5 Days of War [DVD]

This is a complex film to review, because there are a few factors involve that bias the creative influences and the critics' reception, so for those who just want to know if it's any good, I'll cut to the chase: Is it any good? Yes. But for I'd strongly recommend you ignore the age rating and don't allow anyone under 18 to watch it. For those who are interested in a fuller review, read on: (Don't worry, no spoilers here). Director Renny Harlin is often dismissed as a hack by critics, but let's not forget he's directed some of the most exciting action pics ever made, including the terrific 'Die-Hard 2' and the astounding 'The Long Kiss Goodnight'. However, he's prone to inconsistency, and even those films had their flawed moments, including a cringe-worthy syrupy ending tagged onto the back of Die Hard 2. He also directed the disappointing 'Cleaner' and the god-awful 'Driven'. So it's a relief to say that this is his best film in 10 years. The opening is terrifying - the kind of visceral gut-punch that started 'Scream', and Rupert Friend does a great job of portraying a war reporter who has conquered his trauma externally, but still carries the scars in his heart. Dragging himself and loyal buddy cameraman Sebastian back into the firing line, they set off for Georgia to document the rumblings about a possible Russian invasion, but before they can even get into the supposed danger zone, all hell breaks loose and they find themselves roped into helping a local girl find her family, for reasons personal and professional. They end up in a small rural town, and one war atrocity captured on camera later they're on the run from an army of mercenaries sponsored by the Russian military intent on stopping the footage from getting out. I was expecting fairly 'by-the-numbers' stuff here, but was constantly surprised. The film is full of unexpected local colour, and isn't afraid to throw in some slightly unexpected behaviour to try to confound the typical war movie cliches. We're treated to a very elaborate and colourful Georgian wedding reception, and more complex villains than normal. We also get a political point of view from the panicked 'South Ossetians' in their capital, courtesy of Andy Garcia as their leader, and an almost unrecogniseable Dean Cain (fairly chubby) as an American political advisor. The real stars are Friend, giving a complex and nuanced performance as a damaged and angry man, made even more determined to get the truth out by his history, and Richard Coyle, who brings terrific humanity to his role and reflects a combination of deep professionalism and real fear at the situation they're plunged into. Val Kilmer is okay but pointless in a role anybody could have played, Rade Serbedizja does 'rent-a-villain' pretty well, but his Leiutenant (played I believe by Mikheil Gomiashvilli) is superb - a genuinely terrifying and brutal presence covered in tattoos and with red-rimmed dead eyes. Responsible for most of the atrocities in the film, he makes an utterly believable monster - human, casual and detached. The film makes a point in its opening credits that journalists have suffered many casualties in recent conflicts, and you really do get the sense that while there used to be a certain code of honour about not killing them, nowadays it's been abandoned and you really feel the sense of danger here. The fact that the film is based (loosely) on real events lends a great deal of gravity and shock value to the action, and although he's known for fluffier fare Harlin pulls no punches with his depictions of the callous cruelty and barbarism of the invading Russians and their cold-blooded mecenaries. The gore and violence are breathtaking in their ferocity and definitely not for the weak-stomached. Children are shown with their legs freshly blown off, old women are tortured on camera. It's sickening stuff. But this is a very angry film, rivalling it's hero for determination, and while it feels very one-sided, at least it's honest about being so. Let's not forget that Harlin is Finnish - a race not without their own issues with the Russians, and the film was co-financed by Georgia. What may surprise people however, is that somehow Harlin has managed that most difficult of feats: - he's made a very tense and exciting movie, where the action is fast, explosive and frightening, somehow without diluting the seriousness and point of the message. The Russians come out of this looking terrible - painted as a bunch of monstrous liars who hired killers to try to inflict genocide on the South Ossetians and then cried self-defence in the international arena. The EU come out of it looking hamstrung and ineffective. And the rest of the world comes out looking disinterested and heartless, more interesting in the Beijing Olympics than widespread slaughter. It's clearly a polemic against the Russians and a cry for international attention. How much that affects your enjoyment of the film will depend on you. As it stands it's a terrifying, brutal, gory, upsetting and adrenaline packed thriller with a lot of military action and a lot of human emotion. And the end-credits, packed with several interviews with traumatised survivors of the war, are heartbreaking.

an extraordinary piece of film-making - if only because you have to wonder exactly what they thought were doing with this. picture postcard views, handheld camera, what looks like hi-def video rather than film - ironically somehow more distancing than involving in any "you are really there" sense - and enormously high production values (a cast of thousands, tons of real tanks and enormous helicopter gunships in among the cgi fires). All of this then combines with scenes of terror and atrocity, switched back and forth with Boy's Own heroism, cardboard heroes, plastic hissable villains, and a seriously contrived 'romantic' storyline. I gasped at the audacity when stunt soldiers came crashing through the windows of an occupied HQ, blazing gunfire, smack in the middle of a scene that - up until then - had actually seemed to be grasping at some sort of weighty message about war and its lasting effects on people. As the Star Wars monkey says when bored by talk of tax: "Ooh look, robots!" You can't have it both ways, at least not at the same time, but director Renny Harlin has a bloody good go at it. It can't honestly be said this isn't an entertaining film - yet it is so for all of the wrong reasons. It truly lives down to the tag of 'war porn'; or else propaganda, a hopelessly slanted and inadequate diatribe. As with the similarly clumsy Windtalkers, this film appears to have been made by people who have obviously never lived through anything remotely like this. Even artistically, it seems they cannot adequately imagine - nor evoke - the human dimension, nor anything of the real cost. It is done perhaps with misplaced conviction but certainly with zero aesthetic, aside from which camera lenses or filters and so on that will make it look prettiest. And too much money. The deluded makers of such works can only mimic other (bad) movies on the subject, yet laughably, as this does, still aspire to gravitas - imagining themselves worthy and relevant alongside the best of the genre (in this case, war movies), or even subgenre - heroic maverick war reporter movies, such as Salvador or The Killing Fields. Instead, all it amounts to is wasted actors and the artless and endless blowing up of s***. a Shoah-like line up of what are presumably real victims at the end just looks like the worst posturing after all of this, leaving a bad taste in the mouth. Just crazy, crazy, wild and deluded stuff. You almost have to watch it for yourself, because it simply can't adequately be described - someone could tell me how gloriously, glorifyingly stupid this film is in the greatest detail and I'd still never be able come close to the crushing awe of it. It simply has to be experienced. Come. Come and See...the horror, the horror.

Very good film well worth watching 👀

They can change the location and it is still valid today. An excellent film, worth watching more than once.

Nice product...fast delivery

film di guerra ben fatto, effetti speciali ben fatti, molto realistico... tratta la breve guerra che scoppiò tra Russia e Georgia alcuni anni fa che per certi versi è simile a quella attuale con l'Ucraina... fa da sfondo alla trama la storia di un paio di giornalisti che quesi per caso si ritrovano nel bel mezzo degli eventi... consigliato agli amanti del genere

Wer war schuld. Hier wird ein Krieg beschrieben. Gewalt auf beiden Seiten und auch Russen mit Gewissen. Auch wenn es ein ganz Junger ist. Die Frage, die ich mir hier stelle ist: Es gibt hier so viele die schreiben, dass die Russen die Guten in diesem Krieg waren??? 17. Juni - Prager Frühling - Ungarn - und und und. Natürlich ist Russland jetzt eine Demokratie, was man deutlich am Wechsel oder der Drehung der Macht zwischen Putin und seinen Freund Medwedew sehen kann. Tatsache ist, dass in einer Welt, die sich modern und aufgeklärt sieht, Massenmord - Kehle aufschlitzen und Kollateral Schäden an Zivilisten als normal gesehen wird. Das ist meiner Meinung nach die Hauptbotschaft dieses Filmes. Es sind kaum reguläre Russen sondern irgendwelche Söldner "Ich bin Kosake" zu sehen . OK Film Guter Ton - schönes Bild auch gute Bilder die Stimmung machen, dabei meine ich nicht Bilder vom Krieg. In meinen Augen ein guter Film über einen Krieg von den niemand was wissen wollte. Die Stimmen der Zeitzeugen zum Schluß machen betroffen. Dabei ist es nicht wichtig wer geschossen hat. Nur die Toten sind tot und werden vermisst.

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