In the Land of Blood and Honey

FilmDistrict | Release Date: December 23, 2011

3.2	USER SCORE Generally unfavorable reviews based on 87 Ratings

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is24Feb 3, 2012

No point of making any movie on this subject without knowing these facts unless you just want to ignore them. The must read actual facts address given by the late General Pierre-Marie Gallois on March 25, 2009, in Paris.No point of making any movie on this subject without knowing these facts unless you just want to ignore them. The must read actual facts address given by the late General Pierre-Marie Gallois on March 25, 2009, in Paris. http://www.balkanstudies.org/articles/understanding-balkan-wars. If you want to make a movie not based on historical facts, than it might as well be a comedy. I was not expecting AJ to be this disrespectful towards victims on all sides especially since she saw real suffering. 5 stars for the cast and the good cinematography. Too bad, this was the opportunity to say something powerful from a romantic perspective. Everyone there was guilty, including the international community, the ones that did nothing and the ones that caused the whole thing and got involved later; (emphasizing Serbs as main villains is not the reality. Showing violence done just by one nationality and expecting to unite people there? All sides were extremely violent. This war is a typical - book example of a divide and conquer situation done by superpowers. As a result you have many head-cases self-elect themselves to do the tortures in the "name of their nations". Horrible reality.

I don't think that the goal of the writer/director was a divide and conquer. Lack of knowledge- yes. After centuries of suffering, damage and dissecting of the Balkans by superpowers conquer what? Another superpower match over who will rule the skies above and the Adriatic? While the citizens in the area end up being just casualties of war!… Expand

6 of 9 users found this helpful63

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TaplingerMay 11, 2012

Shame, shame, Andrew O'Hehir of Salon.com for rating this film with an "80." You should know better. The script is terrible - it's so bad that all the good things about the movie are irrelevant.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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marshallvMay 9, 2018

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The Land of Blood and Honey is quite a controversial film because while it nails the brutality right on the head, the plot is very shaky. A Serbian officer who is the son of the General of the Serbians, Danjiel, goes on a date with Aija, a bosnian woman and they have a very close but confusing relationship for the rest of the movie. I should also mention, that this whole Bosnian movie is in english. This movie necessarily doesn’t get the history wrong, it just isn’t a great story.
As I said, the movie starts with their date and in the middle of them dancing, the building blows up and they end up getting lost without each other. Aija goes home and later is taken by Serbian soldiers to a camp where we see one of the most brutal parts of the movie. It’s a good scene but it’s very hard to watch as we had to turn off the volume. A serbian soldier is trying to find a doctor and this woman says she can sew, then he asks her if he can f***. Then we watch a very brutal rape scene. They don’t hide a lot and the girl actor does a great job. It’s hard to watch but it gets the point across. Shortly after that scene, Aija gets grabbed and bent over about to be raped as well. Danjiel steps in just to keep her safe. It’s argued that this scene isn’t realistic because on the screen, it doesn’t show her being raped. But it’s argued that if he wouldn’t have, in real life, he probably would’ve been killed or worse. Especially since he’s under the pressure of his father the whole movie. This is where the romantic dynamic enters and when they start stretching some things. She is living in the warehouse at first but Danjiel comes and gets her several nights so he can talk to her and they make love one of the nights. It shows what life is like through the camp and the side stories. The story is about a love story but they’re from two different words. I’m gonna go ahead and spoil the ending but Aija gives away Danjiel’s location so they ended up getting bombed but he survives. I don’t understand her choice but maybe that’s why this movie is so historically accurate. The whole movie, he’s trying to keep her safe and he’s also doing his best to keep himself safe as well. Then she just stabs him in the back and that feels super sketchy. He shoots her in the head and it was meant to be a emotional moment but their relationship feels super forced because it was written like that. They only see eachother, like a total of 10 times, they have sex a couple times, then she betrays him and he shoots her in the head. It’s a compelling story if you get over all the subplots. I think the rest of the movie, like when Danjiel is away from her or when she is off by herself is very distracting. It touches on the war and does it justice but also distracts you from the romantic part and makes it less compelling. When they are together, it seems genuine but they seem very flip flop as well. You often catch him yelling at her for no reason but there’s also parts where it seems like he can’t get enough of her. I think the central theme around this movie is that everything is complicated. Our Bosnian American Studies teacher Mr. Jennings told us on day one that the war and everything else is complicated. I think one of the best parts of the movies is choosing between the women he loves and his father. In the end after he kills her, he basically sacrifices himself to the UN and it shows how mentally broken he is after having to kill this woman he loves. I think one of the most noteworthy qualities about this movie is the brutality. This movie is forsure not for children of any kind. I already mentioned the rape scene but that’s just one of them out of the several that are in this movie. There’s a point where a baby gets thrown out the window, you see a line of Bosnians getting shot into a mass grave and even the blood and effects they use seem very real. It’s a very gritty war flick but they try to add romance and I found myself questioning what this movie was. While this movie had some redeeming qualities, I don’t think it changes the fact that this movie doesn’t know what it is and is quite graphic to watch. The brutal scenes of rape and murder plague this movie and it also tries to combine a romance with a war drama. It overall doesn’t turn out too well but it has some redeeming qualities such as the acting and the relationship between Aija and Danjiel is pretty good as well. I thought it was an alright movie about the tragedy of the Bosnian War.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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