The War Zone

Rating:
Summary: Very Powerful
Review: Tim Roth's "The War Zone" is a very powerful and graphic movie about the horrors and realities of incest. I would recommend this movie to anyone. It really wakes you up to how some victims of incest feel.

Rating:
Summary: FROM THE MIND OF TIM ROTH.....
Review: Tim Roth's directorial debut is nothing short of brilliant. We all know by now what an accomplished actor Roth is, and now we have the pleasure of watching him direct. The War Zone is one, hit's you right between the eyes, films. It pulls at your heart and dosn't let go until you are so full of anger, that you find yourself cursing and screaming at the tv. The imagry is something that will stick with you long after the movie has ended. The cinematography is absolutly sureal, and the actors and actresses are exceptional. This film takes an inside look at a normal everyday family, with a very dark and unsettling secrect. I think for Roth to tackle a subject such as incest in his first film as a director, shows just how confident an actor he really is. This film took a lot of courage to throw out there and I applaud him for doing it. The story is that of a family that people can relate to. One of the things Roth did perfectly, was to make them seem like the perfect "Brady Bunch" family. The mother was a caring woman that took good care of her husband and her children. The father was one that any of us would look at as a loving and caring man. The two teenagers seemed like normal teenagers, quiet, intraverted, and just struggling with their mid-teen years. But deep within this normal looking family is a secrect that is one of the most evil crimes that can be bestowed upon anyone. The film opens with the mother giving birth to their third child, which is their second daughter. Everthing seems to be normal until the brother sees his sister in the bathtub with the father. He knows what he just witnessed and confronts his sister about it, but she just blows it off as a misconception on his part. Once he finds some photographs of the two of them in the nude, he is sure of how evil his father really is. When the sister doesn't seem to want to do anything about the situation, he must stuggle with his morality, and his desire to put a stop to the madness. But he also dosn't want to tear the family apart. Then one night his mother wakes him up and tells him that the baby is sick and they are taking her to the hospitial. After a while, he and his sister drive home together. They are home for a while when he decides to go back to the hospitial to see his mom. When he is in the room, the mother starts to change the baby's diaper, and he notices that there is blood inside. Fearing the worst, he tells his mother not to trust him, not to let him around the baby. He leaves and heads home, knowing that his father is already there, alone with his sister. When he gets home the father is in a rage, after speaking to the mother on the phone(where she tells him to pack up and get out), and asks him what he had said to his mother. He tells the father he knows everthing and a fight breaks out between them. I'm not going to give away the ending, you have to see it for yourself. I also purposly didn't use any names in this review because I think you should watch this movie to get a more personal aspect of the characters. I think everyone in the film was exceptional, but in my opionion, the girl who played the sister stole the show. The pain and emotion she showed was incredably believable and moving. This is a very depressing film, but one that should definatly be seen by all. A subject that is not addressed enough and one that should be taught to all. I truly hope this is the start of a long career of directing for Tim Roth, as I also hope he will continue to act in films. He is absolutely brilliant...

Rating:
Summary: FROM THE MIND OF TIM ROTH.....
Review: Tim Roth's directorial debut is nothing short of brilliant. We all know by now what an accomplished actor Roth is, and now we have the pleasure of watching him direct. The War Zone is one, hit's you right between the eyes, films. It pulls at your heart and dosn't let go until you are so full of anger, that you find yourself cursing and screaming at the tv. The imagry is something that will stick with you long after the movie has ended. The cinematography is absolutly sureal, and the actors and actresses are exceptional. This film takes an inside look at a normal everyday family, with a very dark and unsettling secrect. I think for Roth to tackle a subject such as incest in his first film as a director, shows just how confident an actor he really is. This film took a lot of courage to throw out there and I applaud him for doing it. The story is that of a family that people can relate to. One of the things Roth did perfectly, was to make them seem like the perfect "Brady Bunch" family. The mother was a caring woman that took good care of her husband and her children. The father was one that any of us would look at as a loving and caring man. The two teenagers seemed like normal teenagers, quiet, intraverted, and just struggling with their mid-teen years. But deep within this normal looking family is a secrect that is one of the most evil crimes that can be bestowed upon anyone. The film opens with the mother giving birth to their third child, which is their second daughter. Everthing seems to be normal until the brother sees his sister in the bathtub with the father. He knows what he just witnessed and confronts his sister about it, but she just blows it off as a misconception on his part. Once he finds some photographs of the two of them in the nude, he is sure of how evil his father really is. When the sister doesn't seem to want to do anything about the situation, he must stuggle with his morality, and his desire to put a stop to the madness. But he also dosn't want to tear the family apart. Then one night his mother wakes him up and tells him that the baby is sick and they are taking her to the hospitial. After a while, he and his sister drive home together. They are home for a while when he decides to go back to the hospitial to see his mom. When he is in the room, the mother starts to change the baby's diaper, and he notices that there is blood inside. Fearing the worst, he tells his mother not to trust him, not to let him around the baby. He leaves and heads home, knowing that his father is already there, alone with his sister. When he gets home the father is in a rage, after speaking to the mother on the phone(where she tells him to pack up and get out), and asks him what he had said to his mother. He tells the father he knows everthing and a fight breaks out between them. I'm not going to give away the ending, you have to see it for yourself. I also purposly didn't use any names in this review because I think you should watch this movie to get a more personal aspect of the characters. I think everyone in the film was exceptional, but in my opionion, the girl who played the sister stole the show. The pain and emotion she showed was incredably believable and moving. This is a very depressing film, but one that should definatly be seen by all. A subject that is not addressed enough and one that should be taught to all. I truly hope this is the start of a long career of directing for Tim Roth, as I also hope he will continue to act in films. He is absolutely brilliant...

Rating:
Summary: One Of The Greatest Film's Of The 90'es
Review: Tim Roth's The War Zone is one of the most brutaly honest films ever made its depection of abuse are some of the most disturbing images ever cought on screen I don't want to give away the film's story and truth. I will only say that this is proubly the sadest movie ever made. This film is a adults only film if this film want throght the MPAA it would of defentily got a NC-17 rating its been realesed unrated the film's images are some of the most shocking to date. Tim Roth's direction is nothing short of astonshing the cinematography by Seamos Mcgarvey is some of the best in history this film is by far one of the greatest film's ever made. Anyone who see's the movie those thing happen and it needs to stop.

Warning: this film is unrated do to an extremely graphic prolonged perverse sex sequence including graphic nudity,strong language,violence, graphic adult thems,and disturbing images. This film is for adult's only.

Rating:
Summary: Cut and dry
Review: Well, I was wandering around the video store, looking for something different, something completely and utterly out there, seeing as me and all my friends are in that 'stage' now where we need to see things that no one is seeing yet everyone will want to see once we have seen it, and I found it. I saw the name 'Tim Roth' and my eyes couldn't leave the cassette, even as I tried to find something else. Finally I broke down and read the back and refused to let go.
Needless to say I was intriuged by the fact that a great actor had directed this movie, and that it touched on some touchy subject matter. Once I rented the movie I was itching to watch it, making ym way home and through a few days before the weekend came and I was able to watch it in full.
First things first, this is not some Lifetime movie for women. This is brutal and real, with unrelenting shows of nudity even outside of the sexual scenes. The acting, also, was outstanding, with the son perfectly acting the role of the disturbed young man trying to work out what to do with his newly attained knowledge of the affair between his father and sister, while both of those indulging in incest were equally disturbing and compelling. The mother played the submissive-ignorant perfectly. The cinematography was also amazing, with no need to ellaborate on it.
One problem presented itself to me: I wasn't as shocked emotionally as I had been expecting. What was wrong with me? Was I so desensatized that I had missed something? NO! I later found out that the video version had the 'shocking' scene of incest cut! All I can say is that is like watching the movie Titanic and not getting to see the ship hit the iceburg. The emotional punch in the face was taken out, leaving you with a superficial and utterly watered down version of what could be a good movie.
All in all, the movie is amazing, and probably would have been better and earned its deserved 5-stars if the video company had not cut out the shocking final revelation.

Rating:
Summary: What a movie should do.
Review: What a movie should do is explain the human condition. The War Zone does just that. Tim Roth's direction of this film brings forth freshness and vitality that is sorely missing from many of the Hollywood productions released with significantly higher budgets. The story is deeply entrenched in the all too believable horror of modern life. Although the theme isn't new, the prospective from which it is presented is. There are no gimmicks or card tricks in the film. The acting is solid. The cinematography is purposeful and stark. What this movie does is make one feel, think, and experience. Yes, there is a dark and sinister feel of reality. We are not taken to a utopia in the film. We are exposed to scary thoughts. We are exposed to a sickness of the mind. This film isn't for everyone. But, it is for those who do not expect the world to be view through rose-colored glasses.

Rating:
Summary: The Bore Zone
Review: What really disappointed me was that there were no subtitles. Oh I speak english, it's just I couldn't understand what the hell these people were saying. They talk in this low grade incoherent British babble. Now for the movie. Its got some real shock value and the acting is good. Ray Winstone is great, even though I only understand about 30% of what he says. The actress who plays the incest victim is an incredible actress. She is also really hot, you almost can't blame the father(I'm going to hell for that one). The guy who plays her brother doesn't really do much but stand around with the same dumb stoned look on his face. You call that good acting? I spend most of my time doing that. The mother is also very good.

Rating:
Summary: Tim Roth, we hardly knew ya
Review: When Interiors was released years ago, Woody Allen fans were surprisingly introduced (for better or worse) to a dimension of the comic film-maker that they never knew existed. The arrival of this film has certainly surprised many in regards to its maker Tim Roth -- here we see a side of Pumpkin and Mr. Orange (Roth's breakthrough roles in his two Tarantino films) that we may have seen hints of, but which never prepared us for something like this. Not only does Roth demonstrate an eagerness to be involved with very dark, very serious Bergman-esque melodrama, but in doing so he demonstrates unequivocally his facility in being the directing hand behind it all.

It's the depressing, dreary story of a family ripped apart by incest, emotionally draining, and not for all tastes. Roth, in his very impressive directorial debut, creates an atmosphere of unbearable hopelessness -- using isolated rocky locations, soaked in rain, wind and cold, and photographed in muted blues and grays, Roth's film canvas resembles something from Picasso's blue period with the amazingly sad face of Lara Belmont (as the abused daughter) echoing the gaunt, pale harlequins of that master's works. It's also remiscient of Ingmar Bergman, in story and in texture (have another look at Persona and you'll swear the two films were shot on the same beaches). By holding shots longer than expected (much like Ozu), and using spare dialogue, the contrasting emotional outbursts are unforgettable.

Much credit should be given to the marvellous cast, without whom none of this would have worked: the aforementioned Belmont (her first film) is superb as the daughter, emotionally killed by her father; Freddie Cunliffe (also his first film) is very good as the confused younger brother who stumbles on the terrible secret; Tilda Swinton is sympathetic as the oblivious mother; and Ray Winstone, as the monstrous father, still manages to bring a touch of pity to his role. And while one could reasonably argue that Roth goes a bit too far in some scenes for shock value, the bottom-line is that he makes it work. It's a film you won't soon forget.

Rating:
Summary: I have a new respect for Tim Roth
Review: Wow is all I could say after I saw "The War Zone". I saw this film on a last second idea and had no idea what I was getting into. I thought since Tim Roth directed it considering his acting material that it would be some kind of gangster or crime noir film and then from the opening I thought it may be a "Nill By Mouth" kind of film. This film surprised me in all ways. The film unleashes a dark family secret. The film potraits this secret like its a ritual more than a sensation. The father is potrait as more realstic than one would exepect him to be. The acting is powerful and always supports the subject content. The film was shot in Devon which I've been to and it is a beautiful town. I am just stunned that Tim Roth did this. He goes beyond and does something that you would never think he would do. This film is very hard to watch but at the end is well worth it.