I just watched this movie, and I was absolutely taken away. This is the most visually stunning movie that I have seen in a long time. The actors are wonderful..I was pleased to see Adrian Brody!! I was only 16 in 1991, and didn't take any notice or pay attention to international events then. Anyway,I just wanted to see if anyone out there shared my opnion on this film.
shareI've just seen this movie too, and I must say I was disappointed BIG TIME. I was prepared to be a little let-down watching a film starring Andie MacDowell (let's face it, you can't turn a catwalk model into an actress no matter how hard you try), but the script was laughable and Elie Chouraqui's direction was appallingly bad. And the pat "happy" ending left me wondering why I'd bothered to rent this in the first place.
What Chouraqui knows about the atrocities that took place in Yugoslavia during the war could be written on the back of a postage stamp. Which makes one wonder why he'd take on a project of these proportions. This film's only saving grace is the supporting cast...Adrien Brody, Alun Armstrong, Brendan Gleeson. The scenes in which they appear make the film barely watchable, but they kept my attention.
Sorry to sound so dour, but I'd like to take Mr. Chouraqui outside and smack him about soundly with a copy of this piece of tripe (preferably on a hard 35mm reel) until he learns his lesson...if you don't know the material, for God's sake don't try to film it.
Prairie, if you like visually stunning work set in wartime and enjoy Adrien's Brody's acting, watch "The Pianist" instead. It's a far better film than this piece of fecal waste.
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I am interested in the ex-Yugoslavia situation as I served for 6 months in Bosnia.
I have never liked Andie McDowell as an actress, and I agree that the sickly sweet ending - in fact the love story in general - was a bit unneccessary. (But how else would you get Americans to watch the movie?)
I just watched this movie on DVD for the first time last night. I have no experience of Croatia, but some of this movie reminded me so much of Bosnia it was scary.
FeydRutha: What parts of this movie didn't you find realistic?
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"FeydRutha: What parts of this movie didn't you find realistic? "
It was the way the whole thing was "Hollywood-ised"...McDowell's character had no god-given right going into a war-front and expecting to come out with her husband and her perfectly sculpted nails intact. I was trying to enjoy the movie on a reality scale, but half-way through I found myself actually hoping McDowell would catch a bullet or a grenade or even some mortar fire and get blown to bits.
I also have issues with the way Croatians were portrayed as perfect angels and Serbs were portrayed as the Spawn of the Devil...I have Croatian friends, and they've told me some horrific stories about what really went on during a time that tore their homeland apart. I think Kyle Morris puts it best in one scene: "There are no good guys, there are no bad guys..." If I'd been there, I would have smacked McDowell soundly around the face, dragged her over the border and put her on the first plane back to the US.
Don't get me wrong...with repeated viewings, the action scenes are almost realistic...I say Almost because the US citizens portrayed weren't shot in the head and dumped on a pile. I don't know what Elie Chouraqui was trying to say with this piece, but the end result was certainly biased.
"I also have issues with the way Croatians were portrayed as perfect angels and Serbs were portrayed as the Spawn of the Devil"
you still weren't here so don't judge. the movie is about Vukovar,which was leveled to the ground by Serbs and is a cradle of the biggest war crimes in the history of the world.women and children were butchered like animals.after 1994. things get mixed-up because of power-hungry leaders on both sides,but in Vukovar in 1991. it was clear who were the good guys and who were the bad guys.
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This post is from someone who has "Chetnik" as his log-in. For anyone unfamiliar with the term, it is what extremist Serb paramilitary units used to call themselves during WWII and were known for committing horrific crimes, by killing and slaughtering Gypsies, Croats, Partisans and any one else they did not like.
This person talks about the Holocaust in WWII, which was a horrible thing and we should not allow it to happen ever again. One thing that this person omits to mention is Serbian death camps where tens of thousands of Muslims and Croats were murdered and slaughtered only about 10 YEARS AGO.
The post is nothing more than Serbian extremist propaganda. It is an attempt to divert the attention of more recent events by bringing up event s that happened over half a century ago. May I just note that Slobodan Milosevic, the Serbian president responsible for starting the war, is currently on trial in The Hague, Netherlands for war crimes and atrocities against humanity.
I am not defending the pro-Nazi Croatian government from 1941. However, comparing the 1991 Croatian army fighting to protect its own soil against an aggressor has nothing to do with that government from 50 years ago. Equating those two would be the same as equating the current German government with Hitler’s government.
Both sites provided in the above post are from “srpska-mreza.com”, which translates to “Serbian-net.com”. I wonder how objective and accurate that information is?
I could provide some links for opposing and equally biased sites but I will not. I would suggest for anyone interested in what really happened, to do some research on their own using legitimate and impartial sources of historic facts, and draw their own conclusion.
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In one of BBC reports a song sung by chetniks entering Vukovar was heard, but was not translated to English and other audience. For all those who didn't understand, I'll translate it. If you don't believe, try to find if someone has that report to confirm it (I repeat, it was not taken by Croatian television, and BBC was not so friedly to Croatia those days):
"Slobodane, posalji salate, bit ce mesa, klat cemo Hrvate." (Slobodan is, of course, Milosevic).
Translated:
"Slobodan, send us the salad, there'll be meat enough, we'll slaughter Croats."
REGARDLESS OF WHO IS RIGHT OR WRONG, THE ACTION LOCATIONS WERE ABSOLUTELY STUNNING, AS THE SUBJECT LINE SAYS. THE SET DRESSING WAS ABSOLUTELY BELEIVEABLE, AS WERE THE LOCATIONS USED TO DEPICT VUKOVAR.(SOMEWHERE IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC, I GUESS.) TOTAL REALISM, IN MY ESTIMATION, SO YOU GOT WHAT YOU PAID YOUR MONEY FOR! I VOTED WITH MY WALLET AGAIN BY PURCHASING A JUST RLEASED COPY FOR MY PERMANENT VIDEO COLLECTION. I TENDER A "VERY WELL DONE" TO THE ENTIRE CAST, CREW, AND EXTRAS!!!!.
shareexcellent post, piplovin.....i agree 100%....
shareyour nick is telling everything
it is like someone takes the nick Nazi
you are telling serbian propaganda
i saw with my own eyes who was killing
i was there!
why dont you translate the text from the song that cetniks were singing
"Bit ce mesa
bit ce mesa
klat cemo Hrvate"
why don't you admit what you did
whole world is stupid just serbians are true
When you say: "I was there", tell me where exactly?
I pricaj naski Srpsko-Hrvatski, da se bolje razumijemo.
This is international board, and many people that don't speak any of Yugoslav languages visit it, so it would be a loss for all of us to limit it only to people who understand the languages. Also, how can anyone speak the unexisting language? If you want to talk in Serbian or Croatian (or Bosnian, Slovenian etc) language you can use private messages.
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same here. i thought it was a great movie. very disturbing too. some parts were just horrific. i thought Isabel Ellsen and Elie Chouraqui got it right portrying both sides of the conflict. the Serbs and Croatians were ruthless. it was no war, it was genocide. very well written and very well directed.
Harrison's Flowers reminds me a lot of The Pianist. coincedently Adrien Brody was in both pictures. i thought kyle morris's death was a little lame, "there's no one here..." fump fump. it could have been done differently.
as-salaam alykum
Do you like the move and belive what you've seen.
Than watch, becuase I'm Serbian, and I eat small kids.
Come on give me a brake.
It's unexepteble to use a move as a propaganda tool.
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As for the sides...
If moviewatchers look more closely, they will see that the photographers shot pictures of both sides' atrocities, never mind what was being said about some side being better than the other side, because this was probably just the sentiment of the times.
Picking sides is quite a tricky business, because both unbiased truth and justice just happen to be positioned in the very tight cracks right between whatever side there ever was (or ever will be).
The director managed to pull off quite an authentic depiction of modern warfare in Europe late in the 20th century. The hero is really not the soldier, as neither side cared much about human life anyway: people were killed mercilessly and they died like flies. Therefore these sides don't matter.
I think that the point of the movie is that with all the atrocities that all the sides committed, the meaning of who or what a hero is does not sit still or stay motionless, as the meaning is in fact fluid -- it is in the process of gradually transferring over to those people that don't commit war crimes, not necessarilty those who do nothing, but those who manage to be part and parcel of the situation on the ground and still make a meaningful contribution that would hopefully change the world for the better.
I simply had to check your page to see if you wrote something about yourself. After reading your comment I was interested where do you come from. It was more than obvious that you don't live (or have ancestors) in any of involved countries. I was also sure that you don't come from EC (at least those countries that were EC during 90's), because they have a feeling of guilt or shame for what they governments did (or better didn't do). Also, I could tell you don't come from USA, because they mostly don't understand what's happening (and often don't care), they just by random occasions go to war. And finding out that you come from Estonia explained your comment.
And I'd like more people like you to take part in these discussions that too often look as a sequel of the war, only led by words instead of bullets. Maybe you would understand Balcan nations (and not omly like some people keep prejudices without interest in reality), maybe Balcan people would understand something about the rest of the world (that they weren't trying too hard so far), maybe they would understand themselves (what they seem to be unable because - left only to each other and their myths - they only live in the same old circles). But it seems that most people prefer staying away from "Balcan savage tribes", while their members don't care much to change that image.