5 Days of War (Blu-ray Review)

9 Dec, 2011 By: Angelique Flores

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Anchor Bay
Action
Box Office $0.02 million
$26.98 DVD, $29.99 Blu-ray
Rated ‘R’ for strong bloody war violence and atrocities, and for pervasive
language.
Stars Rupert Friend, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Richard Coyle, Andy Garcia, Val Kilmer.

The story of 5 Days of War centers on a fictional American journalist and a Georgian woman caught up in the real-life 2008 war between Russia and Georgia (the country, not the state).

The journalist, Thomas (Rupert Friend), and his cameraman, Sebastian (Richard Coyle), head to Georgia, where tension has been mounting against the Russians, who have not only invaded the country’s civilian towns but also are murdering innocents in their path.

Thomas and Sebastian capture such killings on camera and try to escape with a Georgian woman, Tatia (Emmanuelle Chriqui), in order to get the footage aired so other countries will come to their aid.

Meanwhile, Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili (Andy Garcia) struggles to get support from the U.N. and the United States, noting Georgia was one of America’s biggest supporters in the Iraq war in terms of troops.

Just before the end credits roll is a somber montage of real Georgians, saying the names of loved ones who died in the war. With only a few years having passed since the war, the wounds for these victims obviously still are very fresh.

Some of the minor plotlines are too contrived, such as Thomas being able so easily to elude death by the Russians so many times. Also, the controversial war, for which history shows crimes were committed on both sides, is portrayed here as pro-Georgian.

If you can take the film as an action-based war flick rather than a historical drama, there are plenty of fight scenes, blood and things blowing up for those who like that kind of thing.

Bonus materials include deleted scenes and audio commentary with director Renny Harlin that offers insight into his interest in the subject as well as which aspects of the film were based on real events and which were creative license.

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