Search - Hunt for Justice on DVD

For those that like the genre

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 11/27/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This was a made-for-TV film, but it wasn't below the quality of what one can see in a theater. It had no severe breaks where commercials would fit. If you like political intrigue works like Baldwin's "Crimson Tide," Stone's "JFK," or Crowe's "The Insider," then this will be for you. For us Americans who were delighting in 1990s, Internet-based prosperity, this will remind us that not everyone in the world was succeeding. The main character in this work is a woman, yet the cover implies that she is just one of many main characters. This may be sexist, an attempt to appease the mostly male audience that expects men to be leaders in international turmoils. One character was supposed to work for the UK, lived their most of his life, but had an American accent just like any other American at home. Again, this work is just for those who like this type of film."

An Intrigue Drama from Life

Grady Harp | Los Angeles, CA United States | 01/29/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"HUNT FOR JUSTICE is a Canadian television drama that has made it to DVD and that is reason for gratitude for those who hunger for educational dramas that inform us about facts of current history that somehow get buried in the media. The film is not a Hollywood production, it relies heavily on footage from court files, but it also introduces to many of us the act of heroism of Louise Arbour in bringing about the trial of Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic.

Louise Arbour (veteran Canadian actor Wendy Crewson) is a Canadian judge appointed by NATO as the Chief War Crimes Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. The film begins in 1996 when Arbour travels to The Hague to face the political obstacles that are preventing the Tribunal to bringing to justice the war criminals in the war Yugoslavia has been waging in Serbia, Croatia, and Bosnia, a war that has gross evidence of crimes against humanity in the form of genocide, extermination camps, and other heinous abuses. The progress toward bringing the criminals to justice is hampered by generals (including one played by William Hurt) who fear a major World War if precautions against same are infringed upon. Arbour, with the keen help of her translator Pasko Odsak (Stipe Erceg), her staff including Keller (Heino Ferch) and the unexpected assistance from British Capt. John Tanner (John Corbett), forges ahead, focusing the impossible task of bringing all responsible parties to justice on three specific events. Two of the three top suspects are captured but during their trials each meets his end. This leaves only Slobodan Milosevic himself, and Arbour and her colleagues are successful in bringing the war criminal to justice in 1999.

There are several touching side plots employed in the telling of this well-documented tale, stories that make the point in history more personal. Some may find the film footage of corpses and prisoners and death camps too strong to watch, but they are necessary to bring home the purpose of the film. Wendy Crewson carries the power to drive the message home - the message that war crimes must never go unpunished. There is much current history to be learned from this film: writers Ian Adams, Riley Adams and M.A. Lovretta have condensed the information and made it dramatic as well. Director Charles Binamé balances the docudrama with the story progress, never forgetting that he has a tale of intrigue to tell as well. HUNT FOR JUSTICE is worth watching! Grady Harp, January 07
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