Starring: Linus Roache, Vincent Perez, Lia Williams, Adam Kotz, Soo Garay Directed By: David Attwood Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC Label: Hbo Home Video Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: August 30, 2005 Running Time: 113 minutes Theatrical Release Date: October 04, 1998
Product Description: History runs deeper than friendship- and blood runs deeper than both. Two friends (Linus Roache & Vincent Perez) each a champion marksman have been inseparable since childhood but the collapse of their nation divided by civil war in a ruthless bloody struggle for independence and power. Almost overnight neighbors and families once united are torn apart-and two best friends themselves on opposite sides of a deadly line. One turns sniper for the enemy-the other almost stays to defend his community. Now in a war where so many innocents have fallen and so many more must fall two best friends are forced to pull the trigger. Only one will feel the bullet but both will feel the pain.Running Time: 112 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R UPC: 026359141423
what would you have done to save your wife and child? It's real easy to nit-pick a movie to death, and I refuse to do it. Yes, it may have been more appropriate (for a production of this nature) to have hired actors from Bosnia (and had them deliver their lines in English--for greater exposure/distribution, etc.) although using Linus Roache and Vincent Perez (who do good work here) turned out to be just fine, as far as I was concerned.
This tale comes from a section of John Falk's gripping memoir entitled HELLO TO ALL THAT--and the screenwriter did make some changes that I thought were stronger in the book and could have been left as it truly did happen--but what can you do? The movie still works and works well. Packs an emotional wallop that practically knocked the wind out of this viewer more than once.
The other thing I wanted to touch on is this: Bogomils. The Muslims of Bosnia were Bogomils originally (a Christian sect; that's right. They were CHRISTIAN. Look it up. Who did not believe J.C. to be God, but a prophet. Anyway, because the Bogomils were constantly harrassed by Catholics (Croatians) on one side, and Orthodox Christians (Serbs) on the other--before the advent of the Ottoman empire--they were, for the most part, forced to convert by the turks. Like I said: for the most part; some did so willingly, in order to stop being bugged by the Catholics and the Orthodox Christians.
The whole thing is not easy to explain, better yet, would take too long. There are books on it, though--for anyone genuinely interested.
The reason I mention this at all, is because some viewers have expressed surprise at seeing Bosnian Muslims (in the movie) looking European, or rather, that they didn't look like Middle-Eastern types and didn't wear the headgear (they were used to seeing them in): turbans & whatnot. Again: Bosnians are Slavic. In other words: Caucasian. Bosnia is just north of Italy, south of Hungary--and nowhere near the Middle East. Some people just don't get it. They hear the word Muslim--and automatically assume you have something to do with the Middle East (not wishing to disrespect anyone who happens to be from there, or lives there, etc. so long as you're not one of those Islamo-facists out to waste anyone who does not subscribe to your fanatical ways).
Bosnia (the capitol of which is Sarajevo) was, no matter what anyone else claims, a secular society, meaning non-religious (before the early 1990s war--and after. There were never any fanatics in that place. You see, Islam, was never their religion to begin with.They were never, ever attached to that religion in any fanatical way (no matter what Mladic or Karadzic may claim.). Islam was basically foisted upon them by the invading Turks (who, I believe, controlled nearly half of Europe at one time--until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire.) It's all in history books.
They say people just don't read anymore. Explains the ignorance.
Gripping drama but technically flawed. Everything that others have said about the quality of the story and acting is true; this film should be seen. But to portray to accomplished competitive marksmen with several technical flaws is incomprehensible.
It is well established that rifles are best cleaned from the chamber with one piece rods to avoid damage to the crown and the rifling. To show a bolt gun being cleaned from the muzzle with a jointed rod was nonsensical.
Canneluring is the indented ring on a bullet's body so that the case neck can be crimped into the groove to prevent shifting of the bullet or to affix the jacket to the lead core to prevent separation of the two. Canneluring is pressed into the bullet at a late stage in manufacture and always causes concentricity problems due to the pressing process. It is, therefore, never seen in precision bullets. To show a molybdenum coated cannelured bullet as used by a knowledgable marksman in competition or for sniping is just silly.
It is unfortunate the makers of this film or their consultants did not know their subject.
Almost excellent This is a great film about the battle in Sarajevo in the 90's. HBO did a great job with one minor flaw. If you have the original version of the movie, there is one scene where the DVD, was edited for some reason, and they took out like 2 bad words, which to me really had their place and meaning in that particular scene. It is rather comical to see the actor mouth out something other than what you hear. All-in-all a great buy and an excellent film.
And your to blame This was really quite a well-made and compelling film. Set in 1992 Sarajevo, the film begins right before the region descended into war and ethnic cleansing. It follows two best friends, one Orthodox Serb, one Bosnian Muslim, who are both snipers for the Yugoslavian Olympic team. But with the break-up of the Yugoslav nation, there will be no Olympics for these brothers-in-arms, instead they will be pitted against each other in an ethnic war. This struck me as a very realistic and gripping portrait of this turbulent situation, and it was quite heart-wrenching to watch. The struggle between loyalty to your friend, and loyalty to your nation/ethnicity/religion is a universal theme that I think everyone should be able to relate to. The film was also very well-made, not at all "low-budget" feeling as I was expecting. Four stars.
PS- I found it quite interesting that the Muslims portrayed are indistinguishable from the Serbs. They look and act just like ordinary white Slavs. This is quite the contrast to the bearded and veiled fundamentalists that we are used to seeing.
Not exactly accurate I watched this film in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) with a Bosnian who lived through the 1992-1995 war (mother is Muslim and father is Serb). He could not stand the film because he said it is not realistic. The interior sets approximate how people lived in BiH before the war but are much too high class and more like a Californian version of the BiH. BiH is much more complicated and complex than this film portrays. The film is an interesting and entertaining approximation that gets across the point that war is a horrible thing and in the end utterly pointless.
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