The Homoerotic Movie of the Year

Albert & Joey | War Horse

Over at Indiewire, Peter Knegt has written a cheeky little piece about the homoeroticism in, wait for it, War Horse. Did anybody else see this coming? Steven Spielberg's old-fashioned, unabashedly sentimental Oscar bait turns out to be the homoerotic movie of the year. All the male soldiers have gay war buddies. Even the horses are intimate. I'll let Knegt detail how the movie is homoerotic, but here's one moment that stuck out to me.

First and foremost, War Horse himself—or “Joey,” as lead character Albert names him—is totally gay.

The only moment in the film that suggests Albert has any interest in girls is toward the beginning, when he races Joey against another boy in his town, who is riding in a fancy car with a girl. The girl pays much attention to Albert, though in the end Joey can't jump over a fence and thus Albert loses the race and her attention.

Years later, both Albert and the boy in the car are in the trenches together at war. Albert starts taking about the incident with the girl and the car..

"Who was that girl," he asks.

"There was a girl?," the other soldier responds, smiling.

Exactly.