CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 09/07/07

On the Mark

By elizabeth rivera

The Hunting Party

Richard Shepard (also directed)

You wouldn't normally think a movie about hunting war criminals could be funny, but writer-director Richard Shepard's (The Matador) The Hunting Party makes you laugh even as it asks some hard questions. Based loosely on journalist Scott Anderson's Esquire article "What I Did on My Summer Vacation,", the film follows three journalists in search of the Fox, Bosnia's most wanted war criminal, with no help from the government, any international organization, or even the promise of a TV news station to buy the story. Five years after an on-air breakdown, disgraced reporter Simon Hunt (Richard Gere) reunites with his friend and former cameraman, Duck (Terrence Howard), and, with the help of a rookie journalism major (Jesse Eisenberg) plan to go where the CIA, NATO, the UN, and the Bosnian police either can't or won't. As they track the Fox, they realize not only how much danger they're in but how little any government and/or international agencies have done to capture this and any other war criminals. While there is plenty of excitement, with chases, shootings, and our heroes barely escaping with their lives, don't think this is just another action movie. They film isn't just good guys chasing bad guys; it's complicated characters learning something about themselves and the way the world works. Without being preachy the film makes some powerful statements about the efficiency—or rather lack thereof—of organizations who claim to be doing something about genocide, terrorism, and other horrors. Shepard carefully constructs a film that tells the story of these three journalists in a gripping way with plenty of smart dialogue, comic relief, and plot twists. The film begins with the phrase, "Only the most ridiculous parts of this story are true," and while many of the situations these journalists face could seem ridiculous and absurd, in the skilled hands of Shepard even the most ridiculous things seems believable.

The Hunting Party
The Weinstein Co.
Rated R; 103 min.

Buy tickets now

Elizabeth Rivera is a freelance writer (e.g. poor person) who lives in Los Angeles. She can usually be found roaming the streets of the greater L.A. area looking for story material and general mischief.

The Hunting Party courtesy The Weinstein Co.

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