Harrison's Flowers

Harrison's Flowers is a journey into a journalist's personal hell. While some may feel that the premise of the story is rather lame and confabulated, it serves a purpose. To show the human side of the photo journalists who bring the horrors of the world to those of us who, as they noted in the movie, are just worried about getting a parking ticket.

Too often when we non-journalists see photos of war zones we are horrified and, at the same time, we are dumbfounded as to how someone could be so inhuman and unfeeling as to photograph such graphic examples of man's inhumanity to man. Harrison's Flowers is excellent at showing us that just as a reader we can't stop looking at the horror even though we are revolted, the journalist cannot stop photographing and documenting it even though the human side of them is revolted as well.

As for Andie MacDowell's so-called wooden performance, one must remember that in this film she is seeing her husband's and his colleagues' world through their eyes for the first time. How quickly would any of us be able to break out of our shock-like trance and be totally outraged or emotional if this were the first time we were seeing it? Even the veteran photo journalist portrayed by Brendan Gleeson was paralyzed with shock more than once in the film. Andie MacDowell's character came from such an insulated world that seemingly emotionless shock was the perfect way to portray Sarah, who simply cannot fathom what she sees unfolding around her.

Harrison's Flowers is an excellent portrayal of the Serbo-Croatian hell that descended upon that part of Europe and irreparably tore apart the life of anyone in its path.

Thank goodness for Brendan Gleeson and Adrien Brody. Without their performances, this movie would have been a waste of time. I couldn't stand Andie MacDowell's character. She plays a totally stupid woman. Anyone with any sense would have contacted the Red Cross and other international agencies and asked them to look for her husband, but she foolishly marches into the middle of a civil war and risks the lives of her husband's colleagues because she is so deeply in love. Of course, it would have been a different movie if her character acted with any brains and maturity. At a time when her children needed her the most, she leaves them and almost gets killed herself. The audience is supposed to think this is wonderful because it is so romantic. Give me a break.

As someone who had lived through this war [I live in Osijek, town frequently mentioned in the movie, only 30 kilometers from Vukovar] and have seen the atrocities first hand, I'll start by commenting the realistic value. To my surprise, the Harrison flowers turned out to be very accurate in portraying what it was like. The details, such as locations, army uniforms and equipment, names, places, scenes and the geographic and historic facts, are pretty much all spot-on true. There are few barely noticeable mistakes, but it'd be nitpicking on my behalf even mentioning them. So, to anyone interested in seeing what the end 20th centuries warfare really looks like, I highly recommend it. It's miles ahead of Holywoods cheezy Rambo-style war movies and by it's ruthless realism it really is a visual kick in the gut.

As for the plot - the love story that serves as a guideline seems pretty much unnecessary and hard to believe. It has occurred to me that it'd be far more believable if Andie MacDowel was the photojournalist lost in the war-zone and her husband goes to get her out, not the other way around. So, those looking for a warm love tale, this will hardly be the best choice. Those interested in seeing the insanity of the easter-Europe 1991. war conflict, the cruelty and danger of modern photojournalism - I can hardly think of anything better than this.

I doubt very many will ever get to see Harrison's flowers. This is really the most misleadingly titled movie i can recall. The title and the fact that it stars Andie MacDowell reaks cuddly romantic girl movie. Nothing could be farther from the truth !

Instead this movie turns out to be one of the better warmovies i've seen in recent years.

The story is actually similar to that of "saving private ryan" and it's portrayal of war as griping and realistic. Only this time we're not put into the shoes of soldiers storming up a bulletsprayed beach but in the shoes of the civilians that cover the wars: the photojournalists. And the heroics is not killing the enemy but simply to bring the world a glimpse of what goes on inside a the chaotic inferno that is a warzone.

Andie MacDowell plays Sarah Lloyd a suberban mother of two and voted "most unlikely to be found inside a warzone" in her highschool yearbook. When her husband "Harrison" (a roughneck newsweek warphotographer) goes missing in wartorn Croatia 1991. She basicly picks up a camera herself and goes over there to find him. Rather unbelievable but it works well to set up the real story.

An emotional film about a woman's search for her husband, shown through events that really happened in the Croatian city of Vukovar.

The city of Vukovar was destroyed by the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army) and Serb paramilitaries. Unfortunately, that really happened in 1991, and the hospital we see in the film really does exist, Serb paramilitaries pulled wounded Croatian civilians and soldiers out of it and killed most of them.

The massacre occurred shortly after Vukovar's capture by the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army ) and paramilitaries from neighboring Serbia. In that period, it was the fiercest battle in Europe since 1945, and Vukovar was the first major European city completely destroyed since World War II.

The film is really hard to watch, because the atrocities we see in the film, committed by Serbian paramilitaries and the JNA (Yugoslav People's Army), really happened in 1991.

The cast evoked the emotions and all the horrors of the war, the film is emotional, especially for those who survived the war.

The footage showing Serb paramilitaries entering the city and singing a truly disgusting song is faithfully reconstructed in the film and when you look at the actual footage from 1991, it is almost identical.

The cinematography is realistic and the directing is excellent. An emotional and impressive film.