Reviewers have called it “Spielberg’s finest hour” and Time Magazine named it one of the top 10 best movies of 2011, calling it “boldly emotional, nakedly heartfelt, War Horse will leave only the stoniest of hearts untouched!”

Produced by Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, the $70 million dollar pic has an austere production team with a wonderfully written screenplay by Richard Curtis and Lee Hall, based on the acclaimed book War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. Adding to the movie is the beautiful cinematography from Janusz Kaminski, as well as an exquisitely beautiful musical score from John Williams, the “King of the Baton.”

Michael Morpurgo wrote his children’s novel War Horse in 1982 after striking up a friendship with neighboring World War I veterans in the Devon Village of Iddesleigh where he lived. The men remembered the Army coming to their village to purchase horses for the war effort. Horses were used as draught animals, pulling guns and ambulances, as well as cavalry services. After months of research, Morpurgo found that at least a million horses died on the British side as well as an overall estimate of 10 million horse deaths on all sides. The Great War had a devastatingly massive impact on not only the horses, but the many men who fought so bravely. In the United Kingdom alone, 62,000 horses returned and only 2% of the entire country’s population returned; 886,000 men died, one in only eight of those men who went to war.

Morpurgo was inspired to write his novel after observing a young boy talk fluently to a horse at a farm run by Mornago’s charity farms for city children. In watching this relationship between a young stammering boy and a horse, he found a way to tell the story — the horse and its relationships with people before and during the war, being the young boy from Devon, a British cavalry officer, a German soldier, and an elderly Frenchman and his granddaughter.

The most exciting part of the movie is that unlike the play where the horses are beautiful puppets and add greatly to the stage show, we get to see hundreds of beautiful real horses in the film.

If you care to comment about this column, please email me at pattebarham@hotmail.com.

Film Editor Michael Kahn, speaking of his work on the film: “We have some shots in War Horse that are fantastic! We shot it in Devon and you know it’s gorgeous down there, and the horses are beautiful and the farms are beautiful. There is spectacular scenery and every shot is gorgeous, then you eventually get to the war part of it and it’s really, really something.” Kahn had a special editing trailer on the set and he actually edited the movie during filming. Kahn and Spielberg cut the film digitally, rather than on film, which was a first for Spielberg.

Further editing took place in the UK at Twinckenham Film Studios after filming, before the production moved back to the U.S. in Nov. 2010. It was put together here in Hollywood and Khan stated, “It worked well. The English actors are extremely good and so were the beautifully trained horses. For an editor, there were a lot of match frame problems with the horses, but the shooting was so good I got everything I needed.”

The Music

Now it was time for John Williams to score the film and it was recorded in March/April 2011. Spielberg is quoted as saying, “I feel that John has made a special gift to me of this music, which was inspired not only by my film but also by many of the picturesque settings of the poet William Wadsworth, whose vivid descriptions of the British landscape inspire much of what you are going to hear.”

Visual effects for the movie were undertaken by Framestore, a London-based company. According to Spielberg, the only digital effects in the movie are three shots lasting three seconds, which were undertaken to ensure the safety of the horse involved. “That’s the thing I’m most proud of. Everything you see on screen really happened.”

“It’s a moving and powerful story you can taken children to see, but it is still very upsetting … people die and it is war,” co-producer Kathleen Kennedy stated.

Many of you who have already seen the movie War Horse have been moved and touched much in the same way as me and the many actors and contributors to the film. Michael Morpurgo, who wrote the book, said, “The movie feels like a Christmas present … one I desperately want to open but am not allowed to yet. If that sounds almost childlike, so does the quality of my anticipation. I know I’ve built up my hopes considerably. I want it to live on and on in people’s minds.” And it will!

Save the date, UK: Jan. 13 marks the premiere for our friends in the United Kingdom.

War Horse – a movie not to be missed!

If you care to comment about this column, please email me at pattebarham@hotmail.com.

Jeremy Irvine atop the steed in “War Horse.”

To quote Steven Speilberg, “When I’m on an ‘Indy’ movie, I’m watching Indiana Jones and not the horse he is riding. Now I am faced with the challenge of making a movie where I had to watch the horse, and at the same time compel the audience to watch it along with me. My attention had to be focused on what the horse was doing and understand its feelings. It was a whole new experience for me.”

The main character is Joey, the horse, and 14 different horses were used to portray him: two foals, four colts, and eight adults. There was a special make-up team to dye their coats and markings to ensure continuity. As many as 280 horses were used in a single scene. A farrier was on set at all times to replace horseshoes sucked off in the mud during filming. Equine artist Ali Bannister was responsible for the “hair and make-up” of the horses.

Working with horses on this scale was a new experience for Spielberg: “The horses were an extraordinary experience for me, because several members of my family ride. I was really amazed at how expressive horses are and how much they can show what they’re really feeling.” The pre-production period allowed only three months to train the horses before shooting began.

One scene in particular where the British cavalry charged the German machine gun lines, was intense for lead actor Jeremy Irvine (Albert Narracott), starring in his first film role. The scene included hundreds of extras and 130 horses. Irvine explained: “It’s the weapons of the old war, men on horses, meeting the absolute destructive tools of mass slaughter. There was this line of machine guns and there’s this wall of lead coming out of these guns. There were real explosions at my feet, bodies flying through the air, stuntmen getting shot at. It was terrifying: the smoke and smell and the taste of the guns firing. It’s not difficult to act scared in that situation. There’s no doubt this was deliberate, not only to have the film look great, but to have that effect on the actors. It was an eye-opening scene.”

Emily Watson who plays Albert’s mother (Rose Narracott) was quoted as saying, “The Michael Morpurgo book is Black Beauty Goes to War. So, if you’re English, two of the most emotive subjects you could touch on are Black Beauty and the First World War. The crew was constantly in tears, as there were war memorials and everybody had a story in their family … for English people everyone was touched by that war.”

On the set, Spielberg would arrive in the morning and say, “I couldn’t sleep last night. I was worrying about this shot!” Emily Watson praised his approach: “It was intimate, passionate, and about the acting. Every single priority that as an actor you would want to be there was there. It was great! He’s human and he’s still working in an impassioned way, like a 21-year-old, trying to make the best out of everything.”

Do not miss War Horse, and stay tuned for our post-production, “It’s a Wrap” installment.

If you care to comment about this column, please email me at pattebarham@hotmail.com.

We decided to ask about one of our special pets, who had died recently from a heart attack. This writer talked to a well-known psychic, who is also a good friend; her name is Rev. Hilda Hill. So here goes a little trip to the Spirit World…. It will be a fast trip, but a good one … so hang on!

We entered Rev. Hill’s special room and began with a centering prayer by Rev. Hill: “All the great spirits, we ask your guidance and for your assistance. If it is your will that we may reach the other side, let it be; if not, let your will be done. We ask special consideration and blessings for any little souls that may have passed to the other side. Guide the little soul to a resting place, for we know that every living thing has a place on this side as well as on the other.” I then asked Rev. Hill some questions regarding animals in the Afterlife.

Q: Did Bonnie B. (my favorite Skye terrier) die of a heart attack?

A: Yes, but it seems that she ate something used to kill insects, and this poison caused her heart attack.

Q: Was it her time to go?

A: Yes, it was her time. Contrary to what a lot of people think, there is a heaven for animals, and eventually they are reunited with their owners. The other side is similar to this one; every living thing that existed on this side also exists on the other. All living things have energy and a soul: plants, flowers, birds, and all animals. It is a much nicer place and much different. For a period, we’re in darkness, until we get used to the light. Everything over there is beautiful … more bright and shiny.

So dear readers, take heart and know that you will meet your beloved pets again.

In answer to the Who, What, Where, and Why: Here is the report as given to this writer.

Around midnight, about 10 days ago, my son had dinner with us and he was just leaving through the front door, and as I stood watching him go, the phone rang. I came back in to answer the phone; there was a man on the other end who identified himself as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department and said there was an armed and dangerous person in our backyard. So, I went back out to the front of my house and asked my son to speak to the caller.

My husband overheard the conversation between our son and the “policeman” who said everybody needed to get in the car and leave. That sounded funny because our car was in the garage in the backyard. He said there was an armed and dangerous man in our backyard which seemed strange. My son’s car was in the driveway and someone could have seen his car there. I asked him to further identify himself. His response was, “You are not cooperating with the Police Department. The Police Department needs you to cooperate.” Then my son asked him for identification, and he said he was working “undercover on the street behind us” and could not tell my son his badge number or name. He said he knew this person had come through our backyard. When my son said, “We’re not leaving the house,” he insisted we go to our car, turn the alarm on so it makes a honking sound, and leave. None of this made much sense. My son used his cell phone to call 911.

In the meantime, I was talking to this person on the other phone, and he asked for our names, but I first asked if they could send a car and he transferred me to this other department – with a long wait in between each one. The message I got was, “At this moment we cannot respond. If someone has broken a window, call such and such number.” Anyway, we decided it was a ruse to get us out of the house, or maybe it was just a crank call. But it is a little hard at 11 o’clock at night to think clearly about it. We tried to call our community police station – but the number in the phonebook does not help anyone at all.

So, before my son went home, he took a flashlight, went through the property, and found no evidence. He then went home and although we were still nervous, we went to bed. In the morning we found everything normal. The next night, at 11:30 p.m., we got the same call again. This time we hung up very quickly.

It was the same voice, the kind you could trust, because he sounded as though he was a “policeman.” Anyway, the Community Police Department said they would contact the person patrolling the area and ask him to drive by our house and check things out. So far, we have not heard from him again and hope we never do. He did not sound like he was on drugs; he sounded very reasonable. He did not sound like a kid, but definitely a male voice.

So beware – this happened right in our neighborhood. It could happen to you!

If you care to comment about this column, please email me at pattebarham@hotmail.com.

Instead of waving and saying hello, the duke and duchess took the time to sit at easels and don painting gowns as students helped the royal couple create Mandala’s — a type of Buddhist painting. If that was not enough, the prince and his princess joined a ceramics class where they helped the students develop parts for a giant tortoise. Prince William, like his mother, is engaging and, like his mother, believes in leaving people with more than just a photo opportunity.

When William and Kate stopped at Sony Pictures to promote ServiceNation, an organization that is dedicated to helping veterans find work, William addressed the group of veterans and families: “Mission Service is about something more than men and women in uniform — it’s about their other halves.” Before William left the podium he said, “I would just like to say on behalf of us both, how grateful we are to be welcomed so warmly in the Golden State and in the city of Angels. Thank you so much.”

There were smiles and one could read the pride among the people in the audience — some were wiping away tears. One woman was overheard saying, “William is the image of his mother. She truly cared.”

A few years ago there was gossip in England that the royals had lost their luster. Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II must be very proud of her young fair-haired grandson and his effervescent wife Kate, as crowds from Canada to Los Angeles flocked to just get a glimpse of the young couple, who appear very much in love with each other.

While in Los Angeles William and Kate were residents at the British Consul General’s home in Hancock Park, not far from my Fremont Place home. The British Academy of Film and Television Arts rolled out the red carpet for the dazzling couple. The prince took the occasion to promote American and British talent. Prince William opened the event by bringing laughter to the assembled crowd when he said, “I would like to thank Colin Firth for the perfect opening line, ‘I have a voice,’“ borrowing a quote from The King’s Speech. The film is about his great grandfather King George VI.

The prince and princess enjoyed trading stories with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Lopez and Tom Hanks. The brief stop over in Los Angeles allowed the prince to play a game of polo in Santa Barbara and raise a million dollars for charity. The prince and princess also engaged in promoting technology and raising awareness for Tusk Trust, an African conservation group.

This reporter believes that William and Kate are the perfect royal couple to bring back respect and admiration for the crown of Great Britain.

Do we know the full story about the immediate dangers from the Fukushima meltdown? If an earthquake triggered a tsunami at San Onofre where the San Onofre Power Plant is located, what could we expect? First of all, the Nuclear Power Plant at San Onofre Power Plant is in a dense area of fault lines. Victor Dricks of the Federal Regulatory Commission says San Onofre could withstand a 30-foot wave. Critics of San Onofre Power Plant disagree. Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein have written Dr. Gregory Jaczko, Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, requesting they evaluate safety and emergency preparedness. If we travel approximately 160 miles up the coast to San Luis Obispo, CA, you will find the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. This Nuclear Power Plant is located on the edge of the Pacific Ocean at Avila Beach. The Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant is built over a geological fault line — a second fault line is near by.

Diablo is designed to withstand a 6.7 magnitude earthquake. The closest populated cities are San Luis Obispo, CA (twelve miles away), and Paso Robles, CA (31 miles away).

From reports I have read, those people in charge of Fukushima never believed an earthquake would cause a meltdown at their facility. It is one thing for a meltdown to occur from safety mishaps. It is quite another when nature takes over.

When the tsunami came ashore in Thailand, no one knew what was happening. People stood along the shore watching as the giant wave consumed everything in its path of destruction, including those people watching the tsunami come ashore. When I was a kid, a tsunami was the stuff of fairy tales. There are more than a hundred Nuclear Power Plants operating in the United States. If you are interested in reading information about Nuclear Power Plants, check out www.worldorderreport.com.

Patte Barham: Could you tell us about some of your favorite articles?

Robert Penfold: There’s an article I wrote about a day after the Chilean miners were rescued because the Australian news wanted a first person piece about the rescue.

PB: Yes, and wasn’t another story about when you were there the day before the Berlin Wall fell?

RP: Yes. (It fell) in the middle of the night, and that was also as good as when I was in Soweto when Nelson Mandela was released. Those are three good news stories.

PB: How did you ever get involved in the news business?

RP: I got started because my dad always had the newspaper delivered every day, and he always knew everything that was going on. I think it’s got a lot to do with your parents and the guidance you get. We are from a newspaper family. I started on the equivalent of the Larchmont Chronicle, the weekly hometown newspaper outside of Sydney.

I got a cadetship, which is a traineeship, and I just worked my way through.

PB: What was the name of the paper?

RP: It was the MacArthur Advertiser, and they did two newspapers, that one and another called the Campbelltown News.

PB: What was your best story?

RP: My best story was when the Berlin Wall came crashing down. It was such an uplifting piece. Everyone in the world was really excited by it. So often when you’re a foreign correspondent, you cover so many bad news stories; I also covered Hurricane Katrina, both shuttle disasters, as well as Cyclone Tracy that tore apart Darwin in Australia.

PB: What was your favorite story of all time?

RP: Definitely the Berlin Wall. And the celebration went on for days. And I took little pieces of the Berlin Wall to give to my family and my friends. But people were still incredibly excited about it, even two months later.

PB: Did you have to smuggle them?

RP: No, I just picked them up off the ground, because I was standing on top of the wall.

PB: Have you ever been afraid to do a story?

RP: Yes, I’ve been in some very dangerous situations. Probably the most dangerous situations were when I was in both Iraq and Bosnia. When you’re in Bosnia, you could drive around a corner, on a lonely street, and find a roadblock, with a bunch of guys there with masks on and machine guns, aimed right at you, and you’d never know if you were going to get away from that alive. And you knew that they could shoot you, there was no one around to witness it. They could drag your body off, throw it [to] the ground, drag your body away, and people would never know what happened.

PB: I have a feeling no one would even care.

RP: No, of course not. You were just some person who got in their way. And then the other situation was the start of the first Gulf War. It was when George Bush, Sr. decided to move the tanks and the troops to reclaim Kuwait City. That night, we followed behind the tanks, and we worked out our way into Kuwait City. When we got to Kuwait City, we found out that the troops had not gone into the city. There were a lot of crazy, excited Kuwaitis who were driving around firing guns into the air. The situation was just out of control.

PB: Are you allowed to carry weapons?

RP: No, we never carry weapons. We have bullet-proof jackets and helmets.

PB: Do they work?

RP: We hope so. Thankfully, I’ve never had to test it out.

Part two of the interview will come soon.

If you care to comment about this column, please e-mail Patt at pattebarham@hotmail.com.

Here’s the Dieter’s Prayer:
Lord, grant me the strength that I may not fall
Into the clutches of cholesterol.
As polyunsaturates, I’ll never mutter,
For the road to hell is paved with butter.
And cake is cursed and cream is awful.
And Satan is hiding in every waffle.
Beelzebub is a chocolate drop.
And Lucifer is a lollipop.
Teach me the evils of hollandaise,
Of pasta and gobs of mayonnaise.
And crisp fried chicken from the South
Lord, if you love me, shut my mouth.
- Anonymous

In memoriam

Nicole, my golden retriever, who passed away this week. She will be missed. Her family pack already misses her.

She was diagnosed with canine myasthenia gravis, or the enlargement of the esophagus, which has no cure.

If you care to comment about this column, please email me at pattebarham@hotmail.com.

We enjoyed the New York Athletic Club for the two days we were there in their grand location in Central Park. The Fourth of July weekend was a slow time in the city that never sleeps. We wandered around, but we couldn’t find a place to eat so we ate in the lobby of the Ritz Carlton, which turned out to be absolutely marvelous. We highly recommend dining there. The next day we went to the musical, “The Fantasticks,” one of the few shows where the theatre experience was available to us.

Since the supersonic Concorde jets are no more, we decided to take a slow boat to England. So on Tuesday, we went to Brooklyn and embarked on the Queen Mary II for our voyage to Southampton. When you’re on board this mother of ocean liners, unpack your prettiest, get fancied up (black tie and all), and enjoy the ride. It was a wonderful voyage except for the fact that the ship is so large and we were at one end and we always wanted to go to the other, and that in itself was a challenge. We thought moving walkways would be a great addition to the ship’s many fine qualities. As with all cruise experiences, you dine, meet people, and then you eat some more. The cuisine and the service and the appointments were lovely and the ambiance was great. We chose a table for seven in the Queen’s Grill and our companions were interesting and we all enjoyed the Grill very much.

One of our new friends was Dutch, who lived in San Francisco. It turned out he had been unable to fly due to the Iceland volcano ash and decided to take the Queen.

Six days later, we disembarked at Southampton and were taken by car to the Sloane in London and enjoyed the great comforts of this fine English club and partook in the glamour of great dining and cuisine.

Harrod’s huge department store in London is a city unto itself. You can absolutely get lost wandering around the departments, all the people are most helpful and all the great fashion designers are present, so we whiled away a lot of hours (and money) there. We had to buy a duffle bag to carry all the Harrod’s goodies.

George Bernard Shaw said America and England are two countries separated by a common language, and we found that very true when it came to the theatre experiences we had. On our first evening, we went to a marvelous rendition of “Sweet Charity,” with an all-American cast that spoke English we could understand.

The following night we had Goldilocks’ luck and got it just right’ in seeing “War Horse,” which we loved. We think it will be the rage of the American theatre, as it is already a smash on the London stage. It was the best anti-war production we’ve ever seen.

We liked that the production did not use any real animals, which is a great plus for all of us animal activists who do not want to see animals used or abused. There are two men disguised as horses in this fabulous play and, boy, you never knew the difference. You had to really look to see four legs dangling down.

Afterwards we went back to the Sloane for our supper and that was the last experience of our time zone tour. Even though we’re home, we feel like we never really left Harrod’s.

If you care to comment about this column, please e-mail me at pattebarham@hotmail.com.