In War Horse, Spielberg takes a largely faithful adaptation of the source material involving at its heart a simple boy-and-his-horse tale and translates it into a beautiful old-fashioned epic on screen. The director's sheer confidence and visionary control makes the film seem effortless, yet it presents many wonderful flourishes and ideas that make even the most straightforward of scenes so enjoyable to watch. The film allows the characters a true gentleness for the period in which they live that the stage version cannot allow, giving both the rural Devon folk and the military an engaging humanity. Performances are universally strong, cinematography is gorgeous, design is triumphant, and even a fussy John Williams score underpins scenes effectively for the most part. The sheer scope and weight of real-world scenarios and major events are effectively balanced with the small-scale simple emotional heart of the story - another Spielberg trademark - making War Horse a wonderful cinematic experience.
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