Hunt for Justice

Hunt for Justice is about the setup of Slobadon Milosevic for his trial in the Hague. While it was a little too clinical in presentation the subject matter could have gotten very depressing very quickly. A Canadian Judge, Louise Arbour, becomes the Chief War Crimes Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the UN in Yugoslavia. She battles everyone to pull out the evidence that sent Milosevic to trial. Not a bad docu-drama with class A directing and production work. The 'evidence' was disturbing by the shear discussion of the facts, happily they didn't go into too much detail and no real pictures of the tortured.

Thank God I was not operating any heavy machinery, it could have been an even worst disaster. Shots were slow & very repetitive. Different scenes, same shots, medium shot, medium shot, medium shot, snooze. Story line was rather empty. William Hurt was the worst. Where did he get that stupid accent from? Random shots of scenery just to include them really didn't add much. There were more shots of Arbour traveling in her car than anything else. The direction really didn't take us into any of the scenes & it also didn't make me feel for any of the characters. I would have rated it a zero if IMDb had the option. Great sedative if you can't sleep. There went 2 hours of my life I will never get back.

HUNT FOR JUSTICE is a Canadian television drama that has made it to DVD and that is reason for gratitude for those who hunger for educational dramas that inform us about facts of current history that somehow get buried in the media. The film is not a Hollywood production, it relies heavily on footage from court files, but it also introduces to many of us the act of heroism of Louise Arbour in bringing about the trial of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Louise Arbour (veteran Canadian actor Wendy Crewson) is a Canadian judge appointed by NATO as the Chief War Crimes Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. The film begins in 1996 when Arbour travels to The Hague to face the political obstacles that are preventing the Tribunal to bringing to justice the war criminals in the war Yugoslavia has been waging in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia, a war that has gross evidence of crimes against humanity in the form of genocide, extermination camps, and other heinous abuses. The progress toward bringing the criminals to justice is hampered by generals (including one played by William Hurt) who fear a major World War if precautions against same are infringed upon. Arbour, with the keen help of her translator Pasko Odsak (Stipe Erceg), her staff including Keller (Heino Ferch) and the unexpected assistance from British Capt. John Tanner (John Corbett), forges ahead, focusing the impossible task of bringing all responsible parties to justice on three specific events. Two of the three top suspects are captured but during their trials each meets his end. This leaves only Slobodan Milosevic himself, and Arbour and her colleagues are successful in bringing the war criminal to justice in 1999.

There are several touching side plots employed in the telling of this well-documented tale, stories that make the point in history more personal. Some may find the film footage of corpses and prisoners and death camps too strong to watch, but they are necessary to bring home the purpose of the film. Wendy Crewson carries the power to drive the message home - the message that war crimes must never go unpunished. There is much current history to be learned from this film: writers Ian Adams, Riley Adams and M.A. Lovretta have condensed the information and made it dramatic as well. Director Charles Binamé balances the docudrama with the story progress, never forgetting that he has a tale of intrigue to tell as well. HUNT FOR JUSTICE is worth watching! Grady Harp

Lazy movie made by a lazy director. The characters are grotesque. Despite the tragic of this war, there is no emotion at all in the movie. Symbolism is artificial and inefficient (and old Bosnian woman giving a photo of her son to Arbour will "concretize" her willingness, will awake the super-mother sleeping inside her, a corpse eaten by worms to show the horror of genocide... too much is sometimes worst than not enough).

This movie is only an advertisement, an empty elegy to a woman who is not a hero. She worked for United Nations. Remember UN failed to protect civilians at Srebrenica. Who are the true heroes of this war? A Canadian judge leading post-mortem trial for atrocities that happened mostly because her organization failed to prevent them? Where is the criticism in this movie?

While the story of the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Tribunal, and of Louise Arbour's work at it as Prosecutor, is exciting, interesting and highly relevant, this film does it no justice. On the plus side, it does contain archival material and some location shots, which contributes to authenticity. The courtrooms themselves are accurately represented, as are -- mostly -- courtroom proceedings, in as far as they are seen. It is also clear that the case files were consulted when writing the script. However, the film is, regrettably, also replete with ludicrous mistakes and misconstruals, poor acting and clichés. Just some examples -- and as these might be budget-related problems, they are the most innocuous -- the same trio of generals turn up to plague the brave prosecutor both in the field and at NATO HQ; the same guards seem to be on duty all the time and at all trials; and one and the same interpreter seems to be at work 24/7, working from and into all languages known to man. Procedural and factual errors also abound, a Russian-speaking woman is passed off as a Croat, and there is a good helping of soppiness to boot. Watch this film only if you can't be bothered reading a good book on the subject.