|
As the title
"War Horse" implies, horses and the bond we
humans have with them are at the heart of Director/Producer
Steven Spielberg's "War Horse." Presented
by DreamWorks Pictures, "War Horse" depicts
the journey of a horse belonging to a farm family, and
beloved by their son, that is sold to the British Army
at the outbreak of World War I. As he changes hands
through the war, the horse affects the lives of all
the people who come in contact with him.
Though "War
Horse" is set in the World War I time period, it
is not a war story. As Producer Kathleen Kennedy explains,
"What's interesting about this story is that you're
watching the horse go through the war but you're not
necessarily watching a war film. It's not a story that's
designed to take you to the front lines to watch what
happens to these animals in war. It's really a story
about how the horse comes into contact with all the
aspects of the war and the people who represent all
the different sides of the war."
Horses on
set were not new to Director Steven Spielberg, but how
he would be working with them on "War Horse"
was a completely new experience. "I haven't made
a lot of horse movies. Usually in my movies, and in
most people's movies, like the 'Indiana Jones' films
for instance, a horse is something that Harrison Ford
rides on. My job is to focus the audience on Indiana
Jones, not his trusted steed. And so horses are usually
taken for granted," he says.
"I know
that horses really do convey tremendous expression,
and it's easy for anybody to read. But movies don't
often require us to spend any time dwelling on how the
horse is feeling," Spielberg continues.
When Spielberg
saw what the puppeteers had done so brilliantly on stage
with the play "War Horse," he realized that
they weren't forcing the horse to act like a human-they
were simply replicating the behavior of horses that
people all know but most of them don't observe. "The
puppeteers didn't try to anthropomorphize the horses
into human form-they just stayed horses, but the puppeteers
were brilliantly responsive to how the humans on stage
were interacting with the horses," he explains.
"I didn't know whether I could get that on film
or not, but I did. Bobby Lovgren, our kind of horse
whisperer who had done 'Seabiscuit' with us, came on
board to make the picture with us. He and his team performed
miracles with the horses."
Actor Tom
Hiddleston, who plays Captain Nicholls, the British
army officer who takes possession of the farm horse,
Joey, as his personal mount, also came to understand
how expressive the horses were. "I'm amazed by
the strength of the bond between horses and people.
Horses will teach you about who you are much more than
you could possibly learn on your own. They can sense
fear, arrogance, true confidence, true self-possession
and inner peace," he says.
Jeremy Irvine,
who plays Albert, the farm boy who raised Joey, was
surprised to learn how human the horses he rode on set
could be. "When I started working with the horses
on this film, I realized how human they are. They are
not like any other animal. They've just got these human
qualities and it's just something in us that connects
to horses. After you've spent a few weeks with them,
you start getting very emotional about a horse,"
he comments.
Director
Steven Spielberg sums up working with the horses on
"War Horse": "I want to believe that
the horses knew exactly what they were doing and performed
those parts the same way that Emily Watson or Peter
Mullan did. They were all performers. There were times
in the movie when I wouldn't even tell the horses what
to do. They'd be in a scene and would be reacting in
that scene in ways I couldn't imagine a horse would
be able to react or act."
PUTTING THE "HORSE" IN "WAR HORSE"
The search
for horses that could bring the required performances
to the screen took several avenues yet was very specific.
Though most of the horses came from Europe and were
warmbloods and Andalusians, Finder, a thoroughbred who
belongs to trainer Bobby Lovgren, came from the U.S.
Finder was the only specialty horse that had prior experience
and film work as a liberty horse, which means he works
without restraints. As Bobby Lovgren explains, "Finder
was the only horse with experience coming into it, so
he was always our fall back if something changed filming-wise
or we had to do something different."
Finding the
main equine characters of the film was fairly easy,
but finding all of the doubles that were needed proved
to be the difficult part. Casting calls really don't
work for animals because the trainers don't know if
the owners are hiding what the horse can or cannot do,
so it was easier for the production to get them by word
of mouth. "It's important to know the animal before
you go in because you have such a short period of time
to prepare the horses for the film," Lovgren says.
Fourteen
horses were required to play the part of Joey, the hero
horse, as the story follows him from a foal through
his adult life. Basically, a foal, a yearling, an adolescent
and an adult were needed as well as doubles that specialized
in different tricks or movements.
Trainer Bobby
Lovgren admits that working with the foals was the most
difficult part of his work on the film. "I would
say the biggest challenge to me was the work that we
did with the foals, because they are like working with
a little child," Lovgren says.
"They
get tired quickly, so you need a number of doubles with
them," he continues. "Luckily for me, I have
done quite a few films with foals, having them do specialty
things. So, the experience helped me, but they're not
easy to manipulate. They're so young that you can't
spend as much time training them and getting them ready
as you would an adult horse. Number one, they're just
too young mentally. And number two, if you take the
time for them to grow up mentally, then they have grown
too much physically and are no longer baby foals."
Many of the
scenes with horses in "War Horse" were complex
and intense. The trainers had to coax a lot of emotion
from the horses-looking happy, looking sad and looking
frightened. Bobby Lovgren recalls, "Having the
horses get those looks was a difficult thing to pull
off. Things that a normal person would see as easy are
difficult to us. For example, just having the horse
stand alone by himself could be tremendously difficult
because horses typically don't want to just stand still.
Horses in movement are always easier than a horse being
stationary."
The production
team assembled an equestrian department with all the
people needed to care for and train the horses for "War
Horse"-from groomers to riders to trainers and
even makeup artists to do markings on the horses.
"It's a huge undertaking and very time consuming
in the process of shooting, too, because you have to
take into consideration that these are animals that
have to be taken care of and they get tired just like
other actors," says Producer Kathleen Kennedy.
"We usually had to have backup horses that could
step in, just the way you do for actors with stand-ins.
We had cavalry charges that needed in excess of one
hundred horses."
SAFETY
FIRST
Director/Producer
Steven Spielberg insisted from the beginning of production
that the horses had to be kept safe. He did not want
them to experience as much as a scratch. "I didn't
want that sword of Damocles hanging over my head for
the rest of my life because I love horses," he
says. "Even though there's violence in the picture
directed toward horses and man, I didn't want any horses
to be in harm's way."
In order
to ensure the horses' safety, Spielberg had trainer
Bobby Lovgren evaluate the horses' proposed actions
in a particular scene for safety and entrusted him to
come up with different ways to approach the scene to
put safety first for the horses if need be.
The scenes
in war presented particular challenges to the safety
of the horses. Lovgren explains how steps were taken
to keep the animals safe: "Shooting a scene, I
would know the sequence and we would set up the shot
with the First A.D. and decide where it would be best
shot with the horses in mind. We made sure things were
not dangerous. We had the armaments that they used in
the First World War and the barbed wire, which we made
sure were all fake."
American
Humane Association was also active on set with the presence
of their representative Barbara Carr, who was there
for every shot involving the horses. Says Spielberg,
"I gave Barbara the complete, final cut so to speak,
to pull the plug if she felt any of the horses were
not up to the challenge or any of the horses were in
any way in harm's way."
Spielberg
gave Carr input on set in the planning of the stunt
or the action the horse had to perform and also gave
her opportunities to watch rehearsals in slow motion,
done one step at a time, so she could determine whether
it would be safe for the horse.
In the end,
American Humane Association's Film and TV Unit logged
1,100 hours on "War Horse" sets in England
and California and safeguarded more than 100 horses.
The production complied with American Humane Association's
"Guidelines for the Safe Use of Animals in Filmed
Media" to ensure the safety of the horses and "War
Horse" earned American Humane Association's highest
certification rating, Monitored: Outstanding. "No
Animals Were Harmed."
THE HORSES' IMPACT ON THE "WAR HORSE" STORY
Horses are
integral to the "War Horse" story on many
levels. First and foremost is the relationship and the
unbreakable bond between the hero horse Joey and Albert,
the boy who cared for him on the farm. "I think
that bond was always very important and was what attracted
us in the beginning to this story, that it is a celebration
in a sense," states Kathleen Kennedy. "It's
the recognition that this relationship can prevail against
all odds. That's what I think is so emotional about
the story; that you become so invested in the need to
have this reunion between horse and boy."
For Spielberg,
whether the horses were in the hands of the British
or the Germans, the important element was the way in
which the characters empathized with and connected to
the animals. "I think that, by and large, people
who are around horses have a great deal of humanity,
especially if they're directly in charge of the care,
the feeding and the grooming of a horse," says
Spielberg. "So, whether it's the British side or
the German side, we don't take sides in terms of who's
right and who's wrong in this conflict. It's really
about how do these characters relate to the horses.
The characters who do relate to the horses have no political
agenda; their main concern is for the safety and the
care of the horses, their charges. That was a very,
very important thing, and that's what I think gives
a little more humanity to this particular kind of war
story."
Adds Kathleen
Kennedy, "I think what this story so effectively
does is that it shows that there were so many innocent
victims. Having an animal that represents this journey
is a way to access and understand what the horrors of
that war must have been like."
The filmmakers
feel that moviegoers will invest their emotions in the
horse, Joey, which allows them to witness the war from
a distance. As Kennedy says, "Everybody cares about
what happens to that animal. I don't know why that is,
but I think that with this story you feel that people
are projecting onto this animal all of their emotional
feelings about the horrors of war."
War Horse
will be released in UK cinemas on 13 January
|
