Bitter Harvest
Roadside Attractions | Release Date: February 24, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
34
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
0
Mixed:
12
Negative:
5
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
50
RogerEbert.comGodfrey CheshireFeb 24, 2017
Its narrative and visual approach almost suggests a compendium of the clichés one should avoid in a film like this. Read full review
50
Boston GlobePeter KeoughFeb 23, 2017
As the film darkens, it intensifies its focus on tragedy and atrocity and begins to do some justice to one of the largest and least known genocides in history. Read full review
50
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 22, 2017
Bitter Harvest never amounts to more than a colorful misfire, a picture with much of the pageant of the period, but little of the roiling passions that dominate politics in the Breadbasket of Europe, even today. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineOleg IvanovFeb 21, 2017
The film is an awkward mix of swashbuckling love story and polemic, painted in very broad strokes. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyFeb 22, 2017
Even if it weren’t about an atrocity, this training-wheels Doctor Zhivago would still be lame. Read full review
40
The GuardianLeslie FelperinFeb 23, 2017
The dialogue is at times embarrassingly bad.... On the other hand, the period details are impressive and must have cost a pretty kopiyka or two, and the film benefits visually from being shot on location. Read full review
40
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 23, 2017
While Bitter Harvest will undoubtedly serve to raise awareness, there can be no doubt that the events deserve a more compelling and responsible treatment than this. Read full review
40
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisFeb 23, 2017
Bitter Harvest feels awkward and parochial. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesSheri LindenFeb 23, 2017
Given the scope of the early-1930s atrocity, the most shocking thing about director George Mendeluk’s new dramatization is how utterly devoid of emotional impact it is. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzFeb 23, 2017
Bitter Harvest, bless its low-budget heart, means well. But George Mendeluk’s film, about the Holodomor, the forced famine and starvation that killed between 7 and 10 million Ukrainians, falls well short of its ambitions. Read full review
40
Time Out LondonCath ClarkeFeb 22, 2017
This forgotten chapter of history deserves to be better told. Read full review
40
Village VoicePete Vonder HaarFeb 22, 2017
A subject like the Holodomor demands something more than a TV-movie aesthetic and pitched battle scenes featuring a couple dozen combatants. Read full review
38
The Seattle TimesTom KeoghFeb 22, 2017
Despite the stakes, Mendeluk can’t scare up any particular urgency, largely because everything is so contrived and inauthentic. Read full review
37
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 23, 2017
There ought to be no lack of firepower in telling this shameful tale. Too often, however, Bitter Harvest is guilty of overkill. Read full review
30
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckFeb 23, 2017
This is the sort of bad film that can only come about as the result of misguided ambitions. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovFeb 22, 2017
It’s a history lesson wrapped up in a romance, gallows grim but far too often unnecessarily heavy-handed in a way that drives home the factual historical horrors it portrays while somehow managing to feel like a sizably budgeted but no less maladroit television movie of the week. Read full review
25
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Brad WheelerMar 2, 2017
This is a story of villainous oppression, unfortunately told with oppressive earnestness. Read full review
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