Synopsis:

This isn't a heavy edit, it's mostly a restructure. The 10-minute 'Second Battle of the Somme' sequence, which occurs 3/4 of the way through and does not feature Joey, derails the movie. So the Somme sequence is shifted to the start, to form a new flashback/prologue and is now in black & white with an added old-fashioned vignette, further separating it visually from the main body of the movie, suggesting something of the past about it and creating a contrast with the vibrant colourful countryside of the first Devon scenes. The fact that the Somme sequence already featured no score, unlike the lushly orchestrated John Williams scenes that follow it, was a bonus distancing factor. We will now not really see Albert again until the end of the film, just a brief glimpse of his face, lit by the guns that Joey is dragging, only informing us that Albert has joined up. The 2-minute cutaway back to Albert in England disrupted the otherwise entirely Joey focused narrative, so that is simply deleted. There are a few more minor cuts to massage the new continuity and to slightly delay certain aspects of the story. On-screen chapter titles are added (in the same style and font as the existing time/place titles), acknowledging the episodic nature of the story and who owns, or cares for Joey in those episodes.

Intentions:

The more I've watched 'War Horse' the more I've loved it but I've always thought and still think, that it was a bad decision to not quite tell the film from just Joey's perspective. So I wanted a cut that fully embraced that idea, never cutting back to see what Albert is up to because he is just one of Joey's owners, although the most important one.

Change List:

00.00.00 - Added TM2YC titles. 00.00.28 - Touchstone & Dreamworks titles converted to B&W, plus grain, a little old vinyl crackle and mixed in battle sounds getting louder. 00.01.05 - 10-minute 'Second Battle of the Somme' sequence brought forward to form a new flashback/prologue. Converted to B&W, plus I've added a vignette to make the footage look more old fashioned. Trimmed down to 9-minutes by reducing repetition and removing references to specific events we now haven't yet seen. The relationship between the three Devon boys and the mention of a missing horse is all that's needed. 00.02.06 - Removed 38-seconds of dialogue referring to Joey, a car race and a girl, which we now haven't seen yet. 00.02.42 - Removed 10-seconds of dialogue referring to the field being ploughed, which we now haven't seen yet. 00.03.55 - Removed the Sergeant repeating "Understand", Andrew got it and we got it already. 00.04.07 - Removed Albert repeating "Andrew!" and 2-seconds of Andrew continuing to shake his head. 00.07.55 - Removed repetitive 2-second shot of Andrew running, to keep the focus on the grenade. 00.08.51 - Removed 2 repetitive shots, totally 6-seconds, that were not required and arguably muddled the geography of the scene. 00.09.45 - Brought close-up of Albert forward to remove an odd double take from Andrew as the gas bomb explodes. Now it's clearer he doesn't have time to react, rather than choosing not to. 00.09.46 - Removed 4-frames from a long shot were you can see Albert's lips begin to say his next line, before the close-up where we hear/see it. 00.09.51 - Rescored and reworked sound FX across a new dissolve back into where the film originally started. Added bird song, wind sounds etc. 00.10.04 - Added "England - 1912, Devon" on-screen text, made to (hopefully) exactly match the style and placement of the existing "France - 1918, The Somme" text from the 'Second Battle of the Somme' sequence. 00.10.45 - Added chapter title: "Part 1 - Albert". 00.11.34 - Replaced the golden "WAR HORSE" 1st titlecard with a simpler B&W one in the same font. I just didn't like the look of the original for some reason. 00.56.37 - Added chapter title: "Part 2 - Captain Nicholls". 01.10.26 - Added chapter title: "Part 3 - Gunther and Michael". 01.13.16 - Removed 2-minute scene of Albert back in Devon getting the Joey letter/drawing in the post. This is Joey's story and the story of the war, so we should not cut away from him and back to peace, plus we know the letter was sent and if we are paying attention to the Somme prologue, we saw that he received it too. 01.21.42 - Added chapter title: "Part 4 - Emilie". 01.37.52 - Added chapter title: "Part 5 - Private Hengelmann". 01.42.55 - Removed 10-minute 'Second Battle of the Somme' sequence. Rescored and reworked sound FX across a new transition onto Topthorn's exhausted face, dragging the guns. 01.43.10 - Trimmed original cross-fade from end of the Somme sequence and moved shot of trudging feet forward 10-seconds. 01.51.13 - Added chapter title: "Part 6 - No man's". 01.57.33 - Removed 40-seconds showing Albert and David in the aftermath of the mustard gas attack. Added new cross-fade. 01.57.41 - Removed 23-seconds showing Albert having his eyes treated and more of Colin walking with Joey. Remixed music and soundFX. 02.14.21 - Again replaced the golden "WAR HORSE" 2nd titlecard with a simpler B&W one in the same font. 02.14.34 - Reframed all 25 ending titlecards so they are now in the precise middle of the screen and not noticeably vertically off centre. This just irritated me. The titles are also now B&W (rather than off white). 02.16.30 - Scrolling credits converted to simple B&W to match all other titles (rather than off white). Original Length: 02.26.30 Fanedit Length: 02.22.32.

Additional Notes:

- 10-minute 'Second Battle of the Somme' sequence brought forward to form a new black & white flashback/prologue. Removed mentions of a few specific plot details we haven't yet seen. - Removed 2-minute scene of Albert back in Devon getting the Joey letter/drawing in the post. - Added six chapter titles: Part 1 - Albert / Part 2 - Captain Nicholls / Part 3 - Gunther and Michael / Part 4 - Emilie / Part 5 - Private Hengelmann / Part 6 - No man's. - Delayed the reappearance of Albert until just before Joey is about to die.

Special Thanks: