Tommy's Honour

First Hit:  I liked the historical and romantic aspects of this film. Tom Morris (Peter Mullan) is thought of as the father of golf and golf courses. Although he owns St. Andrews land, is the green’s keeper of The Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews, he and the club is controlled by the Captain of the club, Alexander Boothby (Sam Neill). The Captain heads a consortium of men who run the club and the betting on golf games at the club.

Tom has accepted his station in life, green’s keeper, caddie, golf club maker, golfer, and golf course land owner. His son Tommy (Jack Lowden), however, doesn’t believe he needs to be relegated to this lower station in life, and his resentment shows in many scenes.

He and his father often played golf together representing the wealthy who bet on them, resulting in huge cash winnings to the bettors. They, in turn, gave Tom and Tommy a small cut of the winnings. Tommy thought this whole arrangement was wrong and demeaning and struck out to change the relationship between the bettors and the players. He wanted to be in control of the winnings and give the bettors their due after the tournament.

Along with wanting to change those social norms, Tommy also met Meg Drinnen (Ophelia Lovibond) a slightly older woman who was a waitress in a restaurant. He falls in love with her despite his family’s reticence to accept her. As their relationship grows and his golfing prowess becomes well known throughout Great Britain, Tommy’s mother Nancy (Therese Bradley) searches for and finds out about Meg’s past. Social convention of the time stated that Tommy should not marry Meg, but Meg’s kindness and strength win the family over.

I loved the scenes they use to attempt to show what golfing was like in the late 1800's; teeing up with sand, the clubs they used, greens that were not manicured, and playing in all types of weather (rain and snow). I liked seeing the old balls and clubs used but wondered about and wanted to know more about the slots in the club face when it was brought up by a competitor.

Mullan was wonderful as the father. His pride for his son just barely showed through which would have been perfectly appropriate for the time. Lowden was OK as the son. My issues with this role was that the film didn’t show any of the hard work that must have gone into him being the best golfer of the time. It takes more than just swagger. I did think that he did a great job as Meg’s lover and husband. Neill was strong as the Captain. His arrogance with his position was appropriate. Lovibond was divine. Her kindness, humbleness, and strength was perfect for the role. Bradley was wonderful in an antagonistic role. Her softening towards Meg was perfectly done. Pamela Marin and Kevin Cook did an OK job of creating an interesting script. I would have preferred more information about St. Andrews and the work that Tommy had to put in to become the winner of The Open tournament so many times in a row. However, in covering the love, dedication, and support of family was well conceived. Director Jason Connery did a good job of creating and showing characters from this script. However I couldn’t get over how little practice Tommy did to be so good at golf. I played golf in my younger years and know how difficult the game is to learn.

Overall:  This film and story is about love, the history of golf, social classes, and family, not a bad story to tell.

War Horse

First Hit:  Graphic pictures good and bad but this film was too manicured to suspend belief.

If you are old enough to recall “Duel” (1971 and his first feature) you saw Steven Spielberg not worrying so much about how manicured the scenes were, but his real concerned was about creating tension and drama and making sure the audience could feel what was going on.

War Horse is so far away from this ability that it hurts. Every picture in this film is pretty. Even “No Man’s Land” is a great visual. One scene where the horse gallops quickly through the trenches was overly done with effects and it was obvious.

On the plus side, I thought some of these pictures and scenes were elegant. But when I’m sitting in the theater thinking about the scene or picture and wondering how long it took to shoot a particular scene, I’m not engaged with the story or enjoying the picture.

It is like when entrepreneurs become too successful, they lose their edge at creating products. Or a fighter who becomes great because he’s hungry and once he wins and sits at the table and over feeds himself he can't fight any longer.

Here it is the edge of driving towards creating drama and suspense and caring less about the perfect picture. The most nonsensical scene was when the horse escapes from his German guard and traps himself in an area blocked on three sides with berms. A tank (for no reason at all) turns right, follows the horse into this enclosed area and we are given the thought by Spielberg, that this tank is going to shoot the horse.

Nowhere would this be a real or realistic event. The made up pretty picture scene I disliked most was the ending scene where there was the overly yellow-orange sky with the silhouettes of the family smacked in the middle of this overly colored sky.

Jeremy Irvine plays Albert Joey’s (War Horse) owner. Unfortunately this guy was pretty much a bust and I’m not sure why he was cast as Albert. He felt goofy, unreal and with little grit that would be part of of his working stock life. Peter Mullan, as Albert’s father Ted, was much better than Irvine and one could feel his hidden anguish. Emily Watson, as Albert’s mother Rose, was the best actor in the film. She made each scene she was in worth watching. David Thewlis as Lyons the landowner was overdone. Lee Hall and Richard Curtis wrote the screenplay which was better than the actual film. Spielberg was not at his best hungry self. This film felt bloated and setup from the beginning to elicit specific emotions and it was way too obvious.

Overall:  Watch this at home on a big screen if you must see horses suffer and conquer.