Broj 55

Don't expect much psychological depth, over analyzing about the war, certainly none of the liberal aspect that filmmakers tend to take when they want to question the reasons behind the war, or at least show the "bad guys" state of mind justifying in some way their actions, if you want that, there is a great movie about war in Bosnia: Ničija zemlja. This is something different, one heroic battle.

It is based on actual heroic battle in small village in Croatia, crew did an excellent job of bringing that event to life, rifles, uniforms, acting, village... all is of unquestionable quality. There are as well few nice details, that add to authenticity, like rosemary around the soldiers neck etc. Unfortunately some of it will just Croatians appreciate to full extent. Director is keeping it simple while still in few lines explaining everything you need to know about this war. Most of the attention is on the battle, anxiety, comradery and war tactics (or the lack of it, most of those Croatians were rookies, as were Četniks, who were on top of that mostly drunks), there is just a little interaction between characters before the battle, it is simple and just enough, while we learn basic stuff about characters throughout the battle. There is a lot of slow motion explosions and gunshot wounds that look amazing, there is even first person perspective in some scenes, it all adds to very high paced and dramatic atmosphere, while remaining amazingly realistic. There is no dumb action movie scenes where the guy is shooting, and then we see thousands of bad guys running around like idiots and dying. Most of the rounds are shot completely blind, some even without aiming, nevertheless in real war there is much more suppressing fire that doesn't hit anything, even in close range. Dialogue is fantastic, minimalistic but still enough realistic that you actually believe that they are real people in real war.

It is a real hard core war movie, with all the drama that follows, that we Croatians have been longing for. Not to say that previous have failed, but none has shown the fierce action and/or have failed short dragging you into the hell of firefight in the Croatian War of Independence. At times it will make you laugh, at times it is grim and ruthless as it comes (followed by excellent gloomy music), and I don't want to sound overly pathetic, but it will make you feel proud.

Overall great action, great drama, authentic... Stop reading this and go watch it!

A good 16 years after "Saving Private Ryan" set quite a milestone in production design of war epics, came this Croatian war flick and jumped at the chance to copy-paste some notable aspects of it, based on the fact that nobody here had done it beforehand. As is usual with Croatian film-making, the copy is rather pale, misguided and inappropriate, and, as usual, tries to hide the lack of depth in the story. The end result is laughable and cringe-worthy.

What was the director thinking? First he has the camera dollying through the walls of the house the main characters use as a stronghold. All the authenticity is immediately lost because it looks like theatre and a satire. Then some shooting starts and it turns all shaky-camy. Then an explosion in slow-motion. Then a character gets killed, again in slow-motion. Then more shaking of camera. Then another character dies slow-motion. Then another character runs and screams into a wide-lens close-up of his face (think GoPro)... Kristijan Milic is clearly a victim of shallow trickery and quite oblivious to a bigger picture. The pace and the tension in his films give way to pure cheese.

Bleach-bypass picture is a bad choice for presenting the early 1990s war action. It tries, rather amateurishly and bluntly, to emulate "Saving Private Ryan", forgetting that the purpose of bleach-bypass in "Saving Private Ryan" was to emulate 1940s war journals. They should've copied "Black Hawk Down" instead.

The screenplay lacks clarity and logic in describing action. The eye is unaware what's actually happening and where. We see mostly "good guys", very seldom do we get a chance to see what they see. From military point-of-view, what characters do from time to time is just ridiculous, such as whispering while there is already shooting going on and the enemy is 200 yards away. The opponents often don't even try to hide and charge like idiots. The dialog is full of corny one liners and truisms lifted from better films. Bad language is thrown in so frivolously and forcibly one thinks it's been spoken by robots, not people suffering in bad circumstances. Bad acting doesn't help bring it to life, either.

Ironically, for all the time the camera sticks with the Croatian platoon, we still don't get to quite know them or care about them. All there is to see is a bunch of dirty and desperate people, getting picked off one by one in gruesome manner. One has to belong to domestic (Croatian) audience to be able to appreciate what's on screen, because only domestic audience has had the "privilege" of being heavily indoctrinated about piety, poignancy and suffering of Croatian soldiers during the War of Independence. The viewers that are not "in the know" will get bored very soon because the film crew cared more about cramming all the clichés they possibly could than telling the actual story.

The film caps everything off with a series of photographs suggesting it was a depiction of a real-life event. The dead people in those photos were members of the actual platoon that got ambushed and killed off in one of numerous small-time battles during the war. This cheese-fest does them no justice whatsoever. And to hijack their names like that to add some undeserved credibility to another lousy cinematic effort is not only cheesy in itself, but is also to bury those people for the second time.

You people are so stupid. This film is about Croatian soldiers who tried to stop Serbian grenades coming from the near village and targeting the town of Pakrac. You think this is pointless??? My father was in war and he told me that they were singing Croatian songs and playing cards on the battlefield and we Croatians love our country and we will give anything to protect Her! While I was watching this film my heart was kicking my chest like someone was inside me trying to get out. You don't understand the point of this film. This is a true story. This is exactly how was there in 1991. I could write a million page book to tell the story about Croatia's history since 7th century until today.

The film is dedicated to Croatian soldiers who died in an ambush in the early stages of the war for independence. It doesn't work well as a dedication though. We learn very little about characters or political background or broader picture of the war (or heaven forbid, the enemy's angle) since the director prefers to shoot action scenes. More precisely, one big action scene. There's barely any pause among constant gun fire.

The director sticks to his strong suit - the action is shot well and will make your heart race. While special effects and gruesome deaths are convincing, the combat itself leaves a lot to be desired. Enemies stagger around the heroes' stronghold or charge at it dying in dozens (Maybe hundreds? Somebody should do the body count) instead of chucking grenades through windows. They are ugly, fat, bearded and of course adorned with chetnik insignia. Don't expect any subtlety in the portrayal of the enemy.

Acting is not great but for Croatian standards it's not bad either. Let's just say it doesn't get in the way.

I'm a Croat and the film did engage and was in some ways better than I expected (which just goes to show how bad Croatian films usually are) so I benevolently gave it 7 stars. If I didn't have the emotional connection I would've given it 5 stars tops. In that case I would've wondered why the film is recorded in a first place. If you want to deliver a patriotic message there are better ways to do it than shooting 70 minutes of shooting.

The film is based on true events which happened during the Croatian War of Independence.

Small group of Croatian soldiers was ambushed and attacked by the local Serbs, Serbian Special Forces and the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) as they were forced to take refuge in a nearby house.

This has really happened in the village called Kusonje, close to the city of Pakrac. The uniforms, guns and pretty much everything else looks and feels authentic.

The film is brilliantly directed, the cinematography is excellent, and the whole film is visually impressive. The atmosphere is tense and sinister, and that feeling intensifies throughout the film.

These people really existed, and the battle really took place. They bought with their lives the time it took for civilians to get away from the area.

At that time, the defenders under the command of the then commander of the 105th Brigade, Stjepan Ivanic, tried once again to help the soldiers by breaking through Sokacki Kusonje, but were stopped by fierce fire from a much larger and better armed enemy.

Kusonje was finally liberated by Croatian Army units during Operation Otkos-10 in December 1991.

It is a tribute to all the soldiers who died defending their homeland. They are not forgotten.