War Horse

A friendship begins between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, who tames and trains him. When they are forcefully parted, the horse moves through the First World War, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets -- British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter.

Reception

The film has received generally positive reviews from critics. The first unofficial reviews by bloggers started appearing online the day of the first preview screening, 1 November 2011, with a review appearing on Ain't It Cool News on 3 November. Although there was an embargo on official reviews of the film being published before 21 December 2011, reviews started appearing in mainstream press such as The Daily Telegraph from 26 November onwards. A review in the Daily Mail called the film "Spielberg's finest hour", while The Guardian saw the film as a misfire, in which "Spielberg tries to infuse his film with a fairytale quality but merely provides it with a directorial straitjacket".  Richard Corliss of Time named it one of the Top 10 Best Movies of 2011, saying "Boldly emotional, nakedly heartfelt, War Horse will leave only the stoniest hearts untouched". Roger Ebert said the film contained "surely some of the best footage Spielberg has ever directed".
Review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes currently (30 December 2011) rates the film at 76% "Certified Fresh", with 103 out of 135 reviews being positive. The site's critical consensus is "Technically superb, proudly sentimental, and unabashedly old-fashioned, War Horse is an emotional drama that tugs the heartstrings with Spielberg's customary flair."