All you need to know about Steven Spielberg‘s War Horse is in this two-minute clip of John Williams‘ score. Gentle, quiet and fluttery. Perhaps a score with a bit less of that Spielberg + Williams emotional chain-pulling we’ve all known over the last 30 years? And then the French horns kicked in, and I knew for sure that this film will be shovelling it big-time.

Williams’ theme suggests pride, heart, struggle, conviction. More to the point, the use of French horns is movie-score shorthand that informs the audience of the following: “Something touching and stirring and triumphant is happening, so it’s time to let those suppressed tears well up and fall down your cheek. Rest assured our film is destined to move you in profound, Oscar-baity ways.”