\nBaz Bamigboye <\/a><\/p>\n
Last updated at 11:49 PM on 1st December 2011<\/p>\n
Steven Spielberg tells me he is crazy about horses. He keeps ten on his West Coast farm \u2014 he even rolls his sleeves up and helps muck out once in a while. <\/span><\/p>\n His wife rides \u2014 well \u2014 and his youngest daughter is a budding dressage champion. <\/span><\/p>\n Taking a ride: Jeremy Irvine as Albert, the film’s leading man\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But Spielberg himself hasn\u2019t sat in a saddle since 1985. The director busted his back while filming The Color Purple, and a horse was to blame. <\/span><\/p>\n Menno Meyjes, The Color Purple\u2019s screen-writer, liked to take early morning rides across the 1,000-acre set. Spielberg liked to accompany him. After a few weeks of roaming the range, though, he realised that something was seriously wrong with his back.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I went to see a therapist and he asked me how I was sitting. I was twisting my whole body to have a conversation with Menno and, with the movement of the horse, it did my back in forever,\u2019 he tells me sadly. It wasn\u2019t the first time he\u2019d had trouble with a horse, either. When he was a boy, he was thrown by one. \u2018My first impression of a horse was lying on the ground, as an eight-year-old, looking up as it backed over me and stepped on me. Twice. Horses and I had a rough beginning,\u2019 he says with a wry laugh. <\/span><\/p>\n Horses re-entered his life when his wife, Kate Capshaw, started riding dressage. <\/span><\/p>\n Then his daughter Destry, got bitten by the same bug. She was plonked on top of a pony when she was just two and a half. Now 15, she competes nationally in the U.S. where she\u2019s considered one of the best young riders in the country. Her dream, her father says, is to one day compete in the Olympics. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Look, I love horses,\u2019 Spielberg insists. \u2018I just haven\u2019t been on one since 1985.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n The world\u2019s most successful film-maker, and the horse lover who can no longer ride, has found another way to connect with these beautiful creatures. Up close: Actor Jeremy Irvine, left, with members of the crew during rehearsals<\/p>\n<\/div>\n He is turning the world\u2019s most lucrative equine literary property, Michael Morpurgo\u2019s 1982 children\u2019s novel War Horse, into an on-screen epic of courage and sacrifice. <\/span><\/p>\n In Morpurgo\u2019s book, the story is narrated from the point of view of Joey, the red bay with four white \u2018socks\u2019 and a distinctive white cross on his forehead, who goes to live on the Narracott Farm on the edge of Dartmoor. <\/span><\/p>\n It is Joey who tells us how young Albert Narracott cared for him, and when the horse is sold to the British army cavalry and sent to the Western Front in 1914, it is through Joey\u2019s eyes that we see the hell and horror of the War, where the flower of a generation \u2014 and eight million horses \u2014 perished. <\/span><\/p>\n The National Theatre\u2019s celebrated stage play used life-size puppets for the horses but Spielberg knew from the get-go that he had to use real horses for his film. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Look, I love horses. I just haven\u2019t been on one since 1985.\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Having said that, he is quick to point out that this is no talking horse picture. \u2018Never, never!\u2019 he insists, as if to banish the spectre of Mr Ed (\u2018Wilbur!\u2019). <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018There was never a single moment where I said: \u201cI\u2019m going to have a horse that thinks out loud!\u201d That never occurred to me.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n He\u2019d already read War Horse and had made up his mind to make the film before he and his wife travelled to London to see the play. \u2018I cried \u2014 twice,\u2019 he tells me.<\/span><\/p>\n He still marvels at the stagecraft that enabled a young Joey to mature before our eyes \u2014 something he says is impossible to recreate in a movie. \u2018It\u2019s one of the great conceits of the theatre,\u2019 he says. <\/span><\/p>\n What he can recreate, though \u2014 and has done in his film \u2014 is Morpurgo\u2019s ability to tell a simple tale, about a boy and a horse, in such a way that it speaks to young and old. \u2018The thing that touched me so much about Michael Morpurgo\u2019s material was that he was telling a story about courage\u2009. He used courage to bring humans and animals together, in a kind of mutual respect. And the play brought that home even stronger,\u2019 Spielberg tells me. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I\u2019m just trying to be the next iteration of this wonderful experience: an experience that should be shared with more people than can read a children\u2019s book or see a play.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Despite much of the film being set in the Great War, Spielberg has been careful to keep the blood and guts to a minimum. He wants it to be a tale for all ages \u2014 although he concedes that very young children may still find it frightening. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018It\u2019s for families: mums and dads, grandparents, young people but not for young, young children. Some of War Horse is difficult because it\u2019s violent, but not bloody.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n On set: Steven Spielberg, centre, sets up his next shot during filming<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It\u2019s a fine line, but Spielberg steers along it carefully. One great scene shows a doomed British cavalry charge at a German encampment. Men \u2014 including Joey\u2019s war-time master Captain Nicholls (played by Tom Hiddleston) \u2014 and horses are chopped down by the German machine guns. It is awful and awe-inspiring, in equal measure.<\/span><\/p>\n I first saw War Horse at the National Theatre four years ago, and I knew then that this was that rarest of beasts: a story for children, that could make grown men weep. <\/span><\/p>\n I followed its progress when it galloped into the West End, and then on to Broadway, breaking box office records, and hearts, wherever it went. <\/span><\/p>\n With bated breath I watched as even the great Spielberg fell under the spell of the wonder horse. And I tried for months \u2014 without success \u2014 to secure an interview with the 64-year-old director.<\/span><\/p>\n Then, suddenly, the message came: if I could get to Richmond, Virginia \u2014 where Spielberg was shooting his next film, Lincoln (starring Daniel Day-Lewis as Honest Abe) \u2014 within 48 hours, the director would see me. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Not a single horse was injured or even A hellish journey involving a long layover in Newark ensued. But by the time I got to Richmond, it is Spielberg who is feeling \u2018under the weather\u2019. We sit outside, Spielberg bundled up to the eyeballs in a grey winter coat, scarf and cap. All the trailers, for the cast and crew, have been drawn into a circle, like an old-fashioned wagon train. When he speaks, he leans forward to make sure I catch everything that he is saying. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Not a single horse was injured or even distressed during the making of the film \u2014 even though some of the images on the screen look hair-raising. ‘It was done safely with great trainers who were five-and-a-half-feet away at all times. We had a wonderful trainer Bobby (Lovgren) \u2014 our ‘horse whisperer’, and Barbara Carr, from the Humane Society and I pretty much turned the proper handling and the allocation of work over to them. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018They gave me the schedule for the horses, and they told me which horses could work, and for how long. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018And when it came time to rest the horse, they didn\u2019t care that I hadn\u2019t finished a take, or that I wasn\u2019t satisfied with the takes I was getting. It was just time for that horse to be pulled. And I accepted that without complaint,\u2019 he says. <\/span><\/p>\n Joey, horse lovers will be interested to know, is not one horse \u2014 he is 14: Eight full-grown horses, four colts, and two foals, all bearing the same distinctive markings. They were deployed on the basis of their various talents: one could rear up on command; two were used for riding scenes; two more for ploughing; while another trotted on for close ups.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the string \u2014 a horse called Finder \u2014 had the dubious distinction of playing both the grown-up Joey, and Joey\u2019s mother, in a carefully-shot scene where we see the foal\u2019s birth. (Finder is lying down, allowing him to masquerade as a mare.)<\/span><\/p>\n Jeremy Irvine, who plays Albert Narracott, rode a Spanish \u2018Joey\u2019 \u2014 real name Civilon \u2014 in scenes where they had to gallop.<\/span><\/p>\n Tom Hiddleston, who rides Joey into battle, was given another Spanish steed, Sueno.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite being undisputed master of the film set (his director\u2019s chair famously bears the word \u2018Dad\u2019, because when the camera rolls, \u2018I\u2019m the daddy\u2019), Spielberg tells me he was forbidden to feed the horses \u2014 not even a sugar lump.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018The worst thing for me to do would be to give the horses a snack and then suddenly, in the middle of a shot, have Joey \u2014 or whoever was playing him \u2014 spot me next to the camera and leave the mark and walk right over to me, expecting something.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018They warned me \u2014 and everybody else, too \u2014 \u201cdon\u2019t give treats to the horses!\u201d Leave it to the trade professionals.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Spielberg says it had been very important to find a lead actor who could be comfortable, and safe, with the four-legged stars.<\/span><\/p>\n He found his man in Jeremy Irvine, 21, a lad from Bedfordshire who at the time of auditioning was playing a tree in a play for the Royal Shakespeare Company.\u00a0 \u2018I didn\u2019t want an experienced actor,\u2019 Spielberg says. \u2018I wanted a new actor who would be confident around horses, even if he was not an equestrian \u2014 which Jeremy wasn\u2019t. He\u2019d never been on a horse,\u2019 he laughs.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018But I wanted someone who had that optimism and na\u00efvet\u00e9 that young people have. The belief that they can achieve something, despite being surrounded by nay-sayers and people trying to hold them back. He already had that spirit in him.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018He didn\u2019t bring any ego. I just wanted a young boy who was open to the possibilities of what he may have to give up to get his horse back.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Was it a risk casting a complete unknown in such a huge project?<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Every time I use a new person who has never been in a movie before it is a risk,\u2019 he tells me. He mentions a few of these \u2018unknowns\u2019 who are now not very unknown at all: Christian Bale in Empire Of The Sun; Drew Barrymore and Henry Thomas in E.T.; Dakota Fanning in War Of The Worlds. <\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m starting to see his point. He explains how he always trusts \u2018the little tickle\u2019: the feeling in his gut that says \u2018I\u2019m not certain if this person can pull this off 100 per cent, but there\u2019s enough to work with.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018We saw hundreds of kids for Albert, and when you see hundreds of kids that\u2019s a benefit because you are able to compare and contrast.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Jeremy kept coming back to the top of the list, week after week after week.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Irvine acquits himself remarkably well, helped by as solid a troupe of British acting talent as you\u2019ll ever hope to find: Peter Mullan, as his father; Emily Watson as Rose, his indomitable mum (Spielberg calls her \u2018Mother Courage\u2019); and Tom Hiddleston and Benedict Cumberbatch as British officers. <\/span><\/p>\n The Great War is a backdrop really to the story of a boy on a mission to bring his best friend \u2014 who just happens to be a horse \u2014 home. It\u2019s a Spielbergian theme used in his best pictures. E.T. wants to go home. The team led by Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan want to get Matt Damon out of harm\u2019s way and back into his mother\u2019s arms. <\/span><\/p>\n Albert Narracott carries a regimental pennant his Dad got in the Boer War. He can\u2019t talk to Albert about what he suffered in the Transvaal \u2014 he endures his war wounds with a stoicism that\u2019s as British as the Dartmoor fields he farms. <\/span><\/p>\n Albert ties the pennant on Joey as the horse is led away to be ridden overseas. The scrap of cloth becomes a leitmotif and helps Albert to understand, at least a little better, what his father went through.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019ve seen War Horse twice now and I\u2019m not ashamed to say that I wept when I saw that pennant a final time. <\/span><\/p>\n Spielberg admits to being fascinated by history \u2014 a gift from his father, Arnold, who told him stories about his experience as an Army Air Corps pilot in WWII. They talked about the Great War, too, and the Holocaust \u2014 which led to Spielberg making what some regard as his most important film to date: Schindler\u2019s List.<\/span><\/p>\n He says Americans are, of course, aware of WWI and its importance, but he doesn\u2019t expect them to know or understand every movement of that war, or the \u2018symphony of events\u2019 that fascinate him so.<\/span><\/p>\n His War Horse is not, he says, a historical perspective. But the loss, the loyalty, the courage and the sacrifice that typified the war to end all wars is seared into every frame. I defy anyone to watch it without being deeply and profoundly moved by the needless slaughter on both sides. <\/span><\/p>\n
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\ndistressed during the making of the film \u2014 even though some of the
\nimages on the screen look hair-raising. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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