Wow, loved it, a celebration of the struggle not the ideology. Wonderfully complex.
Having lived through a dictatorship and having participated in a revolution I appreciate the cold reality and lack of romanticization in the film. Life is hard and definitely not romantic when you are in the trenches fighting a superiour enemy. But life is not miserable, I found the other side of war the humour, the laughter and the absurdity a bit scarce in this film. Well the absurdity did come through.
I found the film complicated, like life, the way it should be. The film was never preachy, quite a feat considering the intensity with which Chico embraced life according to his principles. I liked Chico even when I didn't agree with him, the depiction of Yugoslavia and the Croatian struggle within it, was moving but very much lacking in perspective; choices are difficult when one's feet are in the fire, and perspective comes with time and distance. Yugoslavia was the real victim, the US and Germany were the real criminals, and the poor Serbians, Croatians and Bosnians were very much the pawns. Pawns that had lived peacefully and admirably until the West engineered the economic collapse of Yugoslavia.
The references to Che Guevara's book "Guerrilla Warfare" which so influenced Chico's character might be completely lost in todays generation and on a North American audience. But it would be great for people to see this film and be exposed to a perspective not doctored by the corporate media and the pentagon, to get a real feeling about the complexities of war. A must see film. A great story.
