A movie I won't be seeing.
My step-grandfather, born in 1891, came from a family of carters -- they were the transport drivers of the pre-eighteen wheeler age, moving goods the length and breadth of the UK with big wagons and teams of heavy horses. When he joined the army in WWI, the army, showing more intelligence than they're usually credited with, put him to work with mililtary horses. He stayed in the army after the war, made a career out of it, became pretty much the stereotypical British sergeant and remained so even after emigrating to Canada and the Canadian army. During WWII he was the senior NCO at an internment camp and ended his career at Fort Frontenac in Kingston after staying in uniform for as long as legally allowed.
If he spoke about his time in the military, it was about the government having done something stupid, one of the boys under his command having done something stupid, or one of his buddies at the Legion having done something stupid. From what he said, a listener who'd never served would assume a lifetime in the army that had included two world wars had been nothing but beer, buddies, and bitching about the brass.
I didn't find out anything about what he'd done in WWI until he was in his late eighties, when the past had become clearer than the present. He told me about being a carter, about working with the horses in the war, then he said, "They screamed when they were hurt, made the most horrible sounds. At least the boys had some idea of why they were there, but those poor damned horses suffered and died for nothing." Then he started to cry and never spoke of it again.
That's what I think about when I see the trailers for War Horse.
From all accounts, it's a good movie. I've heard it was beautifully shot, and that the smaller stories within the larger mythic OTH (one true horse) arc are heartbreakingly accurate. But I heard the plot of those smaller stories from someone whose heart had actually been broken, and that, Mr. Speilberg, is why I won't be seeing your movie.