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War Horse


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My cynicism has got the better of me. The footage from the trenches and the battlefields does look fantastic, but the central character is a horse. There are several shots from the trailer that made me laugh embarrassed at what I was seeing; the boy carries a drawing of the horse around with him. Maybe my cynicism will fade if I decide to see the film in December.

 

My faith in Spielberg has been shaken since 'The Lost World - Jurassic Park' and hasn't got much better (The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). I'm not particularly excited to see 'Tintin' either.

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I haven't seen the play, but it always seems darker than what the trailer seems to imply.

 

There were millions of horses used in world war one, with extremely high casualty figures. I've heard soldiers talking about the bond they formed with their horse during that war.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horses_in_World_War_I

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Saw "War Horse" today. Definitely schmaltz, but it works. The ending is visually reminiscent of the best of John Ford. Cinematography very accomplished. There is an "old school Hollywood" look to much of the film which I can appreciate although some day exteriors seemed over-lit to me

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My cynicism has got the better of me. The footage from the trenches and the battlefields does look fantastic, but the central character is a horse. There are several shots from the trailer that made me laugh embarrassed at what I was seeing; the boy carries a drawing of the horse around with him. Maybe my cynicism will fade if I decide to see the film in December.

 

My faith in Spielberg has been shaken since 'The Lost World - Jurassic Park' and hasn't got much better (The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull). I'm not particularly excited to see 'Tintin' either.

 

Yes the main character is a horse.

But weren't critics cynical when Spielberg announced that he was making a movie about Dinosaurs?

Let's give this movie a fair crack of the whip.

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I think that lives alongside musco lights and missed meal penalties as an example of something most of us will never see because we are not massively successful Hollywood DPs, so it becomes rather irrelevant.

 

Honestly, how often can this stuff possibly go out, even in LA where there's ten features over a hundred million shooting every weekday?

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Guest Stephen Murphy

"Warhorse" was shot over here ( GB] so those things would not be available here , i think Kaminski may have lost the plot when it comes to close ups in outside situation !

 

 

Actually there are a few Musco's in the UK.

 

So am I the only person who actually liked how Indy 4 looked? (the first hour of Indy 4 at least):-)

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Me neither, i thought the cinematography was pretty good, to me it looks like Kaminski tried to follow in the footsteps of Slocombe, paying a tribute to his cinematography, but with a personal "twist". Actually, I think the movie was ok, but it was almost completely ruined by the ending and by the way exposition was handled.

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Francesco how would define this personal "twist" love to know .

 

John, I don't know if "twist" is the right word, and if it is, I don't know if it's something that comes from Kaminski's approach or if is it a choice made by Spielberg in trying to "update" the series. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't remember Slocombe using nets or soft filters in the first 3 films, nor I do remember a strong use of shooting with back light, while Kaminski seems to use those quite a bit in pretty much everything he's shot, including Indy 4.

I also feel the camera moves a lot more in Indy 4 compared to the first 3 films, it's more "dynamic" so to speak.

Although I like the way Indy 4 looks, to me it looks slightly more "glamorous" or "polished" than the other 3 movies, if those two words make any sense.

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Back light yes give me more . My problem was he used so much light to fill the backlight .To me looked like a badly lit 60's anamorphic film and now thinking about it he doesnt like anamorphic and over lights it , which you just dont need to do .

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Back light yes give me more . My problem was he used so much light to fill the backlight .To me looked like a badly lit 60's anamorphic film and now thinking about it he doesnt like anamorphic and over lights it , which you just dont need to do .

 

Yes, I'd say I agree with you on the amount of fill. It's almost as if he went too far into getting a more "classic" high-key look for the picture.

Getting back to topic, I've heard from some people who've seen War Horse, and while they liked it a lot, they said daylight scenes look a little bit overlit too, so I don't think it has to do with the choice between anamorphic and spherical. I think that was a deliberate sylistic choice by Kaminski (in Indiana Jones 4, too) and it made sense to him, whether we like it or not. As I've written before, Indy 4 is definitely not my favorite in the series, but way more because of the story than the cinematography.

 

 

(DISCLAIMER: almost needless to say, I'm a huge fan of his work) :-)

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