Beautiful, sentimental and definitely old Hollywood, Steven Spielberg’s War Horse is one WWI family drama that handsomely gallops through both the sweetness of life and the harshness of war.

War Horse pays homage John Ford’s films, with sets meant to look like a sound stage (a trait of golden age Hollywood), the beautiful, vibrant and colorful skies, rustic landscapes and the homey farm of our protagonist family – the Narracott’s. These are hardworking, good people fighting to make ends meet against an oppressing landlord (David Thewlis).

Like Black Beauty, War Horse, adapted from an eponymously titled book, follows the life of a young thoroughbred foal that matures into a gorgeous horse that is loved uncompromisingly, and at times gallantly, by his first master Albert (Jeremy Levine). Like Beauty, he changes many hands after he is sold off to a British soldier Captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston who is oozing with charm).

Subsequently smaller stories of his temporary masters follow. As a film centered during WWI, the stories are centered on German, British and French characters. Written by Lee Hall and Richard Curtis, these stories are infrequently somewhat maudlin and never sparkling.

The war scenes are PG-13 – even when they are harsh and harrowing. The film’s first war scene features a battlefield filled with bodies, and its final scene has Joey (the name of our star-horse), running in panic though barb-wired trenches. Though the scene is mostly shot in silhouette, it is one of the hardest to watch, and even then there is no visible gore. It is also one of the most humane scenes in War Horse.

War Horse also features an excellent supporting cast of Peter Mullan, Emma Watson (Albert’s parent, the Narracotts) and Niels Arestrup.

War Horse, Spielberg’s second kiddie-friendly outing after Tintin, has one innate flaw which Tintin does not have: it doesn’t look or feel like a Spielberg film. Still, one can’t help but appreciate the optimistic, wholesome, view of War Horse in this cynical world, knees deep in recession. — Farheen Jawaid