International Film Critique

Ryan Little

Humanities 1100

No Man’s Land

6. The plot of this movie is the war between two nations Bosnia and Serbia, two men get trapped in a bunker in the middle of the battle field called no man’s land. The 2 men have to try and get along best they can while being trapped until help arrives. The UN orders a cease fire after a third man that was thought to be dead awakes and is stuck on a mine that is pressure sensitive. At first the soldiers that come to their aid are told to just withdraw but the press puts pressure onthe UN so they have to try and calm the situation and help the man stuck on the mine while trying to also control and calm the press that is all over the story for global news. In doing this the UN has to decide whether to be truthful or keep them in a good name.

7. Some of the Social and philosophical issue addressed in this film are the ability people have to turn their backs on people in their time of need and/ or cover it up when things don’t go as planned like it never happened. The point of the movie is to show the impact media has on government and what government does to cover things up to try and keep a good image of them and how wrong doing so it and what kind of damage it can cause. The context in the movie is very intense and at times is hard to follow especially when trying to find out what the movie is trying to say. I will be completely honest my feelings to this movie is that the audience that they are trying to reach is “hippies” or in other words those that take caring about everything to more of an extreme. This is because of the main news reporter and how she tries to push to get the story even when they are in a war zone and she never really seems to understand that she will actually be in danger by going onto the battlefield and trying to talk to the soldiers that were in need of help. It seemed like stories I have always been told about hippies and protesting and taking it to more of an extreme without even trying to understand the consequences that would come with the action they were trying to take. One part of the movie was the war between the two countries I feel like that might not have been emphasized enough in most of the scenes they tried to focus more on other issues then ones that were more apparent.

8. I think the message of the film could have been a little bit clearer than it was. Most of the message I was able to get was just from taking little bit and pieces here and there and it wasn’t as black and white as it should have been none the less the movie was about showing what media does in times of war and what government does to cover things up. I do not feel like the movie changed my view on this issue I have known that government has and always will cover things up that they do not wish to share for sack of an image rather than actually trying to inform their citizens about what actually goes on it the world and they justify this by saying that they are trying to keep it safe from us when we know it is just to cover their own butt.

9. The Bosnians seemed a lot more caring then the Serbians but also got much more upset when they hurt their friends I also think that the French wanted to help best they could especially when the French men talked to the reporter and convinced them to use the media to change their bosses mind so they could go and help the soldiers in need when they were informed not too. The French reporter also did not seem to pick up on that it was a delicate situation and that the soldiers probably didn’t want to do an interview after what they had just gone through. I learned some of the procedures that the UN possibly might go through when trying to take the correct precautions when dealing with certain circumstances during warfare. I also learned what different things that they have to do when attempting to defuse a bomb and if they actually will be able to or not meaning that there are certain bombs that cannot be defused.

10. The film maker didn’t use as many special effects as I am used to which usually keeps us interested and on the edge of your seat. An obvious one is that it was mostly in a different language and reading subtitles really does suck and probably aided a lot with why it was harder to follow then I am usually used to. There really wasn’t any music until the end that I noticed which is defiantly different from what I am used to with most American movies. Music is a big part of how the audience reacts to a movie so I think more music that ties into the emotion of what is going on in the movie would go a long way.

11. I think the most common thing that this movie has with other movies we have viewed in class is just the time frame and the emotion that is tied with most movies. My personal opinion is defiantly biases though since I am not used to these types of movies and really enjoy movies that I usually do watch. Although the movie did semi show you the love relation of two soldier buddies serving together and how they will do many things for each other in order to help them when they need it because they truly do care about them.

12. Because Humanities is about all humans not just ones that live in the US and watching a movie that was created in a different country it gives you a different type of prospective on what other cultures have, the way they act and the things they do differently.