Arts & Entertainment

A Movie-able Feast: Greenbelters Dine and Review 'War Horse': Part III

Greenbelters use Facebook to review Spielberg's latest — after dining at Siri's Chef's Secret.

Following a Thai meal at in Greenbelt, and "War Horse" at Academy 8 Theaters, Greenbelt movie reviewers faced off on Facebook with a whirlwind of opinions.

Reviewing the movie for Patch were: Konrad Herling, Sheila Maffay-Tuthill, Anna Socrates and I was representing Patch.

This time instead of giving you four separate reviews, we're giving you review discussion in four parts. and posted last week. This is part three.

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War Scenes: Hard-to-Take or Realistic?

Sheila Maffay-Tuthill: War scenes are hard for me to comment on because I hid my eyes and wept a great deal.

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Konrad Herling: I thought it was realistic. But then, I've never been in a battle. You see Mathew Brady's photos of soldiers — this depicted the death of war horses.

Konrad Herling: That was pretty cool how they all were hiding while advancing in the corn (was it corn?) fields.

Sheila Maffay-Tuthill: That scene was pretty impressive.

Anna Socrates: The scene where the horse was running through the trenches was nightmarish and surreal. I thought it was well done, though I was screeching in my seat.

Bailey Henneberg: Even the ridiculous horse-running-miraculously-through-barbed-wire scene was filmed well.

Konrad Herling: Anna, it was similar to those wild car chase scenes where the driver never seems to have an accident. Joey did, at the very end — and yes being stuck in the barbed wire was perhaps contrived. However, there was a lot of barbed wire around there.

Anna Socrates: I might be a bit jaded. I am a junkie for WWI and WWII films. So I get very nitpicky.

Bailey Henneberg: Konrad, the barbed wire wasn't contrived, it was Joey making it through it that was. Still, it was shot so well Anna and I were practically screaming.

Bailey Henneberg: Wait, skip practically. Did I have to hand you the tissue then Anna?

Anna Socrates: I think that is when you handed me the tissue. And I admit, I was sobbing hysterically. But I was annoyed afterward. I felt that way during Spielberg's AI.

Bailey Henneberg: I was a blubbering lunatic at the end of AI.

Konrad Herling: My point was that he went through lots of barbed wire — could he really have made it through that without having stopped before he was completely wrapped up? That maybe that was contrived. But frankly, I think we've spent too much thinking of what is contrived.

Antiwar Message

Sheila Maffay-Tuthill: I am also probably viewing this partially through the eyes of a mother since this was billed as a family film by some. I know how inappropriate this film is for children and feel it could have been presented with less heart-wrenching gore and still told the story.

Bailey Henneberg: The gore was the most realistic thing about the film and had a strong antiwar message, I thought. But, yes, not for young children.

Konrad Herling: The doctor, at the end, thought that [Albert] contrived that the horse was his until he saw evidence. I'm sure that Spielberg (maybe I should be sure?) did his homework about horses role in war; that they were asked to do too much.

Bailey Henneberg: Interesting point Konrad. I think Spielberg did a good job of showing horses’ roles in battle. I wonder too if at times Joey wasn't a metaphor for what war does to all that is bright and beautiful?

Anna Socrates: It did have an antiwar message, but the wedding of sentimentality and war feels a little — I don't know — obscene maybe. In some ways it glorifies heroism on the battlefield. War is [horrible] — and miracle horses and men don't always survive.

Sheila Maffay-Tuthill: Any war film has a strong antiwar message to me since I am a pacifist. But this much ugly brutality was not called for to tell this story — he could have lessened by a large margin and still told the story. I love what Anna said.

Konrad Herling: The fact that the German knew English — OK, one could see that as being contrived — Would the German version have the British soldier speaking in perfect German? But it pointed out how much more they had in common than the differences that brought them to war.

Anna Socrates: Yes, but in the real world, they were all at it again 21 years later.

Konrad Herling: OK, I agree with Sheila. He could have made his point without being so graphic.

Bailey Henneberg: I think he tried to copy [Terrence Malick’s] “The Thin Red Line,” which contrasted the ugliness of war with the beauty of nature in a way that worked. But “War Horse” felt like multiple movies — “Black Beauty” and “Lassie Come Home” meet “Saving Private Ryan.” Konrad, I think graphic worked in “Saving Private Ryan,” it even worked here. But it didn't mix with Bambi, Lassie and Black Beauty.

Konrad Herling: Bailey, good comparison.

Anna Socrates: I think cinema does a bad job presenting war for what it is. Well, maybe “The Hurt Locker” — the FILM MADE BY A WOMAN — does it well. The sentimentality of a lot of war films, even though they have an antiwar message, is a very dangerous thing for our collective consciousness. I am thinking of Chris Hedges’ book, “War Is a Force that Gives Us Meaning.”

Sheila Maffay-Tuthill: I have gotta run — I give it two and a half pops [out of four] and my major criticism is HEAVY-HANDED! Thanks guys! Happy New Year!

Reviewers were working with different connection speeds, so the chat has been edited to keep conversation topics together. It has also been edited for grammar and trimmed.


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