Two of Steven Spielberg's biggest films, "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List," focused on World War II.
Now he's tackling World War I for the first time.
And the prolific producer/director is approaching this war through a different lens. "War Horse" is a heartwarming journey about a strapping horse named Joey who ends up in active duty during World War I, the last major war that used horses on a regular basis. The film, already receiving early critics' awards, is out Christmas Day.
(That’s just four days after the Dec. 21 opening of Spielberg’s “The Adventures of Tintin,” a PG-rated, 3D animated action-adventure film.)
“War Horse,” based on a 1982 children’s book by British author Michael Morpurgo and a 2007 play adaptation, "War Horse" is being marketed as a sweeping war drama as Joey passes through several hands, including a young English farmboy, a British cavalryman, a German soldier and an old Frenchman. There's plenty of grit and death in the film, but Spielberg, in a recent phone interview, said he purposely made it less violent than his other war movies to gain a broader audience:
Q: How familiar were you with World War I before embarking on "War Horse"?
A: I was familiar with it through films such as "Wings" and "All Quiet on the Western Front." But I wasn't as familiar with the war, given how I pride myself on my historical knowledge. So I did a lot of reading. But instead of big historical overviews, I read memoirs from British, French and German soldiers that served during the war. That gave me a more personal look into the war, not as much a political one.
Q: Horses were still in use in the early 20th century. What was Joey's role?
A: He was a beast of burden on both the English and German sides. He was used with cavalry and for hauling military equipment. For hundreds of years, the horse was the most feared weapon in an army. This was a transitional time as we were starting to move away from horsepower. Yet millions of horses died. They died of wounds. They died of exposure and neglect. Our story isn't focused on all that death. It's a story of hope and courage and the tenacity of a young man [Joey's original owner]. He loves this horse and has it taken away from him by his father and sold to the British cavalry at the start of World War I. The horse is shipped across the English Channel to fight in France.
Q: You saw the play version of "War Horse" in England and became convinced it could be turned into a film.
A: It was brilliant. But the play used puppets for horses with impressionistic efforts. I knew in a movie I'd have to be much more realistic and use real horses in real locations.
Q: Have you ever worked this much with horses before?
A: I live with horses. I work with horses. In film, I've done so, too. I had to make Harrison Ford look good on a horse in Indiana Jones. But the focus was on Ford. The horses had to make my star look good! This is the first time I made the horse the star. The horse is the hero. But I'm not really the horse person. My wife and youngest daughter are avid riders. My daughter rides competitively all over America as a jumper. We have nine or 10 horses and 12 stables. We live with stable hands. We're very horse-centric where we live.
Q: Are you a good rider?
A: I don't ride. I'm a watcher... and a worrier.
Q: Why don't you ride?
A: I threw my back out in the mid-1980s during 'The Color Purple." We'd wake up at 5 in the morning, get on our horses and talk about the day's work. I twisted in my saddle as we rode and had irreparable back damage.
Q: The children's book is set through the eyes of the horse. This film is more like the stage play where it's really a narrative set around the horse. This is not "Mr. Ed," right?
A: Don't confuse this with the book, which has Joey speaking. We didn't take that approach at all. But you'll be able to see his thoughts through his body language and the look in his eyes. He turns a performance every bit as good as Jeremy Irvine [who plays Joey's original owner] and Emily Watson [who plays the mother.] He really matches the human actors moment for moment.
Q: You had to have used several different horses, right?
A: We used different horses for different things. But the horse we wound up returning to over and over again for acting was a thoroughbred with an innate sense of communication skills with humans.
Q: What is your target audience for this film?
A: I went out of my way to make it PG-13, despite the fact it's on a battlefield during World War I.
Q: It doesn't have the gory scenes of a "Saving Private Ryan."
A: Not gory -- not gory at all. There's no real blood in this movie. A lot of battle action, no real blood, nothing horrifying to look at. The horse seems like he's in horrifying jeopardy but never in real physical jeopardy during the scenes. That's the great illusion of cinema to make it look worse than it was.
Q: How crucial is the music, which often defines your films?
A: We got John Williams again. He always does my music. He's always there. I'm blessed for his existence. He's created one of the most beautiful, evocative scores of our 40 years of collaboration, one of the best scores of his lifetime.
Q: Why did the studio decide to time the film for Christmas?
A: I think it's a reason to bring families together during the Christmas season to share this experience.
Q: What was it like shooting in Britain?
A: I shot the whole film in the U.K. I've made many films there. It's my second home. The whole first act is in Devon. There's no place lik the Moors anywhere in the world. It was a scripted necessity to shoot those scenes there. We also shot England to look like France for the second part of the film.
Q: You were involved in Atlanta-based TNT's "Falling Skies." How did you feel the first season went?
A: It played great. It even hooked me. I don't usually watch stuff live. I usually watch on DVD. But I don't think I missed a week of "Falling Skies" on broadcast while it was being aired. There's something special knowing you are watching with millions of people at the same time. I thought the producers and writers did a great job. I started with Noah Wyle [the lead on "Falling Skies"] on "ER." I am really proud to be able to have Noah deliver this kind of success to all of us.
Movie preview
"War Horse"
Starring: Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup,Tom Hiddleston. Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch and Toby Kebbell.
Directed and produced by Steven Spielberg.
Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of war violence.
Opens Sunday at metro theaters. 2 hours, 26 minutes.
