Book/Movie post: War Horse
War Horse, a 1982 children’s novel by Michael Morpurgo and a 2011 film adaptation of the book, directed by Stephen Spielberg. If I had only read the book or seen the film, I think my review of either would have been glowing, but having seen the film, reading the book somehow made me enjoy both less.
The story centres around Joey, a part-thoroughbred horse owned by a boy named Albert. The novel is narrated by Joey; the film gives the human characters and their stories a bit more prominence, for hopefully obvious reasons. At the outbreak of war, Joey is sold to a cavalry captain and taken to the front, against Albert’s wishes. Albert promises Joey that he will find him and bring him home. The story then follows his experience as a cavalry horse, pulling an ambulance, being cared for on a farm, and as an artillery horse, on both sides of the war.
Cut for length.
