Posts Tagged ‘World War I’
Review – War Horse
January 7th, 2012 | 
Author: 
Short Take: A harrowing story that's emotional but not sappy. Distinctly Spielbergian.
Director: Steven Spielberg
Screenwriters: Lee Hall and Richard Curtis; Michael Morpurgo (novel)
Cast: Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson, Peter Mullen, Niels Arestrup, David Thewlis, Tom Hiddleston
Length: 2h 26m
Synopsis: It is the era of World War I. The horse of a poor farmer boy (Irvine), named Joey, is sold to the English cavalry so that his family can pay the debt on their farm. Distraught, the boy offers to enlist in the army but is too young. From then on the horse changes hands from a Captain (Hiddleston), to a grandfather (Arestrup) and his granddaughter (Celine Buckens), and a handful of others. All who find themselves in charge of the horse fall in love with it. In having so many different owners Joey ends up traveling far from his original home, and although he has affections for some of his new owners he ultimately seeks to return to the poor farmer boy who raised him. In the end, as property of the German army, Joey risks everything in a desperate charge towards English forces in the hope that he can finally find his way home. Like the soldiers who surround him, Joey demonstrates the kind of bravery that few look to prove they have. But will it be enough?
Posted in Reviews | 
Tags: Black Beauty, bravery, Celine Buckens, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, film language, horses, Jeremy Irvine, Lee Hall, Michael Morpurgo, National Velvet, Niels Arestrup, No Man's Land, Peter Mullen, POV, Richard Curtis, Saving Private Ryan, Seabiscuit, Steven Spielberg, The Story of Seabiscuit, Tom Hiddleston, War Horse, World War I | 
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Mysterious New Chaplin Short Uncovered
Charlie Chaplin as the lovable Tramp
A British antique collector named Morace Park bought an old film can off of eBay several months ago, and little did he know that what was inside was a lost 6-minute short starring Charlie Chaplin titled Zepped. The short – which has no credits of any kind attached to it – was apparently used as a propaganda piece for British troops during World War I (the title being in reference to German Zeppelins, which the British eventually were able to conquer).
Park and his friend John Dyer have decided to have a film crew document their efforts to find out the origins of the footage, as well as everything else about it they can find. When the two men took the film to the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum in Fremont, Calif., they surmised that the short is a compilation of outtakes from several different Chaplin films, but how or why those clips were strung together in a narrative fashion is still anyone’s guess.
To read more about this amazing story, click here.
Source: Variety
