Shot Through the Heart (1998)

I first watched this when it aired on UK TV in the late 90s. Luckily I videoed it and have watched it many times since.While I totally agree with what other reviewers have said about omitting the complex events leading up to the war at the risk of offensively over-simplifying a complex and impassioned tinder box, we must also appreciate that a movie simply cannot be all things to all people. So while a movie about the historical and political backdrop to the war would be a very worthy undertaking, that would have to be a separate movie to this. Trying to shoe-horn all of that into this story would've been a disaster and I doubt it would ever have made it to the screen. Besides, you should never go to the movies expecting a history lesson. Even when they try to shoot a faithful real-life account, by the end of the too-many-cooks process, it ends up at best 50% accurate. That's just the nature of the beast and it's naive to expect any different.So, misplaced accuracy-based judgements aside, we have here the simple story of 2 friends whose ethnic backgrounds lands them on opposing sides of a war. The very thing that cemented their friendship - their skill as target shooters - becomes a curse as they find themselves inevitably recruited as snipers on the front lines. Justification for the war and personal well-being wrestles with loyalty to old friends.I found the interaction between the 2 central characters very touching and credible. It sets the scene nicely for the nightmare scenario they're confronted with later in the story.The zeitgeist conjured up both pre and post conflict work very well for me, though of course I cannot comment on how accurate a reflection of reality this is - it just comes pretty close to what I imagine and what footage I saw of Yugoslavia during this time.They did a good job of depicting civilian normality suddenly violated by some sacrilegious military intrusion, whether it be an exploding shell in the night or a sniper's round to an old lady fetching water. As well as illustrating the insidious and deliberate intent to terrorise innocent civilians in order to break the will of their leaders, I think this sudden and violent change in mood is as much as you can do to describe the start of a conflict like that on screen.Linus Roache and Vincent Perez were great in the lead roles, along with strong support from the doctor, wives, and girlfriend. The locations were extremely well-picked out. I appreciate some of it was actually shot in Sarajevo - a bold move only 5 years after the events depicted.I guess my sole criticism would be the apparent ease with which Slavko seemed to transform from warm-hearted friend of the family into a cold killing machine. It just seemed a little devoid of soul-searching or intense emotions I'd expect to see a man go through faced with that kind of dilemma. That said, I've never been in that situation so perhaps I am naive - perhaps that's roughly what would happen in a situation like that where the only way one could proceed is to over-compensate and brutally reject what came before. So the jury's out on that one.Other than that nit-picking, I thought this very sensitive subject was handled with the appropriate amount of respect while still telling the gripping dramatic story at its core. Furthermore, it manages to make some very striking points about what's so unacceptably wrong about warfare inflicted upon a civilian population, whatever the perceived justification may be.The central story is an unusual and intriguing one in its own right which is justification enough to bring this to the screen. Transcending that though, I think this film helped shock a largely ignorant UK audience into re-educating themselves a little more about a conflict they never really understood in the first place.

I have to say that of all the docudramas i have watched this one impacted me the most. As the movie starts,you can see people going about their daily business of shop keeping or industrial jobs for the common folk. Streets lined with walkers shopping,school children playing and elderly watching it all on park benches. This is the world that Sarajevo knew before the government collapsed. Muslim,croates,and various other religions living together in one city and village,working together to make their worlds just that much more happy. Until the new appointed dictatorship stole it all away. This film was excellent in showing the lives of a select few who survived to tell their story of this horrible genocide that took place in 1992. People that used to live and breathe the same air together becoming enemies in the vast war that followed. Separating the Muslims,croates and others,killing each other in cold blood,snipers firing on children for the sheer pleasure of watching them die. And the most horrible tales of women and very young girls being violated in the most evil ways a human can imagine. Today there are still some remnants of those years but not as conflictive,but still in some small way could explode again. Sarajevo and all of its history of neighbors living together has been lost for all time,with children laughing during or after school,people shopping for their families,businesses helping to expand their way of life,and the elderly watching on park benches smiling no more. The cast of this movie was impeccable,i was moved seeing the despair rise out of newly formed ashes and the cast,Linus Roache was fantastic in his role. Along with his Serb character Vincent Perez,two lifelong friends separated by the conflict. I would recommend this movie even for the universities who study the human mind and why they can change at any given time out of fear.

I was in Sarajevo at the time (7 years old) and the movie is pretty accurate. Uniforms and bad accents don't matter, its a good story, especially the trench type of warfare that was fought. A bit different from the blitzkrieg style campaigns that we see now days over the TV in Iraq and Afghanistan.There are a lot of small details that make it very realistic, like the wood for burning during the winter stockpiled in the appartments, the way people die, living conditions in general, no water, no electricity, barelly enough food, etcSomethimes that period of my life seems like it was only a dream...

This is one fantastic movie. It really gets to you. Superb acting, dialogue. All too natural scenes.You would expect a high-adrenalin duel between the two sharpshooter, like in 'Enemy at the Gates', and when the events unfold in a different way you would start to think, 'Yeah, that's perfect'. And you would realize that had the final confrontation turned into a John Woo-ish 45-minute-long-butt-kicking nonsense, it would have spoiled the movie.