Everything has a bright side,a dark side and there's a GRAY side. (The Hunting Party (DVD))

Member Name: Gladiator007

Product:	The Hunting Party (DVD)
Date:	28/04/09 (739 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Superb storyline, outstanding performance by Richard Gere and some witty oneliner.

Disadvantages: Some disturbing fighting scenes, very harsh remarks on international organizations at times.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Famous and talented American director and writer Richard Shepard directed the movie named 'The Hunting Party' and has been released 14th September, 2007 in USA and later world-wide. It is a comical satire of political stance and role of different international organizations about war-criminals and this movie can be considered as adventure/thriller movie genre. Richard Gere and Terrance Howard play the main characters in this movie. The storyline revolves around the Bosnian war (1992-1995) and aftermath of this war and how this has long-term influence on general public as well as on war-journalists.

CLOSER LOOK AT THE DIRECTOR

American born Richard Shepard is immensely talented and well-reputed director and also a script-writer. He is widely recognized and rose to fame for his outstanding direction of the pilot episode of Ugly Betty (An American comedy/drama series)" and also earned him an Emmy award. He also wrote and directed another famous and well-received movie named 'The Matador'. As a director, he did cover some different and sensitive subjects as the themes of his movies. Most of his movies are recognized as Dark/black comedy. Black comedy is a unique kind of comical movie genre, where comedy, humour and satire used as to describe a sensitive and real life subjects and explore them in front of audiences. Usually the topic/subject of the movie presented in such sarcastic and humorous way while the subject still preserves its significance and substance.

In his latest venture, Richard Shepard successfully presented the complex and typical political stance about the war and war-criminals and also the role of media regarding this subject. He also has written the movie script.

~STORY BASED ON~

This movie is very loosely based on an Esquire magazine (An American Men's Magazine) article written by the veteran American journalist Scott Anderson titled "What I Did on My Summer Vacation". This article first published on Esquire magazine at 1st October,2000 and later director Richard Shephard decided to make movie on this subject. Though there is a strong influence of the article can clearly be seen in this movie, still Richard has re-wrote and added some parts and make this movie more resourceful and enjoyable.

The main article written by Scott Anderson : http://www.esquire.com/features/summer-vaction-100 0 .

MAIN CHARACTERS

* Richard Gere plays the character of Simon Hunt (Very talented and famous war reporter who lost his self-control during a live broadcast and lost his job.)
* Terrence Howard plays the character of Duck (The long-time co-worker and camera-man of Simon Hunt and later found success in media and become the chief cameraman of the network anchorman Franklin Harris, also the occasional narrator of the movie)
* James Brolin plays the character of Franklin Harris (The typical and bighead network anchorman)
* Jesse Eisenberg plays the character of Benjamin (The young and recently Harvard graduated journalist and son of the vice-president of the media network.)
* Ljubomir Kerekes as Radoslav BogdanoviÄ++ (The main war criminal also nick-named "The Fox")
* Diane Kruger as Mirjana (A war-victim, young and beautiful proud Serb and tries to run the family business by supplying cigarettes and petrol)

PLOT OUTLINE

Duck, the assistant, camera man and side-kick of the famous war-journalist Simon Hunt, narrates about the horrors and side effects war. He also states the causalities and long term influences on local populations as the aftermath of a war. He worked with Simon Hunt for long nine years. They also have won numerous awards for their heroic live coverage and unique news stories of different wars.

During winter of 1994, at Bosnian war, Simon Hunt lost his self-control, and snapped in live television network. Although he spoke the truth and tries to illustrate the honest picture to the viewers about a dangerous war, still he has been dismissed from his job. After that he has lost his glory and fame and become a freelance war reporter and works for some small networks.

On the other side, Duck the camera man became more successful and got the job of the main camera man of the chief anchorman of the network Franklin. He is rich and famous now.

Later, the chief anchorman of the network Franklin Harris comes to Bosnia to cover a report on the 5th year anniversary of Bosnian war, along with his cameraman Duck and another young reporter named Benjamin.

So the story tells us, how Simon Hunt meets with this reporter's team and how he persuades Duck for an impossible mission. It also tells us, how they end up going on a difficult mission to catch the main and most dangerous war-criminal named The Fox. It also reveals the fact why Simon Hunt lost his composure in the live broadcast and snapped. This movie has a very engaging story-line accompanying with some supreme performances by both Richard Gere and Terrance Howard.

PERSONAL OPINION

Director Richard Shephard has illustrated the dangerous and horror side of a war, and also the psychological effects on human minds. Reporter Simon Hunt is very honest and brave reporter and has experienced the brutal and nasty sides of different wars. He also has won many awards for his excellent report coverage and news stories. He is very compassionate and emotional person and really feels for the war victims.

Richard Gere once again proved his supreme ability of acting in various roles in a charismatic way. Simon Hunt is witty, quirky, emotional and above all very intelligent reporter. He lost all the good things in his life and end up as a loser. But still he did not lose his hope and fights for his life. Richard Gere is simply awesome, his immaculate delivery of dialogues, superb facial expressions and easy and relaxed body-movements everything is just perfect and appreciable.All in all he gave an extra elegance and grace to the character of Simon Hunt.

Terrance Howard is the co-worker of Simon Hunt and worked with him for nine years. He worked as camera man and has learned so many things. He is greatly thankful to Simon Hunt and really feels sorry for him and his present situation. He tries his best to help Simon Hunt and eventually ends up with him for an impossible mission. Terrance Howard is very talented and promising actor. He played the character of 'Duck' with a supreme excellence with strong passion and lots of emotion. Eventually, Duck narrates the story in different places in movie and tries to explain the situation. He is always been more favourable and being positive about Simon Hunt and tries to help Simon all the time. This duo has given an outstanding performance, their meaningful and honest friendship, sympathy and trust for each other and above all stick with each other in every difficult moments of life, just made their friendship more priceless and meaningful.

~THINGS THAT PLEASED ME~

1. Fantastic storyline with some surprising twists.
2. Remarkable and excellent performance by Richard Gere as Simon Hunt along with some sarcastic and witty one-liner.
3. The true and vivid picture of the war and the long-lasting effects on people.
4. Some honest insight in media and news network system.
5. Absolutely brilliant direction and script writing from Richard Shephard.

~SOME INCONVENIENCES~

1. In certain places, director Richard Shephard seems to go overboard about criticizing the system and their correspondence looks fairly odd to me.
2. Some disturbing visions of war, probably not suitable for everyone.

~VIEWERS RECEPTION~

This movie was received positively by both the viewers and also movie critics. Currently it has a rating of 7/10 in IMDB (an internet movie review site, mainly based on viewer's choice) voted by almost ten thousand viewers. Though it has been later considered as one of the flop movie due its less financial success and lasted for only for six weeks in theatres.
IMDB rating: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0455782/

~DVD FEATURES and TRAILER~

Is I have said earlier, this movie loosely based on the article written By Scott Anderson, so director Richard Shephard discussed this matter with Scott Anderson and also interviewed him. This video is available as a DVD feature. Though, there are some deleted scenes included in the DVD and also have an audio commentary of Richard Shephard about making this movie as well. I did not check the audio commentary option in the DVD. It is rated as 15+ and released in 2007 and supported the wide-screen format of 2.35.1, Dolby digital surround sound and also Spanish subtitle.

Movie Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_y9_WuUIr4
Movie Website: http://www.thehuntingpartymovie.com/

FINAL THOUGHT AND RECOMMENDATION

It is a highly enjoyable movie with appealing plot line and smashing performance by Richard Gere. Terrence Howard Is equally good as his side-kick in this movie. Both of their fabulous performances just give an additional sophistication and enjoyment to the movie, I absolutely loved this movie and I recommend this. Go watch this movie and treat yourself with an emotional but amusing experience and you will explore the supreme elegance of Richard Gere as an actor one more time.


WHERE CAN WE GET IT

We can buy the DVD version of this movie from either Amazon or play.com just under £6. We also can rent this movie from Lovefilm or blockbuster.


Thank you very much for reading.

©Gladiator007


'''*** This review also been posted at HELIUM and also in CIAO under same username.***'''

Summary: Fantastic movie with superb storyline and brilliant performance by Richard Gere, highly recommended.