The movie, co-produced by DreamWorks and Reliance Entertainment, is set against a sweeping canvas of rural England and Europe during World War I.
A story of friendship and war, it has been inspired by a book, which was made into a stage play, and has now been turned into a big screen adaptation.
The movie begins with the remarkable friendship between a horse named Joey and a young man called Albert, played by Jeremy Irvine, as he tames and trains Joey.
When they are forcefully parted, the film follows the extraordinary journey of the horse as he moves through the war, changing and inspiring the lives of all those he meets – British cavalry, German soldiers, and a French farmer and his granddaughter – before the story reaches its emotional climax in the heart of No Man’s Land.
"’War Horse’ says a lot about courage; the courage of this boy and what he endures and what he overcomes to achieve what he needs and not just for himself but also for his best friend, his horse Joey," Speilberg said in a press statement.
"It’s also about the courage and the tenacity of this extraordinary animal. The theme of courage kept coming back and back from the play, from Michael Morpurgo’s book and from Lee Hall and Richard Curtis’ screenplay. That was the underlying subliminal theme that I think informs every frame of ‘War Horse’," he added.
It released in the US Dec 25 last year, and opened in Britain Friday.
