My theatre history professor was going on a rant about this and how it doesn't work as a movie because a good chunk of the appeal is in seeing the puppetry of the horse. In his words, "just being in the theater and seeing the puppeteers make this horse _breathe,_ you got your money's worth out of it."
He made sense, seeing the puppets move like actually horses is just an amazing view already. But hey-ho, I love both the play and movie, both are great!
Doing its run in New Zealand at the moment and went for the first time last night. All I can say is if you have the chance to go and see this DO IT. It is beyond words. Best performance EVER. You will not be disappointed. If I had the funds I'd go to every performance
Went to see the show yesterday with my family as my birthday treat and I have no doubt, it was the best one so far. The show was breathtaking from start to finish with world-class actors, puppeteers, songs, sound effects, storyline - it was just Wow!!
I'll never forget the scene where the pony explodes in all directions and becomes the great stallion was one of the most thrilling moments I can remember from any play. There were little kids in the audience who stood up in awe.
Angela Ijeoma Amadi I also went to WarHorse for my 16th birthday surprise it was to amazing to see again hopefully 2019 WarHorse will rise again my luck will hopefully come true
I just saw this last night and truly one of the most breathtaking magical experiences I’ve ever had. I cried from almost start to finish. This show is a beautiful example of the power of theatre
Its on its first season in New Zealand at the moment. My wife and I went to see it on Saturday Night. It is simply brilliant. Beautifully written, performed and the story is so touching and real. It was worth every cent to see and wish i could go and see it again. I give it 7 stars out of 5. Go...you wont be disappointed.
How was it possible to feel such emotions with 3 basically silent actors, cane, cloth and cables? You know they are puppets, but you believe they are horses. Utter magic.
I saw this the first time round and now in 2024, little differences, a truly moving experience, preferred the first one, only slightly, but the essence of the story is there and it gets your heart!
Been to theatre tonight, War horse. What can I say. I never enjoyed any play as much as I enjoyed War horse. Cannot recommend it highly enough. Loved every minute.!!!
Saw this yestreday in Cardiff ...Breathtaking , Emotional , Stunning , Heart rending , A credit to the performers creators and writers..I need to see it again..
Was so great! The horse puppets kinda looked like REAL horses. At times, there was funny moments (mostly toward the end of the show though) It was a long performance but it is worth seeing. I would like to go see it again!
were doing this at school tomorrow and on thursday and its fun to point at the certain characters and say 'Well he doesnt really look like william' or 'they really do look like vinny and fin'
I’ll be there in 2025, it will be the first time in 7 years that I’ve seen it and can hardly remember a thing from it so the experience will be good as always
I’m returning to warHorse in June 2025. This was where my love for the First World War happened in November 2017. It’s a huge shame that we fell out and I regretted betraying the First World War because it was pushing my mental health to the limits at the time. Hopefully our friendship can be repaired in 2025
I’m going to beg my grandmother to take me next year because it’s so good and it’s a thank you to the war for protecting me over the years and my mother does. I love you Mummy and the War
The writer of the book was on tv tonight here in Belgium and told about the play, he showed us also a horse, it was in a tv studio but it looks very good also in that small place ! Next year they come to Belgium but my question is, is it the same story as The War Horse The movie?
Is this a gay lay to go with Spielberg's First Gay Film ? What Does a Gay Horse Eat? A ‘Haaaay’ Reading of Steven Spielberg’s ‘War Horse’ Peter Knegt So last night - in an attempt to catch up on the ridiculous amount of December releases this year so I could make an honest top 10 list (which I should have up here by early next week) - I finally saw Steven Spielberg’s ‘War Horse.’ In many ways it was exactly what I expected: beautifully shot, horribly written (I laughed out loud a good dozen times at some of the dialogue), unabashedly sentimental and artistically old school in a lazy kind of way… But there was one thing I was definitely not expecting. For ‘War Horse’ to be so downright campy, and - on multiple occasions - most definitely warrant a gay reading. Now, I must note that the specific screening I attended probably aided in how bizarrely gay the film felt to me. It was a Toronto screening for the cast and crew of the city’s upcoming stage production of ‘War Horse.’ For 20 or so minutes before the film started, I was surrounded by theater humor and catty anecdotes from dozens of stereotypically flamy men and overdramatic, sassy women that sat all around me. And then throughout the film, I got a pretty amazing commentary from the same folks: It was all ‘Ohhh myyy goddd War Horse, don’t do it!,’ or ‘The German soldiers are sooo much hotter than the Brits.’ And of course, there was uncontrolled, dramatically noted sobbing as far as the ear could hear for the last 20 minutes of the film. But as for the film itself - and there’s considerable spoilers ahead so stop here if you want an organic ‘War Horse’ experience (if there even is such a thing) - the gayness somehow topped what was going on in the audience. First and foremost, War Horse himself - or “Joey,” as lead character Albert names him - is totally gay. You can simply read this in the textbook way that he’s “different” from the other horses (mainly because no one thinks he could “plow a field,” ha) but it also gets a lot more literal. When Joey gets sent off to war, the British soldiers segregate him next to a big, black beautiful horse - named, I kid you not Topthorn - who the soldiers also deem “different” and “unruly.” It’s only a matter of time before Joey and Topthorn are getting intimate, kissing each other, snuggling, and clearly growing to find an affectionate and mutual dependence on one another. They go through quite a lot: Being captured by the Germans (more on that later), spending some time with a over-the-top French girl (and on that as well), and they always have to fight not to be separated. In the most dramatic display of Joey’s love for his mate (who given his fur is often simply referred to in an oddly racialized way as the “black horse”), he stops the Germans from making Topthorn the lead on a working line that he likely won’t be able to handle because of his poor health condition. Joey does so by making it clear he’s the right horse for the job instead, thus saving Topthorn’s life but threatening his own. More over, it is continuously noted throughout the film that Joey and Topthorn are the most beautiful horses the characters have ever seen. They both always look 10 times more meticulously groomed than the other horses in the film (despite doing hard labor at war). One explanation for that is that the horses’ caregivers all warrant gay readings in themselves. His first post-Albert caregiver is a handsome, dandy-ish British soldier played by Tom Hiddelson who buys the horse from Albert’s father (and introduces him to his lover horse). At one point he is caught drawing pictures of the horses. “I want to draw a picture of the horse for the boy,” he says in a oddly excited manner. This line reading perhaps drew the loudest laugh from myself personally, though the rest of the audience seem to find it less hilariously creepy. When the horses are captured by the Germans toward the beginning of the film, the soldiers hand them over to two young brothers (the older of which is played by David Kross of ‘The Reader’ fame). The relationship between the brothers is perhaps the most oddly homoerotic element of the entire film. They are intensely touchy, and the older brother’s protection of his younger brother is presented in an excessive, campy manner. When the army threatens to separate the two brothers, the older one risks both their lives to keep them together. “We must stay together,” he announces like something out of a Nicholas Sparks adaptation. And in one of the two or three mentions of women in the entire film, the younger brother asks the older one what the women were like at an event they are reminiscing about from before the war. “Not as a good as the food,” he responds. One of only two female characters in all of “War Horse,” Joey and his lover’s next caregiver is a campy, over-the-top little French girl (who scorns at the idea that her bearish but effeminate grandfather might have bought her an ugly dress). She treats them like her gay BFFs, talking to them about her boy troubles and re-naming them after “two boys that fought over her heart.” And though not technically his caregivers, there’s the two boys that save Joey (who at this point in the film has - spoiler alert again - lost his lover). In what is intended to be one of the film’s most dramatic scenes, a British solider and a German soldier wave white flags to solely go on the battlefield to free Joey from barb wire he’s become entangled in. As they work to unravel the horse, the conversation between the two of them gets exceedingly flirty, with the Brit asking the German if he misses “big strapping German girls” and then the German ending off the conversation by giving the Brit a set of pliers and saying, in reference to himself: “In memory of your handsome friend from Dusseldorf!” Then of course there’s Albert (played by the dreamy Jeremy Irvine)… Joey’s true love. Albert is obsessed with Joey from the moment they meet at he beginning of the film. He cries and pleads with his father not to sell him to the British army, which I suppose is relatively reasonable. But then four years later he’s gone to war - suggestively for the sole purpose of finding his horse - and all he can do is talk about the fucking horse. So much so that it seems the entire British army is well aware of Albert’s long lost love. (Please, please note: I don’t intend to be drawing a correlation between homosexuality and beastiality here, I assure you. Because Joey is so humanized, Albert’s relationship with him feels the same way). “He’s writing a love letter to his horse,” one of the other soldiers quips when someone asks what Albert is doing. The only moment in the film that suggests Albert has any interest in girls is toward the beginning, when he races Joey against another boy in his town, who is riding in a fancy car with a girl. The girl pays much attention to Albert, though in the end Joey can’t jump over a fence and thus Albert loses the race and her attention. Years later, both Albert and the boy in the car are in the trenches together at war. Albert starts taking about the incident with the girl and the car.. “Who was that girl,” he asks. “There was a girl?,” the other soldier responds, smiling. Exactly.
Antoine Hartley the movie isn’t rubbish I remember seeing WarHorse play last year I was shaking to much cause the War frightened the hell out of me but I won’t be this year Me and WarHorse Thursday 26th July 2018