Writer-director Richard Shepard follows up his debut feature ‘The Matador’ with an equally absurdist/cynical pic ‘The Hunting Party’ – a fictionalized gloss on a true story that follows a tale of buffoon journalists who might just have stumbled upon a highly-sought after Bosnian war criminal.
Shepard attempts to tackle ‘Welcome to Sarajevo’ by way of a buddy movie with mixed results. Subversive and consistently entertaining, one might be excused to think that the subject matter was a ball of laughs and excitement for all who took part.
I was reminded of another borderline satire war flick ‘Lord of War’ where Nicolas Cage narrates his way through his role of a Ukrainian arms dealer with a quietly accepting glee that might have proved a recruiting poster for young Ukrainian immigrants everywhere.
Simon Hunt is the A-list star of TV news correspondents, a ballsy journo that puts his money where his mouth is. Accepting awards as quickly as dodging bullets, Simon along with his faithful camera operator Duckie (Terrence Howard) whose perspective we share, bounce around the Bosnian war in 1994 with a reckless zest. The excitement is palpable for Simon but a particularly nasty massacre leaves Simon going ‘Network’-loco during a live feed – a move that costs him his job.
Once top of his game, the years haven’t treated Simon too kindly where he scrapes the bottom of the journo barrel with self-funded news stories he then attempts to sell to Polish, etc. TV stations.
Duckie, however, has moved up to a high-paying cushy job working for bigwig anchorman Franklin (James Brolin). A decade after the war, Franklin heads to Bosnia for a survey story with Duckie accompanying him.
Not hearing from Simon in years, Duckie arrives at a Bosnian Holiday Inn with Simon calmly sitting in his hotel room with an outlandish idea: capitalizing on a ‘source’ of his that knows the location of the Fox (Ljubomir Kerekes), a notorious murderer of thousands of Muslims and the most highly sought-after war criminal of Bosnia.
At first refusing, Duckie gives in due to a mixture of pity, excitement and pride. Bringing along Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg), a young network exec’s son out prove himself in the field, they take off for the mountains where it’s rumored the Fox is hiding.
After a few mishaps involving one disgruntled café owner, local bar dwellers and an angry midget – they also happen to arouse the interest of U.N. official Boris (Mark Ivanir) who gets the impression that their little team is a CIA hit squad and hooks them up with a viable source that could get them close to the Fox.
A melodramatic back-story is presented to give Simon just cause for his insane bounty hunt and also presents an opportunity for the film not to become just a joke shop but it’s handled a little too clunky to be taken seriously. It’s an apparent afterthought on film after Shepard realized that maybe a full-out comedy could be a tad insensitive.
A peculiarly bad subplot involving a female interest of Duckie’s in Greece also confuses. We need a slo-mo shot of this girl taking off her top as she plunges into a pool?
Howard is competent but his stabs at humor are awkward at best, particularly when paired with Gere who looks like he was having the time of his life. Gere even manages to sustain the superfluous dramatic back-story, no easy feat considering the dubious set-up. Most supporting work is well cast and location and production design is spot on so the film certainly looks the part.
The film is presented with a 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Special Features include a fun, informative commentary from Shepard where it’s confirmed that Shepard had good intentions.
Six deleted scenes, a half-hour ‘The Real Hunting Party’ featurette which looks at Shepard interviewing two of the real-life journalists that made up the true story, ‘Making the Hunting Party, and the film’s theatrical trailer round out the extras.
A tonally confused film where Shepard obviously high-lights the comedy - there’s no doubt there’s entertainment to be found here, but does that entertainment come at a price? If the drama played better, this would come easily recommended. As it stands, this one is worth checking out for Gere’s performance and some sporadic subversive wit that result in laughs that might stick in your throat.
The Hunting Party is now available at Amazon . As of yet, there is not a release date for the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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