Interesting question. Regardless of the fact Angelina's movie borders with the boldest Muslim wartime propaganda, the movie was not good.I am not surprised it leaves audience confused and uninformed. Extremely artificial portrayl of the conflict,extremely one sided approach (as if some very bitter Muslims were her only source,which may have been the case) and ultimately very poorly researched. Nearly 20 years after the conflict,when many records are set straight,movie such as this is very disappointing.
The single best documentary about why it all happened, and how..is probably Canadian The Weight of Chains, raw, unbias take on the whole conflict and breakup of Yugoslavia, that critically confronts all sides involved, including the very significant role of US and NATO.
Yugoslavia: The avoidable War is also very good.
You can also see Norwegian documentaries Sarajevo ricochet and Srebrenica a Town Betrayed on the subject of controversial US involvment in Jihad in Bosnia(Bosnian Muslims were allies with Jihadist from the East, and both were at the time supported by US) and on virtual Srebrenica ''genocide''.
On Srebrenica you can also see Dossier Srebrenica.
Serbs have an excellent documentary Pictures and Words of Hate,that explores the role of media propaganda and media fabrications in starting and fueling the war. It concentrates on Serbian and Croat media, and that conflict.
I strongly suggest you discard any movie or documentary that tries to blame only one side for the whole thing, since that simply reeks of bias, and it simply isn't how things were. War in Yugoslavia was a civil war, not a war of agression, and as such very complicated problem, with so much propaganda and agenda involved, that its motives and roles of various political figures were revealed only recently.
If we talk about movies, you will mostly encounter Hollywood style cartoonish movies about this subject. Serbs are villains,others are justice and peace loving hippies (same as RUssians were only villains in the 1980-90's),but everyone are just a background for some Rambo guy. But if you think Full metal jacket, or Platton are better and more accurate war movies than Top Gun, you should watch:
- Pretty Village Pretty Flame, Serbian movie. Arguably the best and most accurate movie yet on the subject. It is next to Apocalypse now, Platoon, Deer Hunter in movie world. It deals with war in Bosnia in all its tragedy, with distinctive black humor that is very prominent in Balkans, it tells a story of childhood friends, a Serb and a Muslim who become involved in this civil war on opposite sides. It is raw, hardcore, emotional, and most importantly there are no good guys and bad guys in this movie, and there are both on both sides. It has like 5 time frames, but it surprisingly easy to follow.
- No Mans Land (2001) is Bosnian movie, that also has a strong anti war message to it, the futility of civil war. But the movie is more artistic and fantastic than above mentioned, and uses much more subtle ways to show the tragedy of divided Bosnia. Worth seeing definitely, since it doesn't make us vs them, good vs bad, polarizations in it.The worst side are arguably the foreign observers.
- The Savior (Oliver Stone produced movie from 1998. is very strong and emotional movie, usually loved by Serbs since it is about the only Hollywood movie that doesn't portray them as (sole) villains. You will see Muslims with jihadist headbands, and extremist Croats, both actually killing someone...scenes nowhere to be seen in average Hollywood movie on the subject. Serbs are also ruthless, but unlike Angelina's movie, there were actually Serb civilians present in the war, and suffered, and payed a huge price for various political goals, independences etc.
-Turneja (The tour),from 2008,is another Serbian movie that tries to deal with tragedy of war by following the voyage of several Serban actors through front line,who,by chance stumble upon all three sides in the war.Movie is fun,has an anti war message,isn't bias, but isn't very informative or realistic either.
- I also recommend Serbian movie Premeditated murder (1995). In one of the strongest scenes in long cinematography of Yugoslavia and later Serbia, you will see the whole point or lack there of of the carnage that happened.The movie itself is a love story and not typical war movie.
If you want movies and documentaries (Except the mentioned The Weight of Chains) about Serbo-Croat conflict that is for another post. The two year Croatian-Muslim conflict in that all out Yugoslav war, was obviously not interesting enough for movies to be made about it.
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Zanchief
10 years ago
I will look these up and post comments when I watch them. Very informative post. Thank you for taking the time.
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