Spielberg’s big-screen adaptation of Michael Morpurgo’s Great War novel War Horse, so unforgettably and ingeniously staged at the National Theatre cleaves to the basic story: a Devon farm boy loses his beloved horse to the military and even though he is too young to enlist, enters the fray of a gruesome war to try to get him back. Spielberg has crafted a very old-fashioned film, one that unashamedly launches an assault on our tear ducts and celebrates humanity and heroism with no hint of irony. Partly shot on Dartmoor this is a beautiful, tragic story of courage and friendship set against the backdrop of the horrors of the trenches.