Very Funny and Very Tense and Frank Look at Post-Cold War Conflicts

Rating: 8/10 (14 October 2005)

"No Man's Land" may be the first great post-Cold War anti-war film, where the root of war is shown as out and out irrational hatred, leaving civilized folks plotzing in the middle.
The first fiction film by a theater director- turned soldier- turned documentarian, the complicated Yugoslav situation feels completely authentic. The multi-national cast of craggy characters is mostly full-blooded individuals, with their varying languages and communication attempts an ongoing joke ("You speak English of course?" the Frenchman continually asks sadly.)
This movie grimly brings to life the joke about how an EU conference can be good or bad -- good, if the food is catered by the French, organized by the Germans, etc. etc. or bad if the Brits do the food, the Italians organize it, etc. etc. There are strays into stereotypes -- the ineffectual public school British general representing the UN trailed by his leggy assistant and the Brit woman news reporter is a replay of Nora Dunn's role in "Three Kings" (though I liked her subtle flirting with the just-trying-to-do-the-right-thing French officer). The Serbian is the not the usual war criminal thug, which would have been easier, and the Serbians' aggressive role in the conflict is barely implied rather than blamed.
Amazingly, the movie is both very funny (like "M.A.S.H") and very tense with no easy ending or answers as no one wins. War is hell, even against bad guys. And for individual soldier pawns, futile. As I heard Norman Thomas say at the first anti-war rally I went to in 1965: "These pawns bleed." This also reminded me of one of my favorite "Star Trek: The Original Series" episodes, with Frank Gorshin. Ah, plus c'est change. . . Sadly, the theater was virtually empty over two showings.
(originally written 1/13/2002)