Genres

Visitors Review

jalexoid 2012-05-25 06:58:19

The 8 minute movie

The ideas behind the story and the movie seem very noble - to bring toattention the horrors of war. For that we have story, eyewitnesses,victims, high press coverage and it all happened in recent history.However, something that was an ideal setting for a humanist drama iscorrupted by many flaws.Cinematography is frankly very bad. It's on par with home movies. Thereis little feel to the pictures you see and they do not deliver thefeelings that are behind the script. Unless you lived though thatparticular horror, this movie will not spark any passionate feelings.It's literally like watching a documentary of wildlife. In short, thepicture lacks any feel to it.Direction was ordinary at best. A few emotion filled moments wereapparent, yet the cinematography failures just wiped it off the face ofthe picture.Quite a lot of CG, yet it's not an action movie. It just kills anyunderlying messages. Though the CG was very good by itself.The story is over-politicized. Though I don't think that there isanything wrong to portray a single side of a conflict, I do have a lotof issues when that side is very political. It has very cleartendencies, that result in some strange plot "twists". Some make sense,some don't. Like in all stories the politics just covers up the humanside. It's no wonder that the story has tendencies, since quite a lotof Georgians worked on the movie. Sometimes such composition of crewresults in a highly emotional and expressive movie. Yet this time thosepersonal connections are lost along the way, giving way to thepolitical aspect of the story.The Georgians that were close to the conflict will feel emotionaltowards the movie and will relate in some way. People that were faraway will not see through the political veil and fail to relate tohardships and suffering of ordinary people.

spin666 2012-05-24 21:09:29

A movie that "Joseph Goebbels" would have like

As a movie about a war that just happen,it of course very interesting.As you can see at many the review and forum comments,the movie's topica flaming one. The maker of the movie made it sound like a movie baseon mainly facts. That was the reason I choose to see this movie.As I'm nor Russian or Georgian(nor one of their allies), and I livequite far for all this mess,I consider my self quite neutral in thisissue.Sadly,this movie is far from facts,and it's so full of propaganda moviethat I couldn't even enjoy it's entertainment value.'5 Days of August' is suppose to tell us a story about theRussian-Georgian war in 2008,from TV-crews eyes. The conflict it's selfisn't that sudden,because the area had a long history full ofmadness,politics and fighting. Which this movie did try to explorer,butquite poorly. Mainly because it only tell the story on the side ofGeorgians(view of the war from Georgians side). Russians was made to bethe main and the only bad guys(which in some context,they of coursewere at fault,as they act just like US in Irak. Anyway the main problembeen Georgians was not as pure and guiltless as it showed). As storycame down to a purelly propaganda movie(Georgian been the true Freedomfighters,and not mass murders of their own peoples or South Ossetians.Which depend on your view on South Ossetians independents)that wouldhave made Goebbels proud of this one. As a history and Document fan,Ifind this movie as bad as it can be. American's propaganda aren'tusually this direct, only the Nazi and communist did this type over thetop propaganda junks.As a simple movie, this one has nothing special. Special effect arepoor. Garcia and Kilmer made me want to cry! This two's acting is notat the same level as they should be. As b-level Director goes, RennyHarlin did an OK job. He been a Finn must had something to do with whyhe was in this movie,because even he is overqualified for this movie.Anyhow Winter war and this one aren't the same. Finland wan't the onestarting the war,nor did they bomb their own people as part of theirplan to "free" them.Worst thing about this movie,is that some lazy people might actuallybelieve this movie is about facts.People with open mind and have the mind to study up on the issue ofSouth Ossetia war/history should see this movie(as a joke aboutHollywood style of facts), or Movie students. This is 2011 propagandamovie, that use the same style as Nazi's and communist did.

Vincentiu 2012-05-17 16:39:25

cry as testimony

I recognize, I will be subjectively. my ancestors are Georgian and theimpression about that war was powerful. so, I love this movie. not verymuch but it is good price for the ambiguous speech of E.U., U.S.A. inthe days of Russian aggression. the Olimpic Games were more importantthan massacres and cynical experiment of Moscow. yes, it is apropaganda film, not very inspired,naive, some stupid, unrealistic andfull of American dusty recipes. an interesting script is prey ofspecial effects. Manicheic rule is not best solution. but , more that,it is a lesson about Georgia existence. crumbs from Cold War, drops offriendship and heroism, cruelty in pure form, pieces of fake momentsare ingredients of movie but not its essence. the American style topresent fight of David against Goliath is only cloth for a profoundstory about hidden monsters. in fact, a cry of a lost world for whohistory is just bad wolf out of rules.

adamm2009 2012-05-17 01:21:39

gripping, moving, heartbreaking, shocking. Uncomfortable realism

This is a gritty, realistic, shocking movie which reminds us of thesometimes terrible world we live in. Its depiction of the lives bravereporters live on the front line in war torn countries is prettyaccurate I would say. They risk everything to get the truth out to therest of the world who are not even interested most of the time,preferring to report on more trivial stories. As I write this briefreview, 63 % of reviewers have given this a score of 6/10 and over, 40% giving 10/10. This is in my mind what it deserves. The fact that over20 % have given this film 1/10 is offensive and ridiculous. I wouldsuggest the people who have given this film 1/10 are either Russian,vacuous soap opera watchers or fans of the likes of Justin Bieber,Paris Hilton and anything else remotely trashy and fake. This isgripping and dramatic and well worth a look.

gaumarjos 2012-05-13 13:04:36

Not as bad as some pro Russians say!

Movie is good with all actions and special effects, part about refugeesis true and of course its true that Russians are wrong in this warstarting from 1989, they started this war to punish Georgia for wantingindependence from USSR and since than every 3-5 years Russians arekilling Georgians inside Georgian territory. For this moment there is20% of Georgian land completely cleaned from ethnic Georgians. May beit was possible to do movie like this much better than it is, but thisdoesn't makes Russians less guilty for aggression that they commitalmost everyday in this region as whole. I don't agree with Saakashviligovernment in this case for entering in military confrontation withRussians, but same time have to say that, it is very difficult to avoidthis, because Russians know that only way to occupy this area ismilitary occupation and they had all this plans long before Saakashvilibecame president of Georgia. Knowing all this it was mistake to fightand only correct decision would be to evacuate all people from conflictarea and ask help to international community, even though this almostnever helps. Unfortunately even here you feel strong work of Russianpropagandists writing clear lies about this conflict and overcriticizing this movie, same time they already made not one, severalmovies with much more propaganda and very poor quality in every way.Worst what they did is that this so called movies they made in anotherGeorgian occupied territory, where was war (1992-1993) much bigger thanin this case and 50 000 people were killed with another 250 000Georgians forced to leave without anything.

janne-junnonen 2012-05-12 22:32:26

Biased, but necessary and entertaining film

This film reminds me of Renny Harlin's breakthrough film from 1985,Born American. The scripts are lacking in both movies, but actionsequences are well made and the propaganda aspects are similar. It's nosecret that these films have a heavy anti-Soviet/Russian agenda, andactually as a Finn myself, I greatly enjoy that Harlin has the b*lls top*ss of the Russians. His 1985 movie was especially gutsy consideringthat it was BANNED in Finland for a short while! (The government didn'twant to endanger Soviet relations.)So it's not a neutral movie, but it doesn't need to be. Somebody had todo it, and Harlin was the perfect man for the job. Russians have theirown biased movies of this war, so a counterbalance was needed, and I'msure "5 Days of War" beats the Russian movies by far in entertainmentvalue, and will be seen by millions more.

2012-05-05 18:44:31

V.Good Watch.

I become so infuriated when i watch a movie and see the review sectiondominated by comments that do not reflect the true quality of a film. Isee people writing all sorts of negative comments regarding this film.LET ME SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT. This was a very good film reflectingthe events that took place in Georgia. A decent budget was given to thefilm so i would like affirm that this is not a B Movie. Andy Garciapays his role superbly but Val Kilmer is rather on the periphery inthis movie. This film is engaging from start to finish and it hasmoments in terms of the ethnic cleansing that are similar to momentslike in ' Behind Enemy Lines' This film was to represent the struggleagainst the Russian's and Russian backed separatist. The script wasfine and overall a very good war movie. It was also showing the braveryof reporters to tell the TRUTH and the struggles they face. The mix ofcharacters in the film was great and the arch villain was great. Thelittle twist were great. This film really was close to being aHollywood smash if it was more spectacular, but thats what it moregenuine. Ignore the comments a very decent watch. Now passion here isnot just displayed for this movie, but as a big movie fan who haswatched a range of movies, i hate it when i use IMDb, the first choicefor movie comments & guidelines that people can write such things thatare so far from the truth especially when there are some terriblemovies to put good movies into categories they should not be in.

Lee Eisenberg 2012-05-05 04:00:08

Russia-Georgia War had been brewing since World War I

Renny Harlin has long been one of the purveyors of brainless actionflicks, so for him to direct a historical movie sounds suspect. "5 Daysof War", about the Russia-Georgia War of August 2008, is OK but wouldbe better had it looked at the roots of the war. The focus is anAmerican reporter (Rupert Friend) covering the war, and how everyone inthe region feels as if the world has abandoned them like it did Rwanda.What I learned about the roots of the five-day war -- and I heard thisfrom a Russian, so there's bound to be some bias in favor of that side-- is that it goes back to World War I, specifically the ArmenianGenocide. When the Ottoman army started massacring the Armenians, therest of the people in the Caucasus thought that they all might be next,so they turned to Russia for help. They all of course became part ofthe Soviet Union (probably against their will). When Georgia became anindependent country, Abkhazia and South Ossetia wanted independencefrom Georgia, but Georgia's government refused, so Abkhazia startedwaging its own war for independence. Georgia's government respondedbrutally, and it got to the point where Russia invaded Georgia(although Russia's response was clearly pretty excessive). The movie isdefinitely pro-Georgia.While this is the story that I heard, I figure that to the people inthe battlegrounds, there was no difference between the Georgian andRussian armies. As "Catch-22" noted, anyone with a gun is the enemy.Andy Garcia is pretty good as Mikhail Saakashvili, although I'd alwaysthought that Bob Hoskins looks the most like the Georgian president. Asit was, a number of Americans, upon hearing that Russia invadedGeorgia, thought that Russia had invaded the US state. Despite thehostilities between the two countries, a Russian and Georgian athletestood next to each other after winning medals at the Beijing Olympics,which were taking place at the same time. While I was in Sochi, Russia,I got to taste the Georgian dishes lobio and khachapuri (Georgian foodis to Russia what Mexican food is to the US).Anyway, an OK movie, but nothing that I would highly recommend.

nlekveishvili 2012-05-05 12:15:52

Interesting Facts

Here are the List of Headlines of the Reviews that gave to this Movie 1out of 10. All of them blame the movie that it is not historicallycorrect and they know what happened there in fact. Blaming EU and USAin several Genocides and spreading wrong information about Russians.Here are Headlines:This film had to have been financed by the CIA... This film is NOTbased on a true story... Not whatsoever... Propaganda... Just plainawful!... An overall watchable war movie although historicallyinaccurate... Watch if you want to puke... Worst movie of the year!...Thankfully I didn't waste money on this!..., Bring back Rambo!...Propaganda... A movie that "Joseph Goebbels" would have like... The 8minute movie... Weapon of War against the Truth... awful movie...shameless anti-Russia pro-Saakashvili propaganda tool... This movie iskinda stupid in every way....I believe that every movie is some kind of propaganda, especially whenit is a historical movie as history is never correct. I wonder if thereare same kind of Reviews to the movies such as Braveheart, SavingPrivate Ryan or Katyn. There where some reviews giving 1 out of 10 andblaming the movie is propaganda even before the first premiere of themovie. Doesn't it sound strange already?

devastationfilms1 2012-05-04 20:08:26

amazing action and effects,....horribly executed film

the only reason i am giving this film a 5 is mainly due to the action.The action was incredibly choreographed and excellent special effects.Great Cinematography.Now, the story, plot, acting, writing, historical accuracy,.....allcrap. it was horribly inaccurate and biased toward the Georgians, whoactually started the war. it was basically a big fat Georgianpropaganda film. both sides committed atrocities in this horrible 5 daywar. it wasn't good guy vs bad guy, it was bad guy vs bad guy. If thewriters and Director had done any research, they'd know all of this.next, the story, plot, and writing. the story is just badly plannedout, and doesn't really show any background,....mainly due to the factthat this is a huge propaganda Georgia film. The plot was plain andpredictable. So, that really made me not enjoy this film. The writingwas pretty p_i_s_s_ poor. No background story, the lines were stiff andjust not emotional at all.acting was bad, but not horrendous. I have seen much much worse. all in all, this movie could have been one amazing work of art andstory telling, but they got too focused on the money, which theyobviously failed miserably at: $12,000,000 budget, only got $60,000 inthe box office. So yeah, overall just a good one time watch when youare ridiculously bored out of your mind

lucasrem 2012-05-02 01:41:45

Explane the reason for war.......

We meet a experienced journalist couple in the middle of the war inIraq. When his girlfriend is being killed in close combat with rebelforces Thomas Anders (Rupert Friend) went back home to the states. Backhome the Dutchman (Val Kilmer) a wartime journalist colleague contactshim about an ongoing war in Georgia. Together with his camera man hewent of to report what is gowning on there. With the help of some localrebels they are getting a great story, but nobody is interested at allduring the World Olympics.....Great action movie with a big story that needs to be told, thecinematic effects are top of the art, so we see some great full scalewar action in a well written storyline. All the characters are fullydevelop during the movie, without ever getting boring at all.

killawu187 2012-05-01 10:59:28

Was a great film with above average special effects

After reading the other reviews I was quite surprised. None of themspoke on the extraordinary special effects. Whether the film ishistorically accurate is besides the point. Its a movie, meant to beentertaining, and it was. Val Kilmers role was minimal and lackedprofessionalism, however he has been in almost every 50 cent movie, soyou shouldn't expect much in the first place. The scenes of violencewere graphic and at no point do you yearn for more. Close ups ofhelicopters crashing and people losing limbs was entertainment enough.For a war movie, this was one of the best I've seen in regards to storyand special effects. I feel as if the other reviewers are mad becauseof how their country was represented. Well, if your American you don'tgive a sheet about other countries,(as with me) and watching people getmurdered was pretty entertaining. If your looking for an entertainingfilm, you have found it... and if your looking for a documentary, wellyour in the wrong place. All in all, I give this movie two thumbsup,(and I'm sure the people in Georgia would also if they hadn't losttheir hands to explosives.)

sixbells99 2012-04-29 23:24:12

Could have been so much better

The open sequence is gut wrenchingly brilliant and raw, leaving yougenuinely shocked. But as this scene fades into the next it appears thefilm changed director to one who watched to much A team and any 1960'sWorld war II film.For a film that purports to be a vision of real life events thedirector could not have got it more wrong. We are left with ridiculousbattle scenes that are in fact an insult to the real horror of war oncivilians. Hind gun ships firing bending missiles, the director lovesthis and we see these Hinds firing their bendy missiles all through outthe film. Andy Garcia does his best Borat impression while the mostshocking element of all is how much Val Kilmer has let himself go.If you want to watch a brutal, raw and realistic film on the horrors ofwar, watch the first scene and then turn your TV off. If you want towatch some comic book propaganda film then keep on watching. A bad filmthat at the start hinted on how good it could have been!!

del91 2012-04-29 09:37:26

An awful war film in need of a script rewrite.

This was really, truly wasted potential. The film had an interestingidea going for it - a war which was unfortunately overshadowed by otherevents, and told from the other side, which was a daring move.Unfortunately, all I got were some unintentional guffaws and groans.The moment the characters start speaking the film loses its credibilityand it goes south from there.The acting is bad. Rupert Friend may have given good performances inhis past films such as "Pride and Prejudice" and "Young Victoria" buthere he looked lost. Emmanuelle Chriqui is horrible. She can act inromantic comedies, but is totally miscast in her role here. She wasn'teven trying in the dramatic scenes. Val Kilmer, Heather Graham, DeanCain and Andy Garcia pop up to scavenge what's left of their careers.Rade Serbedzija looks mean again. The only performances which are goodare from Richard Coyle and Jonathan Schaech.Did I mention the screenplay was absolutely atrocious? There werecheesy lines and moments from left to right. Not one scene feltgenuinely gripping, and many scenes felt like they were tacked on. NowI'm not one to say anything about politics but from what I've heardthis film is propaganda. Given the poor quality of the acting andwriting I'd doubt anyone on both sides of the war will appreciate thismovie - it may even be very offensive to some on both the Russian andGeorgian sides.There's even cheesier music to go along with everything. Trevor Rabinmay be good for action movies but is totally out of his league here.His music timing is out and his score becomes aggressively annoying.The editing is too rushed at times, making some scenes feel veryforced. There are good things, though. The cinematography is good, and sincethe DP was a real-life war cameraman, it shows in the movie with itswide sweeping shots of the enemy tanks and the shaky-cam fury of thebattles. The sound effects, especially the explosions and the shootingsequences, are startlingly realistic.The ugliest aspect of the film? How director Renny Harlin shaped thisfilm to be. Normally I admire Harlin's films, but that was pure actionfilms like "Cliffhanger" and "The Long Kiss Goodnight". Harlin fumbledwith this movie. He chooses not to focus on the (already inept) dramaand instead turn his attention to the action/war sequences. This iswhere it gets ugly. Harlin shoots the violence as if he's right at homeat Hollywood, with its large fiery explosions and spinning cars andexploding blood squibs all over the place (nice job of doing thiswithout CGI for many scenes though, Renny). Harlin is great at actionsequences and big action films. And it is indeed a big movie - for aUS$20 million film there were many military vehicles such as tanks andhelicopters used for filming alongside the explosions. But it isstrictly out of place in a war movie, and Harlin makes it feel morelike a video game. Think Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" and John Woo's"Windtalkers". Now another action film director has made a bad warmovie. This should never happen again, and I now fear for Rob Cohen'sKorean War "epic" due next year.The fact that this was "inspired by a true story" and even had the gallto insert interview clips of the survivors of the war at the end makesit all the more insulting and appalling. However in a cruel and darksense some may find this an unintentional comedy. Given the cheesyscript and acting I can't blame them. I'm sorry Renny, I'm sure you hadthe right intentions, but better luck next time. This is one of theyear's worst films."5 Days of August" - renamed "5 Days of War" in the United States - wasreleased here in Malaysia under the title "City on Fire". Why theMalaysian film board chose the same title as the superior Chow Yun-Fat/Ringo Lam Hong Kong Action classic is beyond me. It's worse thanwhen they found the word "Hellboy" to be offensive and renamed it"Super Sapiens". Yeesh.Overall rating: 24/100

bret-44 2012-04-28 19:41:22

Great film - deeply moving.

5 DAYS OF WAR is a deeply moving and harrowing film. The story linecontains romance, good character development and plenty of action, butthe stark reality of war maintains a dominant impact throughout thefilm. It stirred an intense empathy for all those affected by thesehorrific events. Despite this, it is a thoroughly enjoyable if notconfronting movie that is thankfully devoid of the usual "Hollywood"approach to the subject matter.I realise that there are two sides to every story but the basis for thefilm and the events portrayed are undeniable. This story gives theviewer some insight into the Georgian perspective of events regardlessof how the Russian military sees it.War is just horrific regardless of right or wrong.

dkane180 2012-04-28 10:43:37

Good Idea, Terrible Execution

My hopes were high for this movie. The War between Georgia and SouthOssetia/Russia in August of 2008 would seem to be a great background toa well-plotted, carefully crafted film that captures all the intrigueof the Caucasus. Since the Caucasus have always been a nest of ethnicdivisions, political double-dealing and vicious banditry I would thinkany decent screenwriter and director could piece together a fairlyintense thriller, I was so wrong. 5 Days of War is a twisted trainwreck of special effects laden action and blatant propaganda with aparade of terrible acting. This film was disappointing on many levels.About 40 minutes into the film I realized I was watching a $20,000,000piece of pro-Georgian anti-Russian propaganda. If anyone does a littleresearch on this war they will clearly see that both sides committedillegal acts under international law. Georgia is actually blamed fortriggering the war by using heavy artillery on a city unprovoked whichkilled civilians, Russian Peacekeepers and damaged large tracts of thecity. Once the war began some Ossetia militias fighting with theRussians committed acts of ethnic cleansing and were not stopped by theRussian Military or Government. Shame on them and shame on Georgia forbombarding a city. I do not have a dog in this fight, I think that theproblems of that part of the world should be answered by the countriesand governments of that region. It is obvious that the filmmakers feelthat we should clearly be supporting Georgia with their charismaticleader Mikheil Saakashvili played by Andy Garcia who is portrayed as aGeorgian Thomas Jefferson or JFK. Why the hell did they use Andy Garciaanyway? This movie does nothing to help the outsider with thecomplexities of the actual situation. I want to know what the targetaudience was for the filmmakers. I was insulted by this film. Why wouldthey take such a complex and historical subject and simplify it down tothis? Westerners are natural allies of the peace-loving, compassionateGeorgians therefore the obvious "Bad Guys" are the Russians and SouthOssetians who bring murder, terror and misery upon the progressiveGeorgians. The world isn't so black and white and even us dimwittedmoviegoers can appreciate the intricacies of politics in the Caucasus.The protagonist of this wreck is an unlikeable American journalist(Rupert Friend in a career ending role) who jumps head first intodanger because of his troubled past. He is surrounded by a cadre ofAmerican/British journalists (Val Kilmer, Kenneth Cranham who are bothwasted as ridiculous caricatures) who drink hard, take big risks andare always crying about how nobody cares about what is going on in theworld. At all times they are protected and working directly on behalfof a group of saintly Georgian soldiers. They do not even pretend to beimpartial and objective. The contrived role of Tatia (EmmanuelleChriqui) is another low point in a film filled with an excruciatinglevel of inaccuracies, clichés and thoughtless dialogue. Specialeffects are strong, location looks beautiful but the storyline and factevery major character is played by an American or British actor and notnative Georgians/Russians is thoughtless and insulting (insultedagain). ONLY WASTE YOUR TIME ON THIS FILM IF YOU HAVE TIME TO WASTE ANDREALLY WANT TO HAVE YOUR INTELLIGENCE QUESTIONED. A TRAVESTY.

deltagreen-2 2012-04-27 03:15:47

An Entertaining Propaganda Piece

This film is certainly an enigma. Do you rate it for its acting andaction sequences, or for the historical accuracy of the conflict itpertains to? Covering the former, the acting here is fairly top-notchby all involved, and the action scenes are where this film excels.Since individuals involved with the Georgian government assisted inbankrolling the film, they also got full backing from the GeorgianArmy, so if you are an eclectic "tread-head" you will be pleased to seethe actual equipment used by both sides in the conflict, includingMi-24D Hind's, Su-25 Frogfoot's, T-72's w/ERA of various makes,BTR-60's & 70's, BMP-2's, you name it. This does much to lend an air ofcredibility when viewing. For the normal viewer this may not mattermuch, but the action scenes are well (sometimes too well)choreographed.Now as for the film's handling of its source material (the 2008Georgia- Russia war over South Ossetia and Abkhazia), make no mistakeabout it, this is a textbook example of propaganda film. The Russianand South Ossetian militia are portrayed as savage and mercilesskillers executing and gunning down everyone in sight, while the braveGeorgian soldiers are Hollywood Navy SEALS incarnate. Some of the moreobvious propaganda shots do tend to take away from the film a bit(people getting gunned down in classic slow motion), but all in all, ifyou realize what you are watching....So, take it for what it is, a very loose patriotic Georgian"interpretation" of the 2008 war. If you are decidedly pro-Russian, thefilm will likely make you fume. If you are decidedly pro-Georgian, itwill likely elicit a few cheers. If like me you are simply aware of thehistorical facts of the conflict but have no dog in the fight, you canjust sit back and enjoy a fairly good film covering subject mattermainstream Hollywood would never bother with. Just do yourself a favor,read up on the conflict before or after viewing so you at least have abalanced view....

nightingaleron 2012-04-26 06:52:26

A very Enjoyable Film.

I watched this film last night and we most certainly enjoyed it.Thefilm holds your interest from start to end which is what we like in allfilms. The film does not say it is a documentary, nor does it say it isbased on any true events. After reading some of the other reviews it isobvious that this film is sparking up quite a lot of controversy withsome taking it very personal. I think the actors did a splendid job andby people giving this a vote of 1 out of 10 (also one of them admittingthat they never watched the whole thing)is only going to promote themovie further as it will intrigue people to see what all the fuss isabout. Many movies have been made about many wars and we all know thatmost likely none of them portrayed the exact true events. Go into thisfilm with an open mind and just enjoy a good action packed film alongwith a good story and good footage.Andy Garcia played the part well andalso remember that actors are given their roles to act and are simplyactors. Now , after reading the reviews you just have to see this filmdon't you.

Sosojana 2012-04-25 01:48:28

Great move that makes me cry at the END

This is one of the best "Based True story" movie i ever saw.I read the reviews of some guys here that are negative ones without anyexplanation. Telling that this is propaganda and stuff like that is alie. Thats whats happened, the People in crowed are REAL people in thefilm that survived the war, The WEDDING SEEN was based on True Storyand reporters dies in this war.Andy Garcia was Awesome in his role. He just Looked like MichaelSaakachvili. Russian occupied 20% of Georgia and this territories areunder Russian control this days. Peace keepers with tanks and M16 ?This movie just shows the true to the world what happened 3 years ago.I am from Israel and have no interest to protect Georgians or Russiansbut this war Russian is Occupant and thats what NATO sad either. Nopropaganda i didn't see in this movie other then Based on true story.Great Actors, Awesome Action and emotional movie. Recommend to watchit.

Tiw Lado 2012-04-24 19:02:38

You say propaganda? Propaganda of what?

First of all, being Georgian and feeling the events shown in movie assomething that's part of me, I added couple of stars to its rate. Iadmit, if movie would show same kind of events but in differentcountry, maybe I would rate it 6 or 7.Now, before I start the review of the MOVIE itself, I want to saycouple of words about accusations in propaganda."The first victim of war is truth" - and yes, that's true on everylevel. Imagine what could have happened if Hitler would won the war. Wecould never see the horrors of holocaust and other war crimes of NaziGermany.Invading Czechoslovakia, Goebells propaganda worked the same way,Russian propaganda is working toward Georgia right now, claiming it wasdefending its citizens.Now Look at the reviewers. 23 people reviewed the title so far and 13of them gave this movie 1,2 or 3 stars (mostly 1). I checked thisreviewers profiles and found out that 10 (!!!) out of 13 of them haveno reviews except this movie and are registered just for the purpose toreview it.Most of them claim their whereabouts as USA, UK, Canada so on... but Iam 99% sure that if you check their IPs, you find them somewhere inMoscow.I mentioned the occupying the part of Czechoslovakia by Nazi Germanyfor a reason. The story is very similar here.Ossetians, are ethnic minorities who live on both sides of Caucasusmountains. In Russia they live in North Ossetian Republic and inGeorgia they are spread throughout the whole country. So called SouthOssetia is republic created by USSR after occupying the Georgia.(Georgia was occupied by USSR in 1921). Stalin's government moved fewthousand Ossetians from North to Georgia and gave them Autonomy. Buteven after that, More Ossetians live in remaining territory of Georgiathan in so called South Ossetia. Now thousands of Georgians were alsoliving in South Ossetia, but after Georgia's declaring of independencein 1991 Russia started to finance and aid separatist movement there andOssetian militants started the ethnic cleansing of Georgians. Bunch ofcriminals seized the power and declared independence from Georgia,being in fact puppet regimes of Russia.Long story short, just before the war in 2008, Russia gave thepopulation of SO Russian passports claiming the citizens of SO arecitizens of Russia, thus de-facto recognizing Georgian territory as itsown.After Russian backed separatist militants bombed few Georgian villages,Georgian government was stupid enough to swallow the bait and answeredaccordingly.Russia invaded, stating it defends its citizens.During the war, Russian soldiers with South Ossetian and othermercenaries from Northern Caucasus pillaged the properties ofGeorgians, burnt their houses, killed and raped hundreds of civilians.Then they advanced into undisputed Georgian territory as well. While onthe road, Russian were robbing and stealing everything they could get,even silver forks and toilet tubes from the houses (You can find videoson Youtube).After the war, Russia officially recognized South Ossetia asindependent state.Now movie shows these facts in its own way. It's not documentary butit's based on true stories. It's based on historical truth and tries toshow that there were humanity on both sides, even among the SouthOssetian mercenaries.Is this movie one-sided? Yes, maybe it is. But so is Schindler's Listand thousands of WW2 movies.Would you call propaganda a movie, in which Nazi Germans are bad guys,while American soldiers are fighting against Hitler? Would you callpropaganda a movie, where Hitler is a bad guy? I doubt that, becausethat's historical truth. Hitler WAS a BAD GUY... Nazi Germany REALLYwas insane militarist state trying to occupy the world and SS REALLYexterminated 6 million Jews.We know that because Nazi Germany failed. But the world doesn't want torecognize Putin's crimes, just because he didn't failed (yet) and Theworld needs Russian oil and gas.Now Putin really is a dictator and militarist. Russia is REALLY tryingto prevent Georgia to get closer to Europe and grab it back again afterall.Saying that maybe really IS one-sided, but not propaganda in anyway.(At least not in the meaning of the word we know it).Look what Russia did in Chechnia. about 200 000 Chechnians were killedby Russian troops during the bombings of their cities and villages. Itwas real ethnic cleansing of Chechnians. Only I (Not being Russian andnot living in Russia) know names of about 10 independent journalistswho were saying the truth about Chechnia and were killed (Their deathwere not investigated... not one of them) and there are many more.So why saying that Hitler, Putin, Mussolini are bad guys in the moviemeans that movie is being propaganda? We can dispute all you want aboutacting quality, battle scenes, special effects and so on in this movie.To be honest, I have seen better ones in older movies, but for God'ssake, stop calling this movie propaganda, just because it calls badguys, what they are, the bad guys.