The Hunting Party

Movies about war are taking over. This time of year studios start to release the more serious and less marketable movies. These movie usually feature something darker or deeper and so war fits perfectly in that scenario. From now until January there are roughly half a dozen hard hitting war type movies on the release books. Often times they don't find a huge audience but often they are thought provoking, interestingly made movies. Many will be slowly paced dramas but this movie, about bits and pieces of many wars, is kind of the antithesis of those kinds of movies.


Duck (Terrance Howard) is a cameraman for Simon (Richard Gere) and together they cover big time wars from the trenches. They are thrill seekers and damn good journalists. Duck is the narrator of the movie and it is told from his perspective and the first 5-10 minutes is chalk full of exposition to get us to the main plot of the movie. Simon loses it on air one day while covering a grisly war scene and it promptly fired and becomes a punchline in the world of journalism. Duck is rewarded for putting up with the man for the decade they worked together. Duck is plucked from the gun shots and bombs and is now the premier camera man for the studios number one T.V man, Franklin Harris(James Brolin. The story picks up as Duck laments how he pretends to enjoy the new life, but how he misses the thrills. Duck, Harris and brand new producer Benjamin(Jesse Eisenberg) are now in Bosnia to commemorate the end of the war and while there Duck is surprised by Simon who thinks he has the story of the century sitting in his lap. Playing to Duck's hidden desire to live the exciting life, Simon is able to convince Duck to give it a shot. Benjamin wants in because he is trying to prove he can cut it as a journalist. The story, finding and interviewing "The Fox." The Fox is the most wanted war criminal on the planet and he is right outside of Bosnia. He has a ton of supporters but he committed genocide on the Jews of the area. The trio run into a ton of problems during their quest and learn a lot about life, death, truth and justice along the way.


First off, this movie was originally titled "Spring Break in Bosnia" and the very first thing on the screen is this sentence "All of the most ridiculous parts of this story are fact." So right off the bat you know you are in for something a little different. The movie is a satirical look at how wars are brokered and started. It looks at how the United Nations will make deals with war criminals to save face and so on. There are a lot of chuckles to be had at the expense of various governments and a few of the supporting characters are played over the top to make a point, most specifically the U.N troop leader Boris. That is not to say it is without drama or tension because the final third of the movie is genuinely thrilling as the cat and mouse game gets more intense and we wonder if they will find and catch the fox or if he will catch them. There is one scene in particular that is chalk full of tension but it doesn't take away from the comedy. Or rather, it doesn't come from out of left field. The pacing is very strong and rarely do the moments of exposition feel contrived.


Terrance Howard, a huge rising star, is the heart of this movie. Sure, the focus is on the recovery to glory of the Richard Gere character, but we are seeing this world through the expressive eyes of Terrance Howard. Howard is doing excellent work as of late and keeps it up here as he tries to remain a moral center of this movie. he has a wonderful monologue revisiting the day Simon lost in on air. The monologue is accompanied by a brilliant flashback that combines the horror of war but also the joys of love, all within a 4 minute span. For his part, Gere is about as good as he has been in quite some time. He is charming, funny and desperate without over reaching. His moments of quiet desperation masked by an air of arrogance are great moments in a very strong film. Eisenberg also holds his own well against these two screen vets. His character looks as if he will merely be comic relief, and maybe that was the intention, but Eisenberg adds something more there. He becomes someone we grow to care about and has a very cool moment that marks a total transition for the character and for the whole movie, really.


The movie is being overlooked because marketing a satirical drama about the Bosnian war is not an easy task. However, it really is worth seeing and with the flood of Oscar movies about to hit us, it is nice to see a movie that can be serious without taking itself too terribly seriously. Before the end credits we are treated to some funny bits about what in the movie is true and what is false as the movie is based on an Esquire article and who knows how much of that was true to begin with. Overall I am not sure it is top 10 fare but it was really worth the time I spent watching it and it is something I think will be worth revisiting on DVD to pick up anything I missed.