Warhorse

In the 1930s there were a series of movies made with an inanimate object as the vehicle for a group of stars to perform in short stories around a theme.   My favorite is If I had a Million (1932) where a dying millionaire becomes a benefactor to a group of major Hollywood stars of the time (it works so well that the millionaire has a miraculous recovery!).   The most recent movie I can remember of this type is the Yellow Rolls Royce (1964) which revolves around three owners of a car.

Steven Spielberg has reinvented the genre with Warhorse, but this time it involves the stories of several people and a horse.   The movie is very entertaining.   It begins in Ireland when a tenant farmer acquires a thoroughbred horse at auction when he should have bought a plow horse.  The son trains the horse to do some amazing things.   But eventually it is sold to become an army horse in WWI.

The movie is a melodrama in the best sense of the word.  You know how it will come out.  But each of the stories is engaging and the characters, for the most part are well crafted.   The ending is a bit retro (think Gone with the Wind) but even with that it was an enjoyable experience.