Thanks Angelina!

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2012)

At least she did care enough to make a movie. During this conflict our parents and the world media did us and the Bosnian people a huge disservice. I was serving in Macedonia in 1999 and still did not know the extent and the horror regarding this issue.
You can complain but since very few English movies have been made about the subject, a large portion of the world still do not understand why this was such a huge deal.
It was my generation, and yet we as a society have not learned from history. Look back at the holocaust and now at Syria. It breaks my heart to realize how this happened and we all had our heads up our tails. I have met some wonderful people from Bosnia who escaped within an inch of their lives, and it hurts me because I cannot even begin to understand how it feels to lose so many loved ones in such a gruesome and horrible way. And how can you ever trust anyone after this? I imagine it's hard to love after that(both to and from). How can you trust when you've seen your own neighbors turn against you...and try to kill you? How can the rest of us have a discussion without shame...knowing we all stood aside and let this happen? The UN seems to have no purpose at all but to buy evil people more time to exterminate thousands of people. And the official casualty count is never even close to the real thing. God help us all. Let's just be glad Ms. Jolie, who is part of my own generation, is standing up for what she cares about. I was only 18, and she was not that far behind me when this all began. It was 1992, and we were in high school, bumping and grinding to "Boys to Men" and "Mary J" rocking to "Guns N Roses". It was the 90s and we all had no clue. It was the same regarding blood diamonds (which is a whole other story but on the same clip board in my mind). I was getting hosed (on several levels) about age 21, when Srebrenica happened.
But the news would not have been much help. It was vague, making most us think that these were just a bunch of folks being kicked out of their homes, a few deaths, a few rapes...no huge ordeal right? Same as everywhere else in the world right? There were no cell phones or IPhones. No wonder we really did not believe it was that bad. Thank god for technology. It's the only reason Syria's people even remotely have a chance. The news networks tried but only now with technology improvements can the real truth get out in real time. I was 25 when I went to Macedonia as part of an Army peace keeping mission. A lot of us wish we should have done something to stop this tragedy. But looking back I was still too young. Our parents were failures and I am afraid we may be too if we do not head. So many children were murdered as well. The kids my age did not have time to get "hosed", and party, because they were too busy trying to survive being shot in the head or sent to a camp to be raped, beaten and starved.
The baby-boomers (now very old) have done very little to stop mass murder around the world. They were spoiled by the "greatest generation" (our grandparents). And our grandparent's generation was too old to do anything in the 90s. Now here I complain. But Angelina has done a remarkable thing. Those of us from the 90s are doing what we can with the cards we have been dealt and making the best of it. So I hope that the number of deaths do not eventually rise to over 8,000 in Syria.
It's a different situation but it's the same in a lot of ways. I wonder will we be shown as a waist ourselves after the dust settles. We will never understand fully how it felt to be there on the ground trying to survive unless we see it firsthand. And let's hope that does not happen. But we need Bosnians to keep telling their stories and make us feel it. Let us understand your history, because it's all of our history to a certain extent. It only takes one person who holds hatred in his or her heart against one person...then it becomes an entire group that they hate. Then they feel the need to erase that group altogether. I am not speaking for Angelina, but I think she managed to cover those points in the Land of Blood and Honey. I also hope that we move towards referring to people as being of the human race first and this will prevent a lot of war. Also, don't blame Angelina for the lack of realism regarding the uniforms now! Where were the suggestions beforehand to get a more realistic portrayal? And one thing we can be sure of, the romance was as good as it gets in this movie. It will be shown to people around the world and that is what matters. I am doing my best to keep the issue on the minds of all around me. Americans took a lot of flak for being the "world Police" after Bosnia, even though we arrived much too late. But we, and the rest of the world, need to forget that and stand up for what's right. RIGHT IS RIGHT NO MATTER WHAT ANYONE SAYES. The UN is only good until the Syrian government ignores it. That has already happened. Let's stop the killing in Syria!!! Many thanks to Angelina for making this beautiful movie, with beautiful actors, and showing us her heart, which I feel is the same as mine. You are beautiful, both inside and out Angelina.