Matthew 5:44 and Steven Spielberg
WAR HORSE:
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
2. Steven Spielberg is known for telling unashamedly emotional stories. What techniques does he use in this film to engage the audience’s feelings? What helps to separate something that is ‘sentimental’ from something that is genuinely moving?
Steven Spielberg uses techniques such as suspense to engage the audience’s feelings. He first shows us how love has for his horse Joey, then how upset he was when he had to let him go. Spielberg engaged the audience because he gave us concrete emotion and we felt how Albert felt when we were unsure if Joey was going to return. When Joey heard the familiar sound of Albert’s whistle and they found their way back to each other, we are given an example of sentiment. The moment Emilie’s grandfather returns Joey to Albert after going through all that trouble to retrieve him, was genuinely moving.
4. ‘He refuses to be proud of killing. Think how brave that is.’ – Rose Narracott (Emily Watson)
How has Albert’s father been shaped by his past experiences of war? What stance, if any, does the film seem to take on the morality of war?
Albert’s father has been shaped in many ways by his past experiences. On one hand it has affected him positively. Since the war, he came back stronger, confident, and humble. He is stronger because he he’s been through a lot and learned from it all, confident because he has the guts to do and say certain things to people, he most likely wouldn’t have done before the war, but at the same time humble, because he doesn’t boast about his accomplishments. It also affected him negatively, because of his new found ignorance. He drinks anywhere and everywhere he goes, and isn’t always pleasant towards his wife. The film seems to take a bad stance on the morality of war. It appears as though they are strongly discouraging the war.
10. Why is it so important and so difficult, in any kind of conflict, to see our enemy as a fellow human being? What do you make of Jesus’s
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
2. Steven Spielberg is known for telling unashamedly emotional stories. What techniques does he use in this film to engage the audience’s feelings? What helps to separate something that is ‘sentimental’ from something that is genuinely moving?
Steven Spielberg uses techniques such as suspense to engage the audience’s feelings. He first shows us how love has for his horse Joey, then how upset he was when he had to let him go. Spielberg engaged the audience because he gave us concrete emotion and we felt how Albert felt when we were unsure if Joey was going to return. When Joey heard the familiar sound of Albert’s whistle and they found their way back to each other, we are given an example of sentiment. The moment Emilie’s grandfather returns Joey to Albert after going through all that trouble to retrieve him, was genuinely moving.
4. ‘He refuses to be proud of killing. Think how brave that is.’ – Rose Narracott (Emily Watson)
How has Albert’s father been shaped by his past experiences of war? What stance, if any, does the film seem to take on the morality of war?
Albert’s father has been shaped in many ways by his past experiences. On one hand it has affected him positively. Since the war, he came back stronger, confident, and humble. He is stronger because he he’s been through a lot and learned from it all, confident because he has the guts to do and say certain things to people, he most likely wouldn’t have done before the war, but at the same time humble, because he doesn’t boast about his accomplishments. It also affected him negatively, because of his new found ignorance. He drinks anywhere and everywhere he goes, and isn’t always pleasant towards his wife. The film seems to take a bad stance on the morality of war. It appears as though they are strongly discouraging the war.
10. Why is it so important and so difficult, in any kind of conflict, to see our enemy as a fellow human being? What do you make of Jesus’s