The Hunting Party (2007 film)
Encyclopedia
The Hunting Party is a 2007 American action
-adventure
-thriller film starring Richard Gere
, Terrence Howard
, Diane Kruger
and Jesse Eisenberg
. The working title for this film was Spring Break in Bosnia before being changed to The Hunting Party during post-production. The Hunting Party had its world premiere at the 64th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2007. The movie turned out to be a huge disappointment domestically, grossing only US$
876,087 in US theatres.
) loses his composure during a live broadcast covering the Bosnian War
. While his career spirals downhill, that of his long-time camera man Duck (Terrence Howard
) goes in the opposite direction. Duck gets a cushy job at the network, while Hunt is left following war after war, unemployed, in an attempt to get back on top.
Years later, Duck returns to Bosnia to shoot a "puff piece" of the network anchor
Franklin Harris (James Brolin
) covering the fifth peace treaty anniversary celebrations, along with fresh young journalist (and son of the network vice-president) Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg
). Duck runs into Simon—by this point, a desperate, cynical freelancer who needs a story big enough to propel him back to the realm of credibility. He tells Duck that, through a source, he has located Radoslav Bogdanović—known as "The Fox"—who is a wanted war criminal with a US$5 million bounty
on his head: he is assumed to be in the village of Čelebići in Republika Srpska
(Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina
), near the border with Montenegro
.
Convinced by Simon, Duck comes along to shoot the interview, with Benjamin in tow. On the way, Simon confesses his plan to capture the Fox—something Duck and Benjamin consider insane even to think about. Along the way, the group is mistaken for a CIA hit squad by several groups, including the United Nations
police force and the Serbs themselves; at one point, at the initiative of Benjamin, they claim to be CIA agents themselves, using a threat to avoid paying a fee for a tip. Simon, Duck, and Benjamin are then captured by the Fox's guards and taken to a barn to be executed. At the last moment, a team of CIA assassins storms the barn and frees the journalists, but Fox escapes. It quickly becomes evident to the journalists that, even in the international community, there are people who do not wish the Fox to be captured. The CIA orders the journalists to board an airplane bound for the US, but they run away to carry out their plan to catch the Fox. They capture him while he is hunting in the woods without his guards. The journalists then release him, with his hands securely bound, in a village called Polje filled with the surviving family members of victims of his war crimes.
magazine article by American journalist Scott Anderson
. Published in October 2000 under the title "What I Did on My Summer Vacation", the article talks about a group of five Western war-reporters (in addition to Anderson, the group consisted of two more Americans, Sebastian Junger
and John Falk, as well as Dutchman Harald Doornbos and Philippe Deprez from Belgium) who reunited in Sarajevo
during April 2000 and over some drinks at a local bar one night decided to make a halfhearted attempt at catching the accused war criminal and fugitive Radovan Karadžić
. In addition to alcohol, the starting point for their "manhunt" was an article in local weekly newsmagazine Slobodna Bosna
notorious for sensationalist reporting that claimed Karadžić, along with his heavily armed security detail, had been spotted in the village of Čelebići in Republika Srpska
(Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina) near the border with Montenegro.
Before going into Čelebići, the party of five journalists first came to the nearby town of Foča
where they inquired about the safety of their trip among the locally stationed UN
personnel. They soon caught the eye of a well-connected local UN officer from Ukraine
who became convinced they were a covert crew sent in to apprehend Karadžić and decided to help them out by putting them in touch with a supposedly high-ranking Serbian secret police officer. The journalists decided to play along, and after returning from an uneventful visit to Čelebići, they arranged a meeting with the Serbian secret policeman who, too, was convinced they were a CIA
Black Operation
s team. He also claimed to have an intimate knowledge of Karadžić's movements and whereabouts and in return for ratting him out he wanted American passports for himself, his wife, and their four kids, as well as a cut of the bounty prize.
Despite being not at all convinced of the honesty and sincerity of either the Ukrainian UN officer or the Serbian secret policeman, the journalists decided to play along even further, thus setting in motion an interesting chain of events that in the end led to local NATO officials, American embassy personnel, and apparently even top American security officials from overseas getting involved.
Scott Anderson's conclusion at the end of the article was that UN and NATO not only exhibited precious little interest in actually finding Karadžić, but they also actively sabotaged any such meaningful attempt from within their own ranks.
When he was discovered, however, Karadžić turned out to be hiding in disguise and alone.
gave the film a 54% rating, or "Rotten", based on 84 reviews; the "Cream of the Crop" rating was 46% based on 24 reviews. The site Metacritic
showed a rating of 54 out of 100, qualifying as "Average or Mixed Reviews", based on 34 ratings. New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis called the film: "A misfired, misguided would-be satire." Owen Gleiberman for Entertainment Weekly
stated, on the other hand:
, in his article "Fails to entertain", has questioned how much the movie reflects reality of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The movie turned out to be a disappointment domestically, grossing only US$876,087 in US theatres.
It opened small, on September 7, 2007, initially being shown only on four screens in New York City
and Los Angeles
. It gradually expanded to other parts of USA over the following weeks - first to 40 screens, and then to 329. It ended its US theatrical life some six weeks after its release.
on September 14, 2007. Released as Av Partisi, in its two months at Turkish theaters, the movie managed to gross US$424,048.
Next up was Germany
on November 29, 2007, where it was released as Hunting Party – Wenn der Jäger zum Gejagten wird ("When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted") and grossed US$203,705 during just under a month at the theaters.
On November 29, 2007, the movie was also released in Croatia
. Its release in that country is particularly notable because most of the movie was shot there and the only two non-Hollywood actors with significant roles in it are Croats
Kristina Krepela and Ljubomir Kerekeš. However, the movie received mostly lukewarm reviews in the Croatian media with mainstream print daily Jutarnji list
reviewer Nenad Polimac criticizing the stock character portrayal of its villain - The Fox - as a stereotypical Hollywood baddie while suggesting the end product would've been a lot better had the movie been shot verbatim according to Anderson's original magazine article without the application of the Hollywood makeover. Additionally, Polimac's review longs for the days when "prestigious films like Fiddler on the Roof
and Sophie's Choice
were being shot here". The movie didn't fare much better in Croatian cyberspace as Film.hr's Boško Picula complains that "despite its smooth plot, rounded-off characters, comendable attempts at reaching the virtue of genuineness, and welcome flirting with the absurd, The Hunting Party fails when all of that needs to be put together into a logical unit" while Film-Mag.net's Robert Jukić refers to the overall product as "interestingly conceived, but poorly executed". At present, there is no box-office data for Croatia.
The release in Bosnia-Herzegovina's Bosniak-Croat part
where the movie was partly shot was originally scheduled for December 7, 2007, but one day before the premiere, it had to be postponed for a week due to technical difficulties. The movie was finally released on December 14, 2007 with a premiere showing at Sarajevo's Meeting Point cinema attended by businessman Selen Balić, film directors Danis Tanović
, and Elmir Jukić, as well as politician Bakir Izetbegović
, among others. The premiere was also attended by local actors Miraj Grbić, Snežana Marković, and Semir Krivić, all of whom had minor roles in the movie as Thug #1, Una, and Roadhouse Waiter, respectively. Translated as Lov u Bosni (Hunting in Bosnia), the movie garnered generally positive reviews in the country's Bosniak media with Dnevni Avaz reviewer Anila Gajević extoling its "important political message" and further seeing the movie as an example of "American fiction with emphasized altruism". In mid-January 2008, the movie was released in the country's Serbian part
where audiences largely ignored it with a premiere in Banja Luka
's Kozara theater attended by fewer than 15 people.
The reviews in the country's Serbia
n media were generally negative: Nezavisne novine
s Davor Pavlović refers to the film as being "poorly directed" and concludes that its main flaws lay in "neither being able to treat the subject matter with sufficient seriousness nor to raise its dramaturgical level above that of a typical Hollywood action movie".
Action film
Action film is a film genre where one or more heroes is thrust into a series of challenges that require physical feats, extended fights and frenetic chases...
-adventure
Adventure film
Adventure films are a genre of film.Unlike pure, low-budget action films they often use their action scenes preferably to display and explore exotic locations in an energetic way....
-thriller film starring Richard Gere
Richard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
, Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard
Terrence Dashon Howard is an American actor. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, which subsequently led to a number of roles in films and high visibility among African American audiences. Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of well-reviewed television...
, Diane Kruger
Diane Kruger
Diane Kruger is a German actress and former fashion model. She is known for roles such as Helen in Troy, Dr. Abigail Chase in National Treasure and its sequel, Bridget von Hammersmark in Inglourious Basterds, Anna in Mr...
and Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor. He made his screen debut with the comedy-drama television series Get Real from 1999 to 2000...
. The working title for this film was Spring Break in Bosnia before being changed to The Hunting Party during post-production. The Hunting Party had its world premiere at the 64th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2007. The movie turned out to be a huge disappointment domestically, grossing only US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
876,087 in US theatres.
Plot
After years of covering one war after another, journalist Simon Hunt (Richard GereRichard Gere
Richard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
) loses his composure during a live broadcast covering the Bosnian War
Bosnian War
The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...
. While his career spirals downhill, that of his long-time camera man Duck (Terrence Howard
Terrence Howard
Terrence Dashon Howard is an American actor. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, which subsequently led to a number of roles in films and high visibility among African American audiences. Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of well-reviewed television...
) goes in the opposite direction. Duck gets a cushy job at the network, while Hunt is left following war after war, unemployed, in an attempt to get back on top.
Years later, Duck returns to Bosnia to shoot a "puff piece" of the network anchor
News presenter
A news presenter is a person who presents news during a news program in the format of a television show, on the radio or the Internet.News presenters can work in a radio studio, television studio and from remote broadcasts in the field especially weather...
Franklin Harris (James Brolin
James Brolin
James Brolin is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.-Early life:...
) covering the fifth peace treaty anniversary celebrations, along with fresh young journalist (and son of the network vice-president) Benjamin (Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Eisenberg
Jesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor. He made his screen debut with the comedy-drama television series Get Real from 1999 to 2000...
). Duck runs into Simon—by this point, a desperate, cynical freelancer who needs a story big enough to propel him back to the realm of credibility. He tells Duck that, through a source, he has located Radoslav Bogdanović—known as "The Fox"—who is a wanted war criminal with a US$5 million bounty
Bounty (reward)
A bounty is a payment or reward often offered by a group as an incentive for the accomplishment of a task by someone usually not associated with the group. Bounties are most commonly issued for the capture or retrieval of a person or object. They are typically in the form of money...
on his head: he is assumed to be in the village of Čelebići in Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
(Serbian entity in Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bosnia and Herzegovina , sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina or simply Bosnia, is a country in Southern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Bordered by Croatia to the north, west and south, Serbia to the east, and Montenegro to the southeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina is almost landlocked, except for the...
), near the border with Montenegro
Montenegro
Montenegro Montenegrin: Crna Gora Црна Гора , meaning "Black Mountain") is a country located in Southeastern Europe. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea to the south-west and is bordered by Croatia to the west, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the northwest, Serbia to the northeast and Albania to the...
.
Convinced by Simon, Duck comes along to shoot the interview, with Benjamin in tow. On the way, Simon confesses his plan to capture the Fox—something Duck and Benjamin consider insane even to think about. Along the way, the group is mistaken for a CIA hit squad by several groups, including the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
police force and the Serbs themselves; at one point, at the initiative of Benjamin, they claim to be CIA agents themselves, using a threat to avoid paying a fee for a tip. Simon, Duck, and Benjamin are then captured by the Fox's guards and taken to a barn to be executed. At the last moment, a team of CIA assassins storms the barn and frees the journalists, but Fox escapes. It quickly becomes evident to the journalists that, even in the international community, there are people who do not wish the Fox to be captured. The CIA orders the journalists to board an airplane bound for the US, but they run away to carry out their plan to catch the Fox. They capture him while he is hunting in the woods without his guards. The journalists then release him, with his hands securely bound, in a village called Polje filled with the surviving family members of victims of his war crimes.
Cast and characters
- Richard GereRichard GereRichard Tiffany Gere is an American actor. He began acting in the 1970s, playing a supporting role in Looking for Mr. Goodbar, and a starring role in Days of Heaven. He came to prominence in 1980 for his role in the film American Gigolo, which established him as a leading man and a sex symbol...
as Simon Hunt - Terrence HowardTerrence HowardTerrence Dashon Howard is an American actor. Having his first major role in the 1995 film Mr. Holland's Opus, which subsequently led to a number of roles in films and high visibility among African American audiences. Howard broke into the mainstream with a succession of well-reviewed television...
as Duck - James BrolinJames BrolinJames Brolin is an American actor, producer and director, best known for his roles in soap operas, movies, sitcoms, and television. He is the father of actor Josh Brolin and husband of singer/actress Barbra Streisand.-Early life:...
as Franklin Harris - Jesse EisenbergJesse EisenbergJesse Adam Eisenberg is an American actor. He made his screen debut with the comedy-drama television series Get Real from 1999 to 2000...
as Benjamin Strauss - Ljubomir KerekešLjubomir KerekešLjubomir Kerekeš is a Croatian theatre, television and film actor.Kerekeš began acting in 1980 in his hometown of Varaždin and between 1982 and 1996 was a member of the theatre ensemble at the Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin...
as The Fox - Kristina KrepelaKristina KrepelaKristina Krepela is an Croatian actress, the best known for playing in movies La Femme Musketeer and The Hunting Party and in telenovela Ne daj se, Nina, the Croatian version of Ugly Betty.-Career:...
as Marta - Diane KrugerDiane KrugerDiane Kruger is a German actress and former fashion model. She is known for roles such as Helen in Troy, Dr. Abigail Chase in National Treasure and its sequel, Bridget von Hammersmark in Inglourious Basterds, Anna in Mr...
as Mirjana - Mark Ivanir as Boris
- Zdravko Kocevar as Sascha
- Snežana Marković as Una
- Goran KosticGoran KosticGoran Kostić is a Bosnian actor who is based in the United Kingdom. In 2007, he played the Polish builder Erek in the BBC soap opera EastEnders.-Selected filmography:* Of Gods and Men * Captifs...
as Srdjan - R. Mahalakshmi Devaraj as Miriam
- Joy BryantJoy BryantJoy Bryant is an American actress and former fashion model. Joy currently stars as Jasmine Trussell in Parenthood-Early life:...
as Duck’s Girlfriend - Damir Saban as Gert
- Nitin GanatraNitin GanatraNitin Ganatra is a Kenyan born British actor. He is known internationally as Prince Pondicherry in the Tim Burton film Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He also appears in the Gurinder Chada film Bride and Prejudice as Kholi Saab and The Mistress of Spices as Haroun...
as Indian Officer - Dylan BakerDylan BakerDylan Baker is an American actor, known for playing supporting roles in both major studio and independent films.-Early life:...
as the CIA man - Aleksandra GrdićAleksandra GrdićAleksandra Grdić is a Croatian model. She was Miss Croatia in 2003. She competed in the Miss World pageant in December 2003 in Sanya, China.She has posed twice for the Croatian edition of Playboy, in 2005 and in 2008....
as TriBeCa Loft Girl
The Esquire article
The trailer for the Bosnia-set movie The Hunting Party announces it as being "based on a true story", which is, in fact, very loosely based on the events depicted in an EsquireEsquire (magazine)
Esquire is a men's magazine, published in the U.S. by the Hearst Corporation. Founded in 1932, it flourished during the Great Depression under the guidance of founder and editor Arnold Gingrich.-History:...
magazine article by American journalist Scott Anderson
Scott Anderson (novelist)
Scott Anderson is an American novelist, journalist and a veteran war correspondent. He wrote novels Triage, Moonlight Hotel, The Man Who tried to Save the World, and War Zones...
. Published in October 2000 under the title "What I Did on My Summer Vacation", the article talks about a group of five Western war-reporters (in addition to Anderson, the group consisted of two more Americans, Sebastian Junger
Sebastian Junger
Sebastian Junger is an American author, journalist and documentarian, most famous for the best-selling book The Perfect Storm: A True Story of Men Against the Sea, his award-winning chronicle of the war in Afghanistan in the 2010 movie Restrepo, and his 2010 book War.-Background:Junger was born...
and John Falk, as well as Dutchman Harald Doornbos and Philippe Deprez from Belgium) who reunited in Sarajevo
Sarajevo
Sarajevo |Bosnia]], surrounded by the Dinaric Alps and situated along the Miljacka River in the heart of Southeastern Europe and the Balkans....
during April 2000 and over some drinks at a local bar one night decided to make a halfhearted attempt at catching the accused war criminal and fugitive Radovan Karadžić
Radovan Karadžic
Radovan Karadžić is a former Bosnian Serb politician. He is detained in the United Nations Detention Unit of Scheveningen, accused of war crimes committed against Bosnian Muslims and Bosnian Croats during the Siege of Sarajevo, as well as ordering the Srebrenica massacre.Educated as a...
. In addition to alcohol, the starting point for their "manhunt" was an article in local weekly newsmagazine Slobodna Bosna
Slobodna Bosna
Slobodna Bosna is an investigative weekly newspaper based in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is one of the few newspapers that sells in both Bosnian entities . Its frequent investigations of corruption have led politicians to sue the editor-in-chief Senad Avdić...
notorious for sensationalist reporting that claimed Karadžić, along with his heavily armed security detail, had been spotted in the village of Čelebići in Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
(Serbian entity within Bosnia and Herzegovina) near the border with Montenegro.
Before going into Čelebići, the party of five journalists first came to the nearby town of Foča
Foca
Foča is a town and municipality in southeastern Bosnia and Herzegovina on the Drina river, in the Foča Region of the Republika Srpska entity.-Early history:...
where they inquired about the safety of their trip among the locally stationed UN
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
personnel. They soon caught the eye of a well-connected local UN officer from Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
who became convinced they were a covert crew sent in to apprehend Karadžić and decided to help them out by putting them in touch with a supposedly high-ranking Serbian secret police officer. The journalists decided to play along, and after returning from an uneventful visit to Čelebići, they arranged a meeting with the Serbian secret policeman who, too, was convinced they were a CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
Black Operation
Black operation
A black operation or black op is a covert operation typically involving activities that are highly clandestine and often outside of standard military protocol or even against the law.-Origins:...
s team. He also claimed to have an intimate knowledge of Karadžić's movements and whereabouts and in return for ratting him out he wanted American passports for himself, his wife, and their four kids, as well as a cut of the bounty prize.
Despite being not at all convinced of the honesty and sincerity of either the Ukrainian UN officer or the Serbian secret policeman, the journalists decided to play along even further, thus setting in motion an interesting chain of events that in the end led to local NATO officials, American embassy personnel, and apparently even top American security officials from overseas getting involved.
Scott Anderson's conclusion at the end of the article was that UN and NATO not only exhibited precious little interest in actually finding Karadžić, but they also actively sabotaged any such meaningful attempt from within their own ranks.
When he was discovered, however, Karadžić turned out to be hiding in disguise and alone.
United States
Critical reaction to The Hunting Party was mixed. The film critic site Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
gave the film a 54% rating, or "Rotten", based on 84 reviews; the "Cream of the Crop" rating was 46% based on 24 reviews. The site Metacritic
Metacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
showed a rating of 54 out of 100, qualifying as "Average or Mixed Reviews", based on 34 ratings. New York Times reviewer Manohla Dargis called the film: "A misfired, misguided would-be satire." Owen Gleiberman for Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
stated, on the other hand:
"What makes The Hunting Party an original, gonzo treat is the way that Shepard plants the movie's tone somewhere between hair-trigger investigative danger and the from-the-frying-pan-into-the-fire glee of a Hope/Crosby picture."Elvis D'Silva of Rediff India
Rediff.com
Rediff.com India is a news, information, entertainment, and shopping portal. It was founded in 1996 as "Rediff On The NeT" and is headquartered in Mumbai, India with offices in New Delhi and New York City, USA....
, in his article "Fails to entertain", has questioned how much the movie reflects reality of the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The movie turned out to be a disappointment domestically, grossing only US$876,087 in US theatres.
It opened small, on September 7, 2007, initially being shown only on four screens in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
. It gradually expanded to other parts of USA over the following weeks - first to 40 screens, and then to 329. It ended its US theatrical life some six weeks after its release.
Europe
Almost simultaneously to the US, The Hunting Party was released in TurkeyTurkey
Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...
on September 14, 2007. Released as Av Partisi, in its two months at Turkish theaters, the movie managed to gross US$424,048.
Next up was Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
on November 29, 2007, where it was released as Hunting Party – Wenn der Jäger zum Gejagten wird ("When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted") and grossed US$203,705 during just under a month at the theaters.
On November 29, 2007, the movie was also released in Croatia
Croatia
Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ...
. Its release in that country is particularly notable because most of the movie was shot there and the only two non-Hollywood actors with significant roles in it are Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
Kristina Krepela and Ljubomir Kerekeš. However, the movie received mostly lukewarm reviews in the Croatian media with mainstream print daily Jutarnji list
Jutarnji list
Jutarnji list is a daily newspaper in Croatia with a circulation of about 115,000 copies.It was launched in April 1998, becoming the first successful Croatian daily newspaper to appear since the 1950s. It was named after a Zagreb daily that used to circulate before WW2...
reviewer Nenad Polimac criticizing the stock character portrayal of its villain - The Fox - as a stereotypical Hollywood baddie while suggesting the end product would've been a lot better had the movie been shot verbatim according to Anderson's original magazine article without the application of the Hollywood makeover. Additionally, Polimac's review longs for the days when "prestigious films like Fiddler on the Roof
Fiddler on the Roof (film)
Fiddler on the Roof is the 1971 film adaptation of the 1964 Broadway musical of the same name, with music composed by Jerry Bock, lyrics by Sheldon Harnick, and book by Joseph Stein, set in Tsarist Russia in 1905, about Tevye and his Daughters. It was directed by Norman Jewison. The film won three...
and Sophie's Choice
Sophie's Choice (film)
Sophie's Choice is a 1982 American romantic drama film that tells the story of a Polish immigrant, Sophie, and her tempestuous lover who share a boarding house with a young writer in Brooklyn. The film stars Meryl Streep, Kevin Kline, and Peter MacNicol. Alan J...
were being shot here". The movie didn't fare much better in Croatian cyberspace as Film.hr's Boško Picula complains that "despite its smooth plot, rounded-off characters, comendable attempts at reaching the virtue of genuineness, and welcome flirting with the absurd, The Hunting Party fails when all of that needs to be put together into a logical unit" while Film-Mag.net's Robert Jukić refers to the overall product as "interestingly conceived, but poorly executed". At present, there is no box-office data for Croatia.
The release in Bosnia-Herzegovina's Bosniak-Croat part
Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina
The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two political entities that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The two entities are delineated by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line...
where the movie was partly shot was originally scheduled for December 7, 2007, but one day before the premiere, it had to be postponed for a week due to technical difficulties. The movie was finally released on December 14, 2007 with a premiere showing at Sarajevo's Meeting Point cinema attended by businessman Selen Balić, film directors Danis Tanović
Danis Tanovic
Danis Tanović is a Bosnian film director and screenwriter.Tanović is best known for having directed and written the script for the 2001 Bosnian movie No Man's Land which won an Academy Award. He was a member of the jury at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.-Biography:Danis Tanović was born in the...
, and Elmir Jukić, as well as politician Bakir Izetbegović
Bakir Izetbegovic
Bakir Izetbegović is a Bosniak politician. Izetbegović is a member of the Party of Democratic Action and son of the late Bosnian president, Alija Izetbegović. In 2010, he was elected to be the Bosniak member of the Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina.-Career:Izetbegović graduated with a degree in...
, among others. The premiere was also attended by local actors Miraj Grbić, Snežana Marković, and Semir Krivić, all of whom had minor roles in the movie as Thug #1, Una, and Roadhouse Waiter, respectively. Translated as Lov u Bosni (Hunting in Bosnia), the movie garnered generally positive reviews in the country's Bosniak media with Dnevni Avaz reviewer Anila Gajević extoling its "important political message" and further seeing the movie as an example of "American fiction with emphasized altruism". In mid-January 2008, the movie was released in the country's Serbian part
Republika Srpska
Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina...
where audiences largely ignored it with a premiere in Banja Luka
Banja Luka
-History:The name "Banja Luka" was first mentioned in a document dated February 6, 1494, but Banja Luka's history dates back to ancient times. There is a substantial evidence of the Roman presence in the region during the first few centuries A.D., including an old fort "Kastel" in the centre of...
's Kozara theater attended by fewer than 15 people.
The reviews in the country's Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
n media were generally negative: Nezavisne novine
Nezavisne Novine
Nezavisne novine is a daily newspaper based in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Prime Minister of the Republika Srpska entity, Milorad Dodik, provided some of funding for the launch of the newspaper. It was the first newspaper in Republika Srpska to publish articles about Serb war crimes....
s Davor Pavlović refers to the film as being "poorly directed" and concludes that its main flaws lay in "neither being able to treat the subject matter with sufficient seriousness nor to raise its dramaturgical level above that of a typical Hollywood action movie".
Premieres
The Hunting Party has been released around the world, premiering in a number of countries in 2007 and 2008:| Date | Country | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| September 7, 2007 | United States United States The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district... |
Initially shown on four screens in NYC and LA; first run ended after six weeks. |
| September 14, 2007 | Turkey Turkey Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... |
Released as Av Partisi; grossed US$424,048 over two months. |
| October 4, 2007 | Israel Israel The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea... |
The movie opened in Israel between its Turkish and German premieres. (No Israeli box office data is currently available.) |
| November 29, 2007 | Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... |
Released as Hunting Party – Wenn der Jäger zum Gejagten wird ("When the Hunter Becomes the Hunted"); grossed US$203,705 in one month. |
| November 29, 2007 | Croatia Croatia Croatia , officially the Republic of Croatia , is a unitary democratic parliamentary republic in Europe at the crossroads of the Mitteleuropa, the Balkans, and the Mediterranean. Its capital and largest city is Zagreb. The country is divided into 20 counties and the city of Zagreb. Croatia covers ... |
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| December 14, 2007 | Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the two political entities that compose the sovereign country of Bosnia and Herzegovina . The two entities are delineated by the Inter-Entity Boundary Line... |
Released in mid-January 2008 in Republika Srpska Republika Srpska Republika Srpska is one of two main political entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina... . |
| December 27, 2007 | Austria Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... |
The movie lasted in the theatres until roughly mid-January 2008, making only US$52,967. |
| January 3, 2008 | Slovenia Slovenia Slovenia , officially the Republic of Slovenia , is a country in Central and Southeastern Europe touching the Alps and bordering the Mediterranean. Slovenia borders Italy to the west, Croatia to the south and east, Hungary to the northeast, and Austria to the north, and also has a small portion of... |
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| January 4, 2008 | Spain Spain Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula... |
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| January 25, 2008 | Romania Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea... |
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| January 31, 2008 | Russia Russia Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects... |
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| March 6, 2008 | Portugal Portugal Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the... |
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| March 13, 2008 | Argentina Argentina Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires... |
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| April 30, 2008 | Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... |
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| May 10, 2008 | Japan Japan Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south... |
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| December 12, 2008 | India India India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world... |