As crazy as it sounds, Steven Spielberg has two films out this holiday season, both of which he’s directed. ‘War Horse’ is one of these films, the other being ‘The Adventures of Tintin’. Having seen ‘War Horse’, it can be safe to assume that Spielberg has at least one good film out right now.

On the surface ‘War Horse’ is simply about the bond between a British boy and his horse. The boy, Albert Narracott (Jeremy Irvine), has admired the horse since the day it was born. Later, Albert’s father Ted (Peter Mullan) buys the horse to work in the family’s farm. Now begins the special bond between Albert and this special horse, whom he names Joey.

After a very slow, though necessary, introduction, the film picks up by the start of World War I. The English army requires as many horses at it can for the war, so Joey lands in the hands of British captain Nicholls (Tom Hiddleston, from ‘Thor’), who promises to take good care of the horse. Throughout the war Joey encounters many different characters, including a pair of German brothers and soldiers and a young French girl and her grandfather. Interestingly enough, ‘War Horse’ is more effective when Joey is with these strangers than when he’s with Albert. The bond between Joey and Albert is the established backbone of the film, but it’s the lives and interactions between Joey and those he meets that make up the majority of the film.

The horrors of war are definitely not held back in ‘War Horse’, despite it’s PG-13 rating. The battle scenes in the film are some of the most realistic and effective war scenes since Spielberg’s own ‘Saving Private Ryan’. One of the best scenes involves Joey running across a field in No Man’s Land and getting tangled in barbed wires, requiring the help of both an English soldier and a German soldier to free him loose.

‘War Horse’ is not the Best Picture Oscar-bait Spielberg set it out to be, but it’s an emotionally gripping and effective film nonetheless. The war sequences are some of the best, benefiting from the beautiful cinematography by Janusz Kaminksi (‘Schindler’s List’), as well as the gorgeous score by John Williams (‘Star Wars’ & ‘Harry Potter’). The film leans on Joey the horse for many of its dramatic and emotional weight, and it surprisingly works. When a film’s horse can clearly convey its personality, that’s when you know you have something good at hand.