Yes, No, Maybe So: "In the Land of Blood and Honey"
Friday, October 21, 2011 at 10:45PM 
A few readers have expressed dismay that I never talk about Angelina Jolie's directorial debut. There have even been suggestions that I have it in for Angelina. If by "in" you mean LOVE HER, than yes, I most definitely have it in for her. She once walked right past me and made eye contact (in a non-professional setting -- i.e. i wasn't reporting on anything and she wasn't promoting anything) and I absolutely treasure the memory. The reasons for not covering her film before are several but dull and almost all of them boil down to two things:
1. This is not the kind of blog that fawns endlessly on every detail of pre production and filming and multiple marketing events before a movie is released. The Film Experience prefers actual movies -- even old ones (gasp!) -- to theoretical and future movies, as out of fashion as that may be on the internet.
2. I really didn't expect it to come out this year!
I never plan to change my ways on #1 but I have totally been proven wrong about #2 so let's do a Yes No Maybe So
IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY
YES
- Looks sensitively directed, shot, edited*, scored ** and acted (from both of the leads. Some of those looks just break your heart). Sensitivity is something such films need in abundance lest they hit the atrocity notes too hard. War films -- particularly modern war films -- tend to wallow so much in the atrocity that it's almost desensitizing in addition to being just fucking depressing. Our capacity for violence is worrisome as is the capacity for watching it and than just going about your daily business like it's nothing.
* it's impossible to tell anything about a films editing from a trailer. We know this but it's still easy to pretend that trailers have all the same qualities as their movies.
** it's usually impossible to tell anything about the way a film is scored, too... since most trailers don't use their final score. But the temp music they were using was good.
NO
- n/a
MAYBE SO
- The dialogue is very straightforward, with characters speaking themes and situations aloud. That's not always inappropriate in heightened settings like war where subtext generally becomes text, everything being stripped down to its most primal parts... but will it be too on the nose?
- The trailer works well with its pinpoint focus on the Lover as the Other but it hits the note repeatedly. This begs the question of what else there is to the movie and can a once passionate love affair, destroyed by fear and suspicion, be enough to sustain the whole narrative?
"In the Land of Blood and Honey"
Are you a yes no or maybe so? My mind flashed briefly to Shot Through the Heart that Linus Roache television movie: anyone remember that one?
Do you see Oscar potential here? I'm doubtful mostly (and cynically) due to the lack of Hollywood glamour on screen and the lack of American characters. Many well meaning foreign war films are made each year and Oscar rarely takes notice.
What would you like Angelina Jolie to do for an encore?
Reader Comments (14)
The thing I don't like (it might sound like a minor complaint) but I always hate it when movies take place in a foreign country and people speak English with accent.
Unless there's an explanation for it (like the characters don't understand each other's native language), then why not shoot it in Serbian?
"Many well meaning foreign war films are made each year and Oscar rarely takes notice."
Uhhh...this isn't any ole well meaning foreign war film, this is an Angelina Jolie war film. This is going to have MAJOR press. If this film is as good as the trailer, you can bet this will be a serious Oscar contender.
@Amir
"why not shoot it in Serbian?"
I believe they did. I think the actors dubbed their voices for the English version, or the scenes were shot in both languages.
I'm surrpised you don't know that Brad Pitt has a cameo in the film. That has already been confirmed.
I'm excited! The trailer looks good. I doubt it will have any impact for Oscar. But if anything, it could be used as credibility towards a future nom for Angelina. (Cleopatra...wishful thinking!)
I'm yes for a number of reasons:
1) trailer piques my interest in the story itself
2) it's directed by Angie, and I'm curious to see what kind of director she is.
As to what I want to see her do next, I wish she'd eschew blockbuster drivel like the Tourist and return to meatier roles like the ones she turned in for Gia and Girl Interupted. She use to be FIERCE. She can be again, if she'd only seeked out better written material.
Yes! and this is kinda unexpected, to be honest I don't care about the Oscar race in this one, Angelina Jolie is an interesting, intellectual and sensitive woman, and I'm intrigued by the story she chose to tell and find out if she has the skills to pull it out.
"The dialogue is very straightforward"
Yes, and also IN ENGLISH! Which isn't the mother tongue of a single Bosnian I've met, and I've met thousands of Bosnians of all ethnicities.
What is this, 1942? There is something not only ludicrous but offensive about an American today co-opting a Bosnian story and fluffing it up with English dialogue for commerical purposes.
I've generally liked Jolie on- and off-screen, and I'm very surprised that she would be responsible for this kind of insensitivity.
I hope it's just a case of an incredibly misleading trailer.
Goran, there is a second version of the film in the native language. So you're complaining for no reason.
OK, I'm hooked.
The fact that there is a version at all in the English language is disgusting in itself and the reason I am complaining.
goran, you could make the same argument against thousands of internationally made movies (some of which I'm sure you have enjoyed). Maybe the subject matter is hitting too close for home for you to have an objective view. Obviously they want the movie to be accessible to English speaking audiences because there are many people who will (ignorantly) not see a movie if it's subtitled.
Also, calling Angelina Jolie "insensitive" is way off base. She has frequently proven herself as a humanitarian and is arguably the most giving of any Hollywood Star (and not in the "hey lets get a photo-op of me doing some charity so I can get good publicity" kind of way)
Lack of Oscar traction? I disagree Nathaniel, first of all because it IS Angelina Jolie, and you know how batshit crazy voters get when an actor proves their mettle behind the camera. (Matt Damon and Ben Afflick, Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Kevin Costner, etc. Although yes, it just occured to me that those were all men. But this is ANGELINA JOLIE, who is one of the few women in Hollywood on a wealth and fame level with nearly any male actor except, maybe, Will Smith. Or maybe even Will Smith.)
But beyond that, I'm a YES and I am not a "Jolie fan" in particular and a "war movies fan" in general - but I would never have guessed this is the effort of a "first-time director" - it looks incredibly accomplished, the lead actors seem amazing in what little we see here, and the theme of the damage and suffering of women during wartime (instead of always focusing just on the men doing the fighting) is hitting all the right notes for me thematically. I already want to watch the trailer again, if only for the visuals, and the face of the lead actress (who is she?) and hope the film lives up to this. (And, I can't believe I'm gushing like this about anything Jolie is involved in.)
Goran - I agree with Anna: Americans do NOT go to see subtitled movies (except for a relatively small handful of "niche" cinema fans.)
http://thesoulshattering.net
Did Angelina Jolie use (steal) this book (The Soul Shattering in English) written by the Bosnian-Croatian author James J. Braddock a.k.a Josip J. Knežević, as the story platform for her movie In The Land of Blood and Honey?
Did she totally miss the truth and core of that genocidal war against Bosnia and her people?
Why was she banned from filming in Bosnia by the most influental organization of women - victims of the war?
Did she rewrite history and offended thousands of women and other innocent victims of the Serbian aggression on Bosnia & Herzegovina?
Should American women and human rights organizations get involved?
If Mr. Braddock believes his intellectual property has been stolen he should hire a lawyer and pursue legal avenues to present his grievance, not grouse about it on a blog site. It is probably significant that Ms. Jolie was recognised at the Sarajevo Film Festival for her film. So, no James, American women and human rights organisations do not need to be involved. Get a life.