lincoln-center-review.html?pagewanted=all


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## camouflauge

Yeah, good reviews and has great images from theater


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## Michael OLeary

camouflage said:
			
		

> Hopefully this will be accurate and will not trot out (no pun intended) the usual prejudices and well -worn cliches that are all too often repeated about this conflict.



Really? You think that will be accomplished by Steven Spielberg in a story about a boy and his horse?

It will be romanticized fiction, and as long as the audiences are happy with that and aren't looking for a serious historical interpretation (which few actually do anyway), it doesn't matter. It's mass marketed entertainment, not historical documentary.


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## Fishbone Jones

I think if the movie wanted to be more true to life. The horse would be wounded, have to be shot and then eaten.


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## Kalatzi

"the usual prejudices and well -worn cliches that are all too often repeated about this conflict." ??? ??? ???

Care to cite a couple of examples? Just curious


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## 2010newbie

Michael O'Leary said:
			
		

> Really? You think that will be accomplished by Steven Spielberg in a story about a boy and his horse?



 :nod:

I saw the preview in Toronto a couple weeks back and the movie focuses on the boy and his horse. There are scenes in the trenches and on the battlefield, but no locations or specific battles are mentioned. There are a few unexpected turns and the effects were quite good. During the last bit of the movie you could hear muffled sobs and sniffling throughout the theatre. My girlfriend said she hated it because she cried the whole way through. I wouldn't let a young kid see it because of some of the scenes later on in the movie, but the beginning of the movie seems like a Disney children's movie. A little too childish for adults and a little too graphic for young kids.


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## The Bread Guy

.... to the story, via Postmedia News:


> With Oscar buzz already building around director Steven Spielberg's film epic War Horse ahead of its Christmas Day release across Canada, theatregoers may be surprised to learn that the horse-assisted heroism of Canadian cavalry units during the First World War helped inspire the movie.
> 
> Based on the 1982 novel of the same name by British children's author Michael Morpurgo — a book later adapted for a hugely successful stage production that uses life-size, mechanical puppets for the horses — the film is rooted in Morpurgo's rediscovery and popularization of the story of Allied cavalry units in the First World War.
> 
> Morpurgo has described how a series of conversations with Great War veterans in rural Devon, England, sparked his interest in the grim saga of how one million horses were deployed and died during the 1914-18 conflict by the British army's cavalry forces, which included Canadian mounted units that fought famously under the Union Jack in one of the war's pivotal moments: the March 1918 Battle of Moreuil Wood.
> 
> The War Horse stories — novel, play and film — chronicle the enduring bond between an English boy and his horse, Joey, after its conscription for the war effort, and highlight the horrors of the First World War for both men and their mounts ....


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## daftandbarmy

2010newbie said:
			
		

> :nod:
> 
> I saw the preview in Toronto a couple weeks back and the movie focuses on the boy and his horse. There are scenes in the trenches and on the battlefield, but no locations or specific battles are mentioned. There are a few unexpected turns and the effects were quite good. During the last bit of the movie you could hear muffled sobs and sniffling throughout the theatre. My girlfriend said she hated it because she cried the whole way through. I wouldn't let a young kid see it because of some of the scenes later on in the movie, but the beginning of the movie seems like a Disney children's movie. A little too childish for adults and a little too graphic for young kids.



In other words, perfect for Infantry!  :camo:


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## Rifleman62

Highland Infantry I would say. They react as fast as they stroll.


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## daftandbarmy

Rifleman62 said:
			
		

> Highland Infantry I would say. They react as fast as they stroll.



Quite... we find that if we move too fast, it doesn't allow the rest of the huddled masses to bask in our reflected awesomeness:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbDlrDT1CX8


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## Lowlander

Hey we take our time when ever we go somewhere but we look really good while doing so.


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## the 48th regulator

http://www.canada.com/story_print.html?id=5919801&sponsor

Retired officer unearths story of Canada's own warhorse


By Richard Foot, For Postmedia NewsDecember 28, 2011

HALIFAX — On a farm in Paradise, N.S., lies the grave of a horse named Fritz — a warhorse, it turns out, that survived the horrors of the First World War and lived out his final days in peace in Canada.

As the fictional tale of the Steven Spielberg film War Horse appears on movie screens across North America, and as a stage version of the novel by the same name opens in Toronto, the real-life saga of a true Canadian warhorse is now emerging out of the past.

The details of Fritz's story have been investigated for several years by retired Toronto brigadier-general Greg Young — an Afghanistan veteran and former reservist with Toronto's 48th Highlanders regiment.

From 1914 to 1918 the regiment fought as part of Canada's 15th Battalion, and Young now heads up the 15th Battalion Memorial Project, which preserves and promotes the unit's wartime history.

For most of the First World War the battalion was led by Lt.-Col. Charles Bent, a Nova Scotian who, despite his slight frame and bookish looks, was in fact a highly competent field commander who was widely respected by his men.

In 1918, as the war was winding down and Allied forces were finally pursuing the German army out of France, Bent and his unit were ordered to assault a German strongpoint called the Crow's Nest.

"They captured the Crow's Nest in the early morning of Sept. 1," says Young. "The Germans did three counter-attacks to take it back, but the Canadians held it. Afterwards, during a lull in the fighting, in rides this German officer on horseback, who obviously wasn't aware what the hell had happened, and that the ground had changed hands.

"He and his aide rode into the middle of the Canadian position and bingo, they were snapped up."

According to the 48th Highlanders' regimental history, written after the war, the German officer "was mounted on a splendid dark bay — a typical cavalry mount, which had been captured from the Russians in the east."

The two Germans were sent to a prison camp and the horse — having survived its service with both the Russian and German armies — was taken by the Canadian soldier who captured it, Capt. Gordon Winnifrith.

Winnifrith was killed in action a few weeks later at the Battle of Canal du Nord, and the horse, renamed Fritz, was adopted by Bent.

Remarkably, both Bent and Fritz survived the war and when Bent came home to Canada he took with him not only the battalion's mascot, a stray Belgian sheepdog named Bruno, but also Fritz.

"Bringing the dog home was one thing," says Young. "But a horse? I don't know what strings he pulled. The battalion was in Belgium turning in all its heavy stuff including the unit's horses. Somehow, the CO obtained permission to bring Fritz home on the ship."

After the battalion was demobilized in Toronto, Bent returned, with Fritz and Bruno, to his family farm in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.

Young's research into the story hit a dead end at that point, until this week when he discovered Bent's son — Donald Bent, now 91 — living in Nova Scotia.

"The farm is still there, although it's been divided by a highway since then," said Donald in an interview with Postmedia News on Wednesday. "We lived there for quite a few years after World War I."

He says he remembers, as a four-year-old boy, his father riding Fritz around the apple orchards on the property.

"My father was quite proud of that horse. It had been a German horse, and some German colonel owned him. The German went to a POW camp and Dad took the horse home.

"He loved that horse and the horse loved him. They got along great."

Several years after the war Fritz grew old and sick, and Bent euthanized the animal.

"At that time there were no vets around, so Dad took him and shot him," his son says.

Fritz was buried alongside Bruno on the farm property, where the graves remain today.

Bent, who earned the Distinguished Service Order in the war, died in 1955.
_© Copyright (c) Postmedia News_










This file photo shows Lt. Col. Charles Bent riding his war horse Fritz, alongside the Belgian sheepdog Bruno.
Photograph by: Carol O'Neil, Carol O'Neil






Undated handout photo of Lt. Col. Charles Bent, commander of Canada's 15th Battalion during the First World War. Bent returned home to Nova Scotia after the war with a captured war horse named Fritz.
Photograph by: Brigadier general (retired) Greg Young, handout, Postmedia News






Undated handout photo of Lt. Col. Charles Bent, top left, commander of Canada's 15th Battalion during the First World War. Bent returned home to Nova Scotia after the war with a captured war horse named Fritz.
Photograph by: Brigadier general (retired) Greg Young, handout, Postmedia News






Undated handout photo of Lt. Col. Charles Bent, centre in glasses, commander of Canada's 15th Battalion during the First World War. Bent returned home to Nova Scotia after the war with a captured war horse named Fritz.
Photograph by: Brigadier general (retired) Greg Young, handout, Postmedia News


This makes me proud, as it is part of my Regimental history.  I also am honoured to have served for BGen Young, when he was our CO.

Dileas Gu Brath, Sir!!  Job well done!

dileas

tess


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## brihard

Rifleman62 said:
			
		

> Highland Infantry I would say. They react as fast as they stroll.



If it ain't worth a swaying kilt, it probably ain't worth much of anything.


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## Sythen

Watched this movie last night.... I loved it. Definitely worth a watch if you're on the fence about it.


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