Saturday night at the movies - Borders style

Mountain Man took me to the cinema to see War Horse at The Pavilion in Galashiels yesterday.

Two rows and to the left of us were three people with learning difficulties who sat and talked in very loud voices for a lot of the film. No-one told them to be quiet, which I thought was rather nice, even though it was a touch irritating. Then, about 10 minutes before the film finished, one couple walked out. Very strange. But better than that, at the end of the film quite a lot of the audience burst into spontaneous applause. The Borders lot like to do things their way.

The film itself was good and I did enjoy it, but some of the scenes were so unreal which spoilt it a bit for me. Mountain Man and I discussed this on the way home. For him it didn't matter. For me it did. I'm not going to tell you which scenes because I don't want to spoil it for you, but it'd be interesting to know what you thought if you've seen it.

It was moving and emotional in places and certainly most of the war scenes were a triumph. There's one early scene where the cavalry charge into a German camp and then... well again, I'm saying no more, but trust me it's an amazing depiction of war and was one of the most powerful scenes of the whole movie.

Many of the horse scenes were poignant and they were counterbalanced with some moments of hilarity, which made me think how great it was to have the audience sniffling into their hankies one moment and laughing out loud the next.

So all in all a good movie, but I felt it let itself down when it didn't need to. Last night I was prepared to give it 7 out of 10, however after sleeping on it I've downgraded it to a 6.

On the way out I overheard a conversation about the stage play, and about how it was so much better than the movie. I'm off to London in February and thought it'd be good to see for myself. Sadly it's completely sold out for quite a few months. Once the date for the next meeting is set hopefully I can book a seat for then as it's always interesting to see different adaptations.

What last night did do though, was make MM and I think we ought to go to the cinema more often and because Galashiels is only 20 minutes or so away, we don't have much of an excuse. I also rather like The Pavilion, which, although it looks like it'd be a tiny cinema on the outside, actually has 4 screens and lots of choice. It has a slight quirkiness to it which appeals to me and makes it feel like going to the flicks is less of a corporate affair, if you see what I mean.

Do let me know what you thought of the film though, as I'm always intrigued to see if others are as critical as I seem to be.