- Written by Lee Hall, Richard Curtis and Micheal Morpurgo
- Directed by Steven Speilberg
- star cast are Jeremy Irvine, Emily Watson and David Thewlis
The opening scene
Narrative
In the opening scene we see a mare and her foul in a field running around. As they are running we see a young man looking at them. It then cuts to another shot of him closer to the horses, leaning on a fence. We can see that the foul has interest in the young man and the young man has interest in the foul. The mother protects the baby and makes it back away from the man. In the next shot we see the young man running up the hill and he runs up to the foul that we can see has grown up. The young man tries to feed the horse an apple and as the horse is about to get the apple the mare starts stomping its foot which makes the foul come back to it. The young man stands there in fascination. We can guess that the narrative will be about the young man trying to tame the foul and the story of the young man making the foul a really good horse. We could believe that due to the title it could be about the young man and the horse going to war and being the people who help the English with something that they do together. We can guess that the movie is set in the times of World War 1 and we can guess that it is set around south western England due to the accent from the young man.
Target audience
As this movie is in the genre of War we can expect the movie to be targeted towards people who enjoy watching War movies. War horse is targeted to an audience of 12 years old and above. We can see this due to the rating of the movie as 12A. The target audience is 12+ year old War movie enthusiasts. The movie is rated as a 12 as there is no swearing in the opening title and also not expected in the rest of the movie. There also isn't any gore or violent behaviour. We can see that the target audience would be war enthusiasts due to the title. The title of "War Horse" suggests that the movie will contain and be about war. The opening scene doesn't suggest anything about war apart from the costume is of the period in which the first world war was.
Characters
There is only one character in the opening scene which is the young man. If you count the horses in the opening scene them there are 3 characters: the young man, the foul and the mare. The main 2 characters we can guess from this opening scene will be the foul and the young man.
The young man
We can guess that the young man will be seen as one of the good guys as this is an English movie and so it will be shown in the perspective that the English are the good guys and the Germans are the bad guys. We can suggest that the young man has no strong political view and wants life to be good and not affected by war. This can be assumed due to his costume. He is wearing a light grey shirt. Grey is a colour which connotes neutrality and balance. This suggests that he wants everyone to be equal and for there to be no war. He just wants to live his life being happy. He is also in his costume wearing a brown waistcoat. Brown is a colour which connotes safety and security. This suggests that if you stay with the boy and be his friend he will keep you safe and protect you. You will be secure.
The foul
We can guess that the foul will be a good friend to the young man and they will have many adventures together and maybe even fight in the war together as well. We can gain a sense that the horse will keep the young man safe and secure when they have each other. We can guess this from the foul's hair. The horse has brown hair. Brown is a colour which connotes security and safety. This can suggest that the horse will keep the young man safe and secure when riding and going on adventures and even in war. The foul can be assumed as being innocent and a good being due to its hair. The foul has white patches of hair on its face and feet. White is a colour which connotes innocence, purity and goodness. This suggest that the horse will be a good companion and is innocent and doesn't try to do anything mean/ hurt someone.
Genre and tone
The genre of War and tones of happiness, interest and excitement are explored in the opening scene. The conventions of the genre of war are shown in the opening scene due to the costume of the young man. The young man is wearing the clothing that a person would wear in the early 1910 and that was the same time period as World War 1. Also the name of the movie also shown that it has a genre of war as war is in the title of the movie. There is also the "young hot shot" (the horse) in need of a mentor (the young man). Tones of excitement are shown when the young man is running up the hill all excited to try and give the foul and apple in a feet to gain its trust and be that one step closer to taming and riding it. Tones of interest are shown by how the young man looks at the foul. He looked interested in the foul. He wants to tame the foul.
Camera use
The use of the close-up shot on the horse connotes its importance in the movie. when a person or object is by itself in a close up it means that its something of significance. The use of the close up shot shows that the foul will be significant in the narrative of the movie. The use of the tracking shot on the horses at the start of the scene can act like the boy following them/ watching them run around.
A tracking shot can be used in movies to show authority and importance. Using this suggests that the horses will have importance to the story. The use of the foul being in the centre of the shot shows its importance to the story. Being in the centre of a shot connotes importance. The use of this shows how in the story the horse will have importance in someway.
Sound use
The use of the pleonastic diegetic sound effect of the foul’s feet hitting the floor are used to symbolise the steps to gaining the horses trust. The physical steps can be a metaphor for the steps that the young man is taking to gain the foul's trust. A pleonastic sound is used to make the audience focus on that sound. It shows that the sound made/ the object that made the sound is important. This gets the audience to realise that the young man is starting to gain the foul's trust.
Mise-en-scene use
The use of the apple in the scene was an object used to suggest to the audience that the young man will gain the horse's trust and the movie will be the adventures and training of the horse and the young man and them maybe fighting in the war together. The apple was a symbol for the trust that the two have for each other at that point.
Editing use
The use of the longer shot duration used on the horses and the young man builds suspense. The longer shots build suspense as the audience is thinking if the young man is going to gain the horse's trust or not. Long shot durations also get the audience more immersed into the narrative.
Conclusion
I believe that the opening scene was successful in engaging the audience and bringing the right conventions into the scene to create the right genre for the movie of war. The scene created lovely tones which got the audience gripped to the story and wanting to watch more of the movie to see if the young man earns the young horse’s trust and see if they have any exciting adventures together.
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