World War I · Film · 2011
War Horse
A Devon farm boy's beloved horse, Joey, is sold to the army in 1914 and passes from British cavalry to German gunners and a French farm girl, while the boy grows up and goes to war to find him.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 4 places.
Stop 1: Narracott farm, Devon
Albert trains the colt his father overpaid for and together they plough a stony field that saves the family farm.
Stop 2: Cavalry charge in Flanders
Joey and the black stallion Topthorn charge a German camp with Captain Nicholls, straight into hidden machine guns.
Stop 3: No man's land on the Somme
Key location
Freed from hauling German guns, Joey bolts across the battlefield and ends up tangled in barbed wire between the trenches.
Stop 4: Home to Devon
When the war ends, the question is whether Albert and Joey will ever see the farm again.
What really happened
Spielberg's film adapts Michael Morpurgo's 1982 novel and the stage play it inspired. Joey is fictional, but his path follows what happened to real animals: in August 1914 the British Army requisitioned horses from farms across the country, and cavalry still expected to charge, as squadrons did in the opening weeks before machine guns and trenches ended mounted warfare in the West.
Horses stayed indispensable for hauling guns and supplies to the end of the war. Of about a million horses Britain sent abroad, only some 62,000 came home. The film's 1918 scenes are set during the Second Battle of the Somme, when the German spring offensive and the Allied counter-attack briefly brought movement back to the front.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- War Horse
- Directed by
- Steven Spielberg
- Countries
- United States, United Kingdom, India
- Languages
- English
- Released
- 2011
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Combat
