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WAR HORSE competitive crying thread

105 replies

MitchierInge · 09/01/2012 16:40

I know I'm not the only person snivelling through the trailer when it appears. Anyone seen it sneakily yet?

Was more than a bit traumatising on page and stage so am preparing for worst. (Cannot help noticing no mention of OUR major Morpurgo adaptation yet :()

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PostBellumBugsy · 13/01/2012 11:15

Another MNer who can't even watch the trailer without welling up. No way on earth you'd get me to go & see it. I love horses & know that I'd be really traumatised!

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 11:17

think how brave those horses were though, and the men there

they actually went through it

we are being silly, it is only a film

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PostBellumBugsy · 13/01/2012 11:23

... but it is a film about the first world war (even if it is based on a story book) & that was a horrific war & horses (& humans) fared so, so, badly.

Tmesis · 13/01/2012 13:37

marge2, I know (slightly) the woman who did the horse makeup for the film (she had to get all the different horses playing Joey looking like the same horse) so I can ask if you like?

ExitPursuedByaBear · 13/01/2012 14:15

Excellent review of the film in today's Daily Telegraph. Whilst reading it I almost felt I might, just might, be able to go and see it, but then I remembered I have never been able to watch Dumbo and thought, nah. Maybe I will try the book. And get it out on DVD in the future when I can sob and snot and cease the action as appropriate/necessary.

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 15:06

'saving private seabiscuit' that made me smile

otherwise, fuck

I don't know, why did I somehow think the ending would make the bad stuff worth it? That sort of warfare, how can it have been so recent? ugh

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LowRegNumber · 13/01/2012 15:11

Omg, two hours till we go... I am already fighting hack tears at the thought of it [pathetic] Have stocked up on pocket tissues and am planning large popcorn for distraction. You are right mitchy, it is just a film but I think the problem us that we have too much ability to empathise and sympathise with the love and the loss even if not that actual fear of the war. Must stop talking now, going to collect dc with red eyes is not a good thing!

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 15:17

I've changed my mind, its not just a film! Don't do it!

(I was crying before the title came up, but you will see why it was sort of in a nice way at first)

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LowRegNumber · 13/01/2012 15:18

[Grin]

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 15:25

be brave! Confused

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ExitPursuedByaBear · 13/01/2012 15:25

But it isn't just a film is it? It is based on a true story. And recently there have been a couple of similar tales in the DT. A fabulous picture of a chap who found a horse in France, went through the war with it and brought it home and went out hunting. And another who took his horse with him and brought it home. Lovely heartwarming stuff, but it is the others........

Mirage · 13/01/2012 15:28

I saw the horsey make up lady on the H&C channel yesterday.They showed a trailer and I cried.Blush

My great grandad worked with horses during WW1.He was a breeder before he was called up and was watching a lame horse being trotted up one day and diagnosed the problem.His owner was so pleased he got him a job away from the fusileers and working with the horses.He drove a horse drawn ambulance too.

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 15:32

(it's not as good as the play, if I take my sentimental horse loving lenses out and look at it slightly more critically - although bits of the play are there, at the beginning)

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LowRegNumber · 13/01/2012 17:23

I made it to the cinema anyway :D

carrotsandcelery · 13/01/2012 18:23

This will sound really pathetic but I don't want to go if any horses are killed or treated very badly in the film. Has anyone got time to pm me and tell me if it is safe to go or not please. I don't want to spoil it for anyone by having my questions answered here.

Also, my dd (10, nearly 11) really wants to see it. Why is it a 12? Is it the violence of the war scenes or something else? She knows what language not to use etc but again, if it was very violent towards a horse she might be distraught.

Sorry for interupting the thread but I am keen and terrified at the same time. I don't want to be sad for days and days.

Thank you!

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 18:34

this isn't a spoiler but obviously it is about the millions of horses worked to death, ridden into bullets and otherwise slaughtered in horrific muddy, barbed wire, you know WW1 conditions so - obviously it (the film especially) is also about other things, a sort of 'ugh, English class system was/is so unfair' and so on

I don't know, it is a children's story, definite educational value but I don't know what sort of children will cope well with one particular protracted scene of misery (I am scarred!)

maybe read the book?

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carrotsandcelery · 13/01/2012 18:39

We have the book Mitchier but I am too scared to read it with her. I don't think I will cope with it tbh. Thank you for responding.

I love Morpurgo's books btw, just can't cope with violence towards animals.

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 18:42

I think for children it must help that it's all made very clear that the bad things are pushed by wider forces beyond any individual's control, the people generally are good and kind to the animals and (and one another) try to make things easier for them - there is no deliberate cruelty as such, just harsh reality of the physical and political conditions.

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LowRegNumber · 13/01/2012 20:40

I would second that, harsh reality. Ds (9)found one scene very distressing, dd(7) was fine but had lots of questions afterwards. Both dc are sensitive natured but had read the book and seen the show... It is not easy to watch given the knowledge that it was real iyswim.

Chubfuddler · 13/01/2012 20:49

A horse tried to kill me but I still love them. I don't think I can watch this film tbh, I've never recovered from reading black beauty at an impressionable age, and when matt Munro singing Born Free came on the radio unannounced a few months ago I burst into tears. A lion not a horse obviously but animal tear jerk stuff kills me.

SaggyOldClothCatPuss · 13/01/2012 20:54

I think the book would be ok for you, although there is violence, it is written for children, and is not graphic or detailed. I was more affected by the generally sentimental parts than the violence.

LowRegNumber · 13/01/2012 22:54

I think it depends in how good your imagination is, I suffered through the book!

Pixel · 13/01/2012 23:28

This thread has reminded me of 'The Grass Memorial' by Sarah Harrison, has anyone else read it? Crikey, that book made me feel very strange and depressed for weeks. It was beautifully written, I couldn't put it down, but it took a lot out of me. The theme is similar in a way, the first scene is a mare named Clementine and her rider (Harry, a captain in the Hussars) dying together from their injuries as they lay in a sunny field after a bloody battle in the Crimean war. We are then taken back to their shared story from when Clemmie was presented to Harry as a sixteenth birthday present, until their tragic end.
I'm making it sound simple, it's actually a very complicated book spanning over a hundred years, with different characters separated by miles and generations yet also connected, but it's that first scene with Harry and Clemmie that I could never get out of my head.
"The last sound that he heard was the distant pealing of bells, ended by a dull, truncated explosion. Clemmie did not move, for she had already gone."

And there you have the reason why I don't have the guts to read War Horse. But I still recommend The Grass Memorial, especially if you enjoy well-researched historical novels. It's one of my books that I don't lend out in case I don't get it back, even if I never read it again it deserves to stay on my bookshelf!

muddywindydales · 13/01/2012 23:45

I've had the book on my kindle since it came out. I haven't read it yet!
DD(9.11) has just started reading the book, and says she likes it.

We are off to see it next weekend. I'm not sure though, i hate crying in public.Blush

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MitchierInge · 13/01/2012 23:47

that sounds interesting pixel, am filing under m for might want to risk that

have concluded the play is definitely worth seeing even if you decompensate at some point during it

the film I think not so much (unless am embittered from the long wait, the emotional trauma of watching it alone and, recent realization, not liking/understanding film much in general)

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