Emily Watson — MomStart

War Horse Movie Review & Exclusive War Horse Clip Featuring Emily Watson & Jeremy Irvine

December 19, 2011 By Momstart 7 Comments

With a cast line up of Emily Watson, David Thewlis, Peter Mullan, Niels Arestrup, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irvine, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Kebbell, and the amazing director Steven Spielberg, War Horse turned out to be a beautiful masterpiece.

Up until watching the movie I thought this movie was going to be completely about the war and how this horse fit into the war. The war seems like a back story to me, yeah, there is a war and it was quite a devastating war with so much bloodshed. The gentleman’s war was gone. I’m not usually a fan of war movies but I really enjoyed the emotional journey that War Horse took me on. I laughed, I cried and I thought OMG is this really going to happen. But nothing was too much. Steven Spielberg managed to go from one scene to another without showing you the gun shots. You knew they happened but you didn’t have to see it. In one scene two young boys were shot for desertion, but a windmill was turning and when they were shot the windmill blocked the action and when the windmill passed again you saw them dead on the ground. We also missed the birth of Joey. We saw from Albert’s eye, as Joey was being born he watched from behind a fence and you could tell when it happened by his sudden reaction.

War Horse is based on the Broadway production where the story is told from the horses perspective and the movie started out without words. Just music and pictures of the land and Joey. Joey was a smart horse. Albert’s dad bought Joey at an auction when he was supposed to be looking for a pulling horse. Joey was not meant for work. Albert’s dad spent too much money and it ended up where everything that family owned now rested on Joey’s ability to learn how to plow a field. Joey did it and there was hope for the family again, but then the crop was washed out by rain and they had to sell the horse to keep their house. Albert was furiously depressed to find out his father sold his horse and ran to town to beg for his horse to be returned. A war officer bought him and promised that if he could he would return Joey to him one day.

Joey touched so many lives in his four year journey during the war. He was on the English side in the beginning with the first soldier that bought him, then when the German soldiers killed all the English soldiers with machine guns Joey became a German work horse. He pulled carts and was used by the two boys I mentioned above to escape the war. They were killed on a French families’ farm and a little girl fell in love with him. The Germans came back across their land and took the Joey away from her. There he became a war horse again. This time he was used to drag those huge artillery guns. Horses died daily doing this job. It was really hard to watch. The horses were so badly mistreated. Joe escaped and then found himself in the middle of a battle field and he got caught up in the barbed wire. Ohhhh, it was another scene that was very hard to watch. Guess who joined the war, Albert did. Albert was also very brave and never gave up on finding his horse. But Albert was injured and I want you to find out how the rest of the movie goes by getting yourself to the theater to watch it.

Although some of the scenes in the movie were hard to watch, the filmography was creative, well placed and made the movie amazing. I really liked watching War Horse and can’t wait to see it again with my husband.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: Emily Watson, Movie review, review, War Horse

Behind the Movie War Horse: Interview with Emily Watson

December 12, 2011 By Momstart 18 Comments

Emily Watson, English actor was asked to play the role of Rose Narracott in the movie War Horse. Before she considers any role she looks at her children’s schedule. Is there a holiday, she considers how long she’s going to be gone and where she’s going, how far away will she be from her family. She said when here children were younger it was easier because she could keep them with her but now has to leave them in school. In fact, she missed the first day of shooting War Horse so she could be home for the first day of school. I can’t blame her, I would want to be home for that too.

She said she just loved the scenery of where the movie was filmed. She said they filmed in the most beautiful part of England. “It’s in the southwest, in the county of Devon which is very fecund and rich and it’s a real, very traditional …..in the middle of it is this moorland called Dartmore where you can stand on it and you are not be able to see any sign of human habitation whatsoever. With these ancient outcrops of rock so that, that was pretty special to be there.”

Emily felt the movie was filmed beautifully and as an anti-war film you really get the idea that that particular war was pointless. 4 years of carnage and so much loss of life and a terrible miss treatment of animals. Steven Spielberg captured all of that beautifully without making you watch all of the carnage.

Emily was also asked about how she liked working with Steven Spielberg. She described him as a director with a lot of experience, “a lot of incredible technical feats and he’s a great action director, but he’s still very focused on performance.” And I have to say that everyone’s performance in War Horse made it an amazing and educational movie to experience.

Because of how important being a mother is to Emily Watson, I really loved Emily. I asked her what advice she would give to other mothers and she said that mother’s shouldn’t be so hard on themselves. Being a mother is hard. As a mother you have to make sure that you take a break and get some sleep. I felt like she was speaking directly to me. I’m always second guessing myself and worrying that I’m doing it wrong. From one mother to a mother, just let it go and move on. Believe you are a good successful mom providing for your family.

A little bit About Emily Watson:

Watson’s status as a leading actress in major Hollywood productions was cemented in 2002 with her roles in Red Dragon (2002), the third installment of Thomas Harris’ Hannibal Lechter series; the futuristic Equilibrium (2002); and, most notably, in Paul Thomas Anderson’s Punch-Drunk Love (2002), playing opposite Adam Sandler. While returning to the stage in 2002 and 2003 on both sides of the Atlantic, Watson has expressed interest in again working with Anderson. Emily Watson lives in London, England, UK, with her husband, Jack Waters.

All travel and expenses were covered by Disney and DreamWorks.

Filed Under: Movie review Tagged With: dreamworks, Emily Watson, Interview with Emily Watson, Steven Spielberg, War Horse

A Glamorous Red Carpet For War Horse

December 9, 2011 By Momstart 7 Comments

I must admit that being in the presence of Steven Spielberg was jaw dropping. I just felt like I was in the presence of greatness, I mean everything he has accomplished and many of my all time favorite movies have his name on the project somewhere. He’s fantastic and I loved how he introduced the cast to all of us before beginning the movie.

We would have met Joey too, if it wasn’t for the fact that there were 14 of them and Steven didn’t want the other 13 to get jealous.

It was a night of glamour for my friends and I too as all of us had the opportunity to get all dressed up. Before we even left the hotel I took photos of as many of the bloggers as I could and had a friend take a photo of me. I can’t remember the last time I had the opportunity to get this glammed up. While I was at the premier I felt like people thought I was someone famous. I actually had people come up to me, telling me how much they loved my dress and how spectacular I looked. It was a wonderful and humbling experience.

And you know all of Hollywood was in New York for the War Horse Premier, check out these War Horse Red Carpet Premier photos. In fact, let’s play, name that star! Please leave me a comment and tell me who is who?