 "Harrison's Flowers is a Touching Film" | 2008-06-11 |
| - Reviewed By jolliedd |
David Strathairn-Harrison (Delores Claiborne) and Andie MacDowell-Sarah (Four Weddings And A Funeral) star in this touching film about a Prize-winning photojournalist who comes up missing while on a dangerous assignment in war-torn Yugoslavia. One can only admire Sarah's courage as--when Harrison is presumed dead, she goes on a mission, risking her own life in a war ravaged country to find him. This film is filled with drama and suspense, as we see the realities of war and those who fall victim to the tyrany and oppression. Perhaps the most touching element in this story though, is when a shell shocked Harrison--is brought back to his loving family by his flowers his son lovingly tended to in his father's absence. Warning: There are gory scenes involving war injuries, army tanks, guns, and war violence. This movie is not suitable for children, and sensitive individuals. This review applies to the full-length film.
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 "What CNN missed . . ." | 2008-03-04 |
| - Reviewed By rockysquirrel |
This 2-hour French production with an American cast is an odd combination of a blithely impossible action plot played against a chilling reality. When a world-famous photographer is reported killed in the war-torn former Yugoslavia, his wife flies off from their comfortable home in Westchester to find him and bring him back alive. The best that can be said about this Hollywood-style storyline is that it provides a reason to accomplish something very different - to portray the ghastly truth of ethnic warfare as it took place in the Balkans in the early 1990s and the role of news photographers who risked their lives to capture it with their cameras.
Plunged into Croatia as Vukovar was being overrun by Serbs, the characters take the audience into a hell where everyone - men, women, children - must kill or be killed. We are witness to atrocities and inhumanities that take the breath away. While war in the movies has often been played for thrill-packed adventure - even anti-war films - this one leaves you with a sense of powerlessness in the face of unimaginable horror. Urban warfare and ethnic cleansing cease being abstract concepts. We see their portrayal with our own eyes, and the efforts of one American woman to retrieve her husband in the midst of it all are dwarfed by comparison. Worth seeing anyway for what CNN missed. |
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| "balkans movies" | 2008-01-25 |
| - Reviewed By irfan@ti.com |
| War footage is uncannny in its reality. They must have gone to post Bosnia war areas to get footage of destruction that they showed. Delivers a powerful reminder of the ugliness of the Bosnian war that happened in the civilized western neighbourhood only 18 years ago. |
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 "EVEN MORE DEPRESSING FOR BUTLER FANS" | 2007-11-25 |
| - Reviewed By jonztrbzz |
| Gerard Butler fans, be warned, he's not in this more than probably 30 seconds, not much more than an extra. The movie itself was depressing, but well acted. |
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| "anti-war movie" | 2007-07-22 |
| - Reviewed By bookandmovies |
Well-made movie with high production values (true widescreen, good music, sound) manages to keep interest alive in spite of having very little story material to work with. I disagree with the claim that the movie was unrealistic. For example, sneaking past the snipers by crawling through the brush a hundred yards away is not incredible as depicted. And smiling at the checkpoints was a good rouse: it made the sentries think the journalists were on their side, so of course they wanted them to take their pictures.
The purpose of the movie seemed to be mainly to describe, to show the human costs of war. No attempt at understanding this particular war, just showing the atrocities. At least they had the decency to say that BOTH sides were committing atrocities. Usually, in American movies it's only the Serbs that are the bad guys.
Another fair-minded and human-level film, made by a Yugoslav, is Savior.
It's all very well to say that war is bad, but we already know that. The question is, what do you do when you are attacked? This is what Americans are still arguing about. We had better figure it out. In twenty years, much of Europe may be in the same fix as Yugoslavia fifteen years ago. Read While Europe Slept: How Radical Islam is Destroying the West from Within. In thirty years, America may be in the same mess. Read While America Sleeps: How Islam, Immigration and Indoctrination Are Destroying America From Within.
Yes, war is hell, but so is being slaughtered like cattle. Which is worse?
See this movie. It may be your future. It will almost certainly be your children's. |
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| "Well-made" | 2007-02-24 |
| - Reviewed By User: A9EOBZ7HM6XHI |
In a word? "Good."
This is a very moving film, which touches on many things -- not least of which is the role of the press in times of war. This ethical question has not become any less important with the Iraq war, and will undoubtedly increase in its importance in wars to come.
Overall, this is a very well-produced film, with very talented actors indeed, that will definitely become one of my most frequently watched films. The one thing that could be improved on, however, and that could've pushed this to be one of my favourite films, would be the plot. Not the plot of the war, of course, that is a well-stated fact.
No, I'm speaking specifically about the plot of the journalist-wife who goes into this psychiatric state, yet is allowed to travel into a war-zone instead of being prescribed psychiatric help. I do find this a bit hard to fully believe, and this takes up a bit too much of the film, in my opinion.
But still, put the popcorn on -- a good movie, by all accounts. |
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