Crickhollow Farm

War Horse Bonus Features

Just a quick post about the bonus features on the War Horse BluRay before I go out & feed my beasties for the night.

I watched nearly all of the extras tonight (there's one on the dvd in the set that I'm going to watch tomorrow) and I think it's well worth getting the "fancy" four disc set to have them all.  I could have wished for a little more focus on the horses they used, where did they get them all, where did they go when the film was done, etc, but it's a minor complaint.  They did, obviously, spend a fair amount of time talking about the horses and what it was like filming and preparing for certain scenes, like the cavalry charge.  A number of the actors talked about the excitement of working with the horses -- Emily Watson (Rosie, Albert's mother) had a cute story about getting upstaged by "Joey", and Benedict Cumberbatch (Major Stewart) talked about how intense and emotional it was to do the cavalry charge. 

There was some behind the scenes footage of the horses and people being trained and practicing certain movements, which is always fun.  (And can I just take a moment to say how freaking adorable Benedict Cumberbatch was in his velvet hunt cap in those practice scenes?  It was just like the one I had as a kid and it made me want to hug him.)  They also had a bit with the horses' makeup artists, which is just funny to think about needing makeup artists for your horses.  The bit with the sound designer talking about picking vocalisations for the horses was really interesting, too. 

It became quite clear that there were a number of horse-people working on this film and, fabulously, that a number of the people on it who didn't start out as horse-people, were horse-people by the time they were done with the film.  That just really made me smile.

War Horse Out Today

I got my BluRay of War Horse today.  Re-watched the film tonight (much less crying this time around -- I was better prepared) and I will be working through the (many) extras over the next few days.  I will be sure to report back on them here. 

I love extras on films, so I'm really excited about the number of featurettes that this one has.  At least one has the cast & crew talking about the shoot so hopefully there will be some good bits on working with the horses there.  One of my favourite extras on the Lord of the Rings extended edition dvds was the one where they featured the horses.  There's something appealing about watching the actors & stunt performers getting all gooey and enthusiastic about the horses they worked with.  It gives me a sense that these are people I have something in common with, could talk to, I guess, as well as being a pretty good indicator that I am not the only one who feels this way about these wonderful creatures.

So, yes, I'll let you all know if the War Horse extras are worthwhile or not, and maybe point out particularly horse-relevant bits.

Merlin (BBC)

I will admit, at first, glance, this doesn't seem to have much of anything to do with horses.  Bear with me, though, because it really does.

I was just poking around on Amazon.com (a terrible weakness of mine).  I was actually there to check out what free MP3s they have on offer this week, but I noticed that the DVDs of Series 2 of the British TV show Merlin had gone down to $14.99, an offer which is, as they say, too good to refuse.  I mention this here because 1) it's a fun show (so long as you aren't too married to a particular version of Arthurian legend), 2) Series 4 just started airing on SyFy here in the US (9 pip emma, Central, on Fridays), and 3) (most importantly for this blog) they use lots of beautiful horses in the production.

It's a re-telling of Arthurian legend, so you have to expect at least some horses, right?  Right.  They don't just have some horses, though, they have some really fine horses.  There are Friesians and Andalusians, pretty little cobs and even a sweet donkey in Series 1.  I'd be happy to take home most any of the horses that are in this show.

The most spectacular thing, horse-wise, is that the second episode of Series 2 is set during a tournament with jousting, which is completely awesome!  They also employ the most spectacularly clean greys I have ever seen in my life.  (I look at these creatures, glowing on my tv screen, and then go out to my barn to see my grey mare and have to admit to a bit of disappointment.  They look like mud is anathema to them, and Annie...  Annie loves mud.  She's very sweet, though, so I forgive her her piggish ways.)  I wish I could employ their grooms to keep my four-feet gleaming at all times!  ::sigh::

 

For other recent media with horses, I enjoyed Cowboys & Aliens.  Harrison Ford rides the best horse in the cast, and Daniel Craig is 200% more attractive on horseback than he is on his own.  (And they both ride pretty well, too.  Most people would laugh at me while watching that movie because I sigh over Harrison Ford's quiet hands -- a rarity in general, much less on film.) 

I haven't seen War Horse yet, but I'd like to.  Bonni and I had talked about going to see it together at some point, but we kind of lost track of it.  Suppose we should do that before it's out of the theatre...  If we do manage to see it, I'll be sure to comment on it here.

Cold Winter's Night

There's something about the weather tonight that is making it feel particularly cold.  Probably, it's as much my own exhaustion as anything, because I feel positively chilled to the bone & it really isn't all that cold out compared to what it's been lately.  I've been spending my evening watching dressage dvds and wishing for warmer weather. 

If you're looking for something horsey to occupy your winter evenings, I totally recommend getting your hands on some dvds of old World Cups and Olympics.  It's so much fun to watch these horses & riders and you can learn a bit whilst doing it.  I don't know if one would be able to find them at the library or if Netflix would have them.  I like picking them up on sale at Dressage Extensions; then I can watch them over & over again. 

I have a truly abused old tape of the 1992 World Cup Dressage Finals that a friend taped for me.  The picture & sound were getting so bad that, last winter, I decided I needed to get myself some new ones to watch in a more durable format.  I got the 2009 World Cup and the 2004 Olympics (team & individual dressage).  I actually wish I could find a dvd of that old 1992 World Cup -- there were some great rides during that one.