Comments on: Review: Steven Spielberg’s ‘War Horse’ An Awards Bait Movie Overloaded With Nostalgia & Sentiment

By: Collin

Collin — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:48:17 +0000

"…the king of audience manipulation"

Audience manipulation is the basis of filmmaking.

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:48:17 +0000

Looking forward to seeing this movie when it reaches the USA!

By: MIKE

MIKE — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:48:17 +0000

First off, Speilberg is such good director! He doesn't care about awards like you say. He cares about art. War Horse looks like such emotional movie that it probably meant a lot to him. If you created piece of art and someone said you just wanted a award, you'd be really hurt. Think about this great director's feelings before you jump to conclosions.

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:48:17 +0000

Such cynicism, sure it's sentimental, but "no motivation for it to exist except to win awards"? This is a story that was acclaimed and reached a lot of people 30 years ago as a novel, and has been a critical & commercial sensation as a play in London & on Broadway. Spielberg has multiple awards from pretty much every awards body, and has the power to get any film he wants made, I highly doubt he would be motivated to waste part of his life making a film that didn't mean something to him or that he didn't think would reach his audience just for awards at this point. In fact is argue against the very idea of Oscar bait as the entire motivation behind any project. Sure some actors and crew may sign up for things based on that, but even if the films are in the academy's wheelhouse it doesn't mean there is no other reason for it to exist. Take the King's Speech, people like to cry Oscae bait foul on that film but the filmmakers were clearly interested in telling an inspiring true story, without resorting to audience manipulation ala The Blind Side.

By: Nik Grape

Nik Grape — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:48:17 +0000

Nicely written and it seems to be confirming every doubt I had about this film. Looks like it all boils down to "if you don't like horses or pretty cinematography, you'll fall asleep".

By: Semp

Semp — Sun, 22 May 2016 04:48:17 +0000

"it feels like thereâs no motivation for it to exist except to win awards"
You're jumping to conclusions. This kind of sentence should not belong in a film review. Review the film and not the supposed intent of the director which you can only imagine by speculation. Obviously, there are many motivations for Spielberg to shoot something like War Horse (the impulse to revisit old theme, the wish to expand the scope to make nature a character, the impulse to create a story of hope in difficult times and to offer it to a world who's having a difficult time rendering people cynical, the challenge of re-creating the cinema of the old Hollywood masters of which Spielberg is by many aspects the heir, the wish to create the illusion of a dream through lighting and camera work and not through the invention of a supernatural world (the ending is filmed like it comes from a dream; this is what makes it interesting; who cares if it resembles Gone with the wind). But to try to pintpoint one motivation and make it the only explanation possible for this film makes you look like a snob cynical.