Michael_Elliott In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011)** 1/2 (out of 4)The Serbian Danijel (Goran Kostic) begins a relationship with the Muslim Ajla (Zana Marjanovic) just as the Bosnian War breaks out. Soon Ajla finds herself a captive to Danijel but the two slowly fall in love as the war gets bloodier.Anjelina Jolie wrote and directed this film, which has a clear message throughout. There's no doubt that Jolie had a political motivation behind the movie and she wanted her message to be heard. Many people have called IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY an awful movie but I'm not going to go that far. In fact, I give Jolie a lot of credit for attempting to make a movie like this and especially when you consider it was the first feature she directed.There's no doubt that there are a great number of flaws to be found here and I think the biggest problem is in the screenplay. The plot of this movie is extremely light weight and I'd argue that it's way too simple and single minded for its own good. I say that because the love story here is just one-note and it's really not too hard to figure out how it's going to end. I think the film really would have benefited had Jolie punched up the film and made it a bit deeper than just these two opposites who find themselves attracted to one another.The battle sequences were certainly better handled by Jolie and she certainly wants to show the sometime graphic violence for what it is. I can't help but think that the director was influenced by SCHINDLER'S LIST and she wanted the violence to really hit people in the gut. Another problem with the film is that at just 127 minutes the film seems a lot longer due to the slow pacing as well as some subplots that really never add up to much.For the most part I thought the performances were the best thing in the picture with Marjanovic easily stealing the film as the woman who faces various forms of horror as she tries to survive her ordeal. I also liked Kostic in his role as I thought he managed to pull off the rather difficult character. With that said, IN THE LAND OF BLOOD AND HONEY isn't a complete success but it's not the bomb some people have made it out to be.

Neda Delic First of all, I want to mention that I haven't watched the movie nor will I because of personal reasons and also because it just isn't appealing enough to me. I don't know much about what happened during the Bosnian war nor the other Yugoslav wars simply because I wasn't born then yet. I've read stories and heard different interpretations of the misdeeds and atrocities that happened, as well as of the reasons why it all happened. I will conclude only one thing and that is that "it's very complicated" as one of the characters said himself. Therefore I think that Angelina Jolie, someone who comes from a country that has committed many misdeeds and was, in my opinion, very much involved in the atrocities that happened in the Balkans, had no business interpreting these events in her own way and making it into a highly publicized movie. I won't say that her interpretation is completely inaccurate, but she covered only one side of the story, while ignoring the other, deliberately or not. I personally believe that she didn't have bad intentions, she just didn't observe all the aspect and was full of prejudice and bias towards Serbian people, which is consequently creating a wrong picture in the world. It was just too much for her to take on and handle as it is such a controversial topic and it entails a great deal of responsibility. Reading the comments and the reviews of this movie made me realize that the movie had such a bad impact on interpersonal relations between people of different nationalities and religions in the Balkans, where the tension was already running high, that it made the situation significantly worse.To those who want to read about this war as I believe it happened, I recommend reading this: http://www.balkanstudies.org/articles/understanding-balkan-wars To summarize, a war is something you have to live through in order to know enough to make a movie about it and present it to the world. This specific war is particularly difficult and traumatic because of the number of innocent victims and the tragic consequences that are still appreciable. Therefore I think Angelina shouldn't have made this movie (this way) because it just reminds all the people who survived the war of the tragic events, as well as the unresolved issues and repressed feelings that are still very present. In the times when we are trying to break free from the past and make things better, this kind of reminder is not welcome.

dragokin In the Land of Blood and Honey passed almost unnoticed among viewers and critics alike, except in the countries that emerged from the former Yugoslavia, where it created a considerable controversy.In order to understand this, we'd have to explain the history of Balkans and origins of civil war that led to the collapse of Yugoslavia. But even the executive summary of such a story would take up more time than Angelina Jolie's feature film directorial debut.So if you ignore historical background and accuracy, this is essentially a bad movie. The script is idiotic and acting mediocre. In order to make the movie more realistic the characters talk in English with local dialect. This might be convincing to the average viewer but sounds stupid to anyone who knows this part of the world.The only good thing is the atmosphere at the beginning of the conflict, where most of the people believed the war would be over in a matter of weeks.I find it remarkable that a star like Angelina Jolie devotes her times to humanitarian work and tells the world the untold stories of human suffering. At the same time it is regrettable that such stories are biased according to the current dogma envisioned by international politics and media. According to that, it is crystal clear who the good guys are and they should be absolved from all wrongdoing. On the other hand, for the supposed misdeeds of the bad guys the whole population of their country should be punished until eternity.This is black-and-white image of the world which, in my opinion, is against the founding principles of UNHCR, where Angelina Jolie holds a distinguished post.

vbjelica53 I give this movie 1 because of talentless Angelina Jolie as a director, she is also talentless as an actress, but when she look good who cares. The only movies she shined in were disturbing movies. I also though it was a waste of time as Angelina seemed still very confused as to which direction to take the movie in. Even if it was biased I would have much preferred if someone like Steven Spielberg directed this kind of a big chunk of. movie, because he has a knack for reeling in watchers into a movie even some with ridiculous story lines. I also felt hat the movie lacked empathy and real emotions instead it was filled with disgusting scenes and crap over dramatic effects.