Shot Through the Heart (1998 TV Movie) User Reviews

Antiwar Gem

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 5 August 2019]

In Sarajevo, Muslims, Croats and Serbs live in peace. The Muslim Vlado (Linus Roache) and the Serb Slavko (Vincent Perez) are best friends, almost brothers, and the best shooters in Yugoslavia. They are going to the Olympics in Barcelona representing Yugoslavia. However, with the Bosnian war in 1992, Slavko joins the Serbian army for training snipers and Vlado joins the militia in the streets of Sarajevo to defend his people. The duel between the former friends ends in a tragic way.

"Shot Through the Heart" is another magnificent and touching movie about the Bosnian war. The first time I watched it was two years ago, and the school teacher of my son borrowed it to present to her class. This week, I have watched 'Harrison's Flowers', 'Vulkovar' and 'Pretty Village, Pretty Flame', all of them about this sad war, but having different approaches. I decided to see 'Shot Through the Heart' again. All these movies show friends and lovers getting apart after years of friendship or love due to this stupid war. This movie is literally a shot in the heart. Impossible not be touched by such a sad story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'Um Tiro No Coração' ('A Shot in the Heart')

Wow! What a pleasant surprise!

[buiger · 7/10 · 23 January 2012]

Excellent TV production, harsh, moving, real. To watch it hurt me almost at a physical level, I have lived in Sarajevo, I know the city, it's people, and I understand their plight. Take it from somebody who has been there; this is a movie well made, the situations, feelings and emotions it depicts are very real, almost exactly as it was. There is no overt dramatization here, no going over the top; I almost felt as if I was there... Unbelievably good for a TV movie.

If there is one weak point in the film, it is that they should have utilized local actors, they should have filmed it in the original language with subtitles. That would have made the movie even more powerful. Well done!

Another Magnificent and Touching Movie About the Bosnian War and the End of a Friendship

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 4 April 2004]

In Sarajevo, Muslims, Croats and Serbs live in peace. The Muslim Vlado (Linus Roache) and the Serb Slavko (Vincent Perez) are best friends, almost brothers, and the best shooters in Yugoslavia. They are going to the Olympics in Barcelona representing Yugoslavia. However, with the Bosnian war in 1992, Slavko joins the Serbian army for training snipers and Vlado joins the militia in the streets of Sarajevo to defend his people. The duel between the former friends ends in a tragic way. This is another magnificent and touching movie about the Bosnian war. The first time I watched it was two years ago, and the school teacher of my son borrowed it to present to her class. This week, I have watched `Harrison`s Flowers', `Vulkovar' and `Pretty Village, Pretty Flame', all of them about this sad war, but having different approaches. I decided to see `Shot Through the Heart' again. All these movies show friends and lovers getting apart after years of friendship or love due to this stupid war. This movie is literally a shot in the heart. Impossible not be touched by such a sad story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Um Tiro No Coração' (`A Shot in the Heart')

Great acting and all TOO real for most.

[gozor · 27 July 1999]

This was definitely one of the best movies I have seen in quite a while. It wasn't the most exciting and it wasn't the most inspiring, it was simply the best drama and acting depicting a horrific situation. This movie may not necessarily make you feel better about yourself but it certainly makes you happy to be living in a place where you're safe. The focus on two men who are life-long best friends and get pulled apart by surrounding events is a story that tracks back to the beginning of time and was most noticeable in the U.S. civil war. The buildup to the inevitable confrontation at the end was all too realistic and very well done. The scenes where people are okay and then suddenly fall over from being shot were very well depicted. One of the more subtle but well-done transitions was the eroding condition of the buildings and landscape as the war went on. This is one of those movies that is about something real and horrible and therefore rather difficult to watch.

Decent film, with a lot of flaws and historically wrong

[swordfish-1 · 6/10 · 30 July 2003]

Firstly I must let you know that I am from Kosovo, former republic of Yugoslavia, right now it is under UNMIK administration. It hasn't been a long time ago since the war ended here, and certainly neither since the war on Bosnia acured.

Now back to the film: this movie is about two friends since the childhood with different nationality and different religion, but the way the circumstances are each of them must fight for their country. All that right said is very ok with me!

Now the movie itself consists some good thought camera shots and a few nice scenes but other than that it is historically inaccurate and pointless though is consists a good message to all the viewers. Now the main and a huge flaw is that this movie was in english, with guys from different nationalities in it. I mean how many best friends born and raised in France do talk english with each other? How many German families talk English all the time? And how many soldiers from a specified country(non english native language) speak in English like the one at the beggining when the Serbian soldiers pull over the car of the muslim family? This is deeply incorrect and unbased at nothing. A little bit smaller flaws: 1. Firstly the Serbians didn't lead a war with snipers, they always captured every city with tanks, bombing and fighting but never included snipers.

2. Serbian police uniforms are not correct. 3. Vlado is not a muslim name (I'm a muslim myself) 4. The war at Bosnia didn't begin in Sarajevo as told in the movie, Sarajevo was the last city to be attacked from Serbian forces.

I could go on and on, but it's not worth it. Anyway the movie had a very respectable direction, but I can guarantee you that the movie itself is not based on a true story. Rating: 6/10

Something you should watch

[zzis · 10/10 · 22 April 2000]

I have been in Sarajevo during the horrible civil war, and this movie shows how really it happened. I have been in all of the places they showed in the movie and, yes it is how happened. Acting is great. Actors did very good job, also music was good. This movie is one of those movies who present the real war (like Saving Private Ryan), not like many fake movies do. It is worthy of watching.

A well managed story of friends caught up in civil war.

[=G= · 7/10 · 14 July 2001]

"Shot Through the Heart" is an even tempered, dogged, austere production of people caught in the rift in Sarajevo during the Bosnia war. The film focuses on two long time friends, both expert competitive marksmen, who find themselves as snipers on opposite sides of the conflict. Not unlike other "friend against friend" civil war stories (eg: Gettysburg), the two men are on a collision course with the ultimate showdown. A well managed drama which imparts some sense of the strife in the splintering of Yugoslavia while telling its story of families and friends divided, "Shot..." is a worthy film making effort.

An outstanding film on the war in Sarajevo

[RachelLone · 9/10 · 5 November 2000]

This film made a tremendous impact on me. I am stunned, overwhelmed and profoundly moved. Watching this remarkable photoplay, my emotion is intense. It immediately reminded me of a nonfiction book I had read about the war in Bosnia, it feels like all the things described in that book come to life. It's shocking.

All the events depicted in this movie ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Children getting killed by pieces of shrapnel, friends being on opposite sides and their friendships being torn apart by the war, losing your family, friends, neighbors, attending one and yet another funeral of someone you knew, people being shot while they carry water...my heart broke when I watched these cruel facts portrayed in this impassioned work. It is so true to life that I felt as if I was there, witnessing the whole thing.

Based upon a true story, "Shot Through the Heart" is about a life long friendship between two marksmen who are residents in Sarajevo. When the war breaks out, Vlado, a Muslim, and Slavko, a Serb, are on opposite sides and eventually, they will have to face each other. People in Sarajevo used to live peaceful and carefree lives, now their lives become tragedies all because of this hideous war.

History, the sense of retaliation and false beliefs make human beings turn into killing machines. War is destruction and agony. If only we could realize it and remember the lessons we've learned. If only we could reach world peace sooner.

This war drama is finely filmed, and the acting is very believable. The movie helps us understand more about the ex-Yugoslavia war that took place in the early nineties and makes us think about it, how wars affect people and the importance of making peace. I heartily recommend this film to anybody who is interested in what happened in Sarajevo.

Excellent portrayal of the war in Sarajevo.

[petarmatic · 7/10 · 11 February 2015]

There are only two films which I could say that they portray war in Sarajevo in an excellent manner. One is The Perfect Circle (1997), probably the best one, and the other one is this one. There are many other films made about war in Bosnia, but I do not agree that they come even close to these two.

It is a pity that this film did not make it to the wider audiences (it was shown only in the North America). This way I invite distributors to show this film to the European audiences, especially in the former Yugoslavia.

Europe is full of the geopolitical rifts and former Yugoslavia was full of them. Some of them do not materialize into war like for example Catalonia, others do like Ukraine.

This film tried to put a human face on what was happening in Sarajevo during the war. It certainly did a great job! If you want to know what was happening during the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 this a film to watch. Excellent work by all means!

accurate

[LongCarbine · 10/10 · 29 September 2005]

I was in Sarajevo at the time (7 years old) and the movie is pretty accurate.

Uniforms and bad accents don't matter, its a good story, especially the trench type of warfare that was fought. A bit different from the blitzkrieg style campaigns that we see now days over the TV in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are a lot of small details that make it very realistic, like the wood for burning during the winter stockpiled in the appartments, the way people die, living conditions in general, no water, no electricity, barelly enough food, etc

Somethimes that period of my life seems like it was only a dream...

Let it go

[ejk5019 · 9/10 · 24 April 2007]

You guys are missing the point, honestly, UNIFORMS, incorrect use of a mosin M-44? Who cares, it's the message that counts. Maybe I have to apologize for having a life outside of looking up little discrepancies in movies, but I try to take the movie for what it's worth rather than pick it apart. It was an HBO movie, yes, it's going to be in English! Get used to it, most movies are written in the language of the intended country of release. It's a message that goes back to the US civil war but brought up into modern times. It was a well made movie with good acting and an exciting screenplay. I was thuroughly entertained while at the same time being forced to know that the back-story was taken directly out of real life. Great movie (period)

"STtH's" Bosnian Civil War: Black is White, Up is Down

[AKalinoff · 3/10 · 16 November 2005]

I saw this film a while ago on a Video CD.

I will 1st mention the good points.

The movie, at first, at least tries to appear that it is not biased, like not showing one character as black and the other as white. Both main characters are friends and co-exist very well in an country and economy that is not booming while at the same time not failing. Their families get together and have parties and they practice their favorite sport, Sport Rifle shooting, as comrades not as competitors.

But, after the 1st 15 minutes the plot runs into a fork in the road. The audience is expected to believe that for some unknown reason these friends must hate each other. That for some unknown reason Bosnia is now on a path to conflict. Sure, the script adds in TV footage which the characters appear to be watching live news programs in English, but the clips are from 1993 not 1992 when the war began.

The history, the 1990 elections, the people who caused the war are not mentioned. The movie tries to place the blame with Karadzic, who had been a Presidential candidate and leader of the Bosnian Parliament's 2nd Largest Party(SDP). According to the Constitution of Bosnia, the SDP was to have the Presidency in 1992, but there was a Coup in January. The Bosnian Islamic Democratic Action Party seized total control and held a segregated referendum in March in which it declared itself the law in Bosnia and announced Secession.

The history of the IDAP begins with Bosnian Muslim Alija Izetbegovic, a man suspiciously absent from "STtH". He was a student of Nazism in WW2. He even wrote his own "Mein Kampf" in which he stated: "It is not in fact possible for there to be any peace or coexistence between 'the Islamic Religion' and non-Islamic social and political institutions".

In 1990 he lost the IDAP elections to "pro-Yugoslavia Moderate" Fikret Abdic, a Bosnian Muslim, that worked with Christian Serbs during the Civil War, and who treated his supporters like brothers. Abdic was prevented from taking power by Izetbegovic, who lost the elections but seized the seat of power.

The events from above are missing from the movie, but they are the factual events that lead to the war.

There were problems with props too. Serb soldiers in the movie were wearing Soviet WW2 helmets, which they did not use. Also the one soldier was holding an M-1944 WW2 rifle only used by USSR not Yugoslavia.

The Director and Script Writers had a chance, but they chose to re-write history.

Excellent

[Adam1983 · 9/10 · 2 May 2002]

Shot through the Heart is a movie about two best friends who end up on different sides of a war. This movie goes through the horror and sadness of war and how it can tear even the best of friends apart. The sniping scenes give you an adrenaline rush. The anticipation is brutal. And on top of it all is the great acting. You will not be disappointed.

This movie was actually pretty good.

[tylerdurden-24 · 4 October 2006]

I don't get why people have a problem with the realism of the movie. I have many relatives in Sarajevo and they lived through this nightmare. Snipers didn't distinguish men, women or children. All were killed alike.People were killed while running for water and food. Kids playing in their yards were shot off the swing sets etc.

Also some of the other things in the movie were that the Serbs took the residence of one lady living in the mountains outside of Sarajevo and gave the house to slavko right after soldiers are raping the daughter of the present resident of the house. This also has happened. The movie has a solid story. I don't know, maybe I am saying this because I can personally relate to this movie. Maybe if it played in another civil conflict, more audiences would be more open to it.

A powerful gritty story of a horrific conflict

[Yazi · 9/10 · 1 June 2006]

'Shot through the heart' turned up on HBO while I was bored killing time in a hotel. The title initially put me off - I nearly went to the gym instead. But when I realized from the initial Cranberries track that it wasn't going to be the usual made for HBO slushy American trash, I started watching. A powerful movie, not the usual war film, it explored the added horrors of a civil war with friends pitted against friends. The scene where the main character, a Moslem realiszes that it is former best friend and Olympic shooting hopeful, a Serb who is the sniper accounting for a lot of the civilian deaths in his neighborhood brings this home. I like a previous reviewer was involved in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the gritty low-budget 'almost documentary' style gives this film an edge over other war films which usually fail to achieve such authenticity.

Familiar Story, but well done

[johncdempsey · 8/10 · 27 January 2021]

Well written, although a familiar storyline. The acting of Roache and Perez is excellent. Disturbing war scenes are at a premium. Worth the watch.

A Complex War Through the Eyes of Friends.

[Jerominator · 9/10 · 13 June 2013]

I first watched this when it aired on UK TV in the late 90s. Luckily I videoed it and have watched it many times since.

While I totally agree with what other reviewers have said about omitting the complex events leading up to the war at the risk of offensively over-simplifying a complex and impassioned tinder box, we must also appreciate that a movie simply cannot be all things to all people. So while a movie about the historical and political backdrop to the war would be a very worthy undertaking, that would have to be a separate movie to this. Trying to shoe-horn all of that into this story would've been a disaster and I doubt it would ever have made it to the screen. Besides, you should never go to the movies expecting a history lesson. Even when they try to shoot a faithful real-life account, by the end of the too-many-cooks process, it ends up at best 50% accurate. That's just the nature of the beast and it's naive to expect any different.

So, misplaced accuracy-based judgements aside, we have here the simple story of 2 friends whose ethnic backgrounds lands them on opposing sides of a war. The very thing that cemented their friendship - their skill as target shooters - becomes a curse as they find themselves inevitably recruited as snipers on the front lines. Justification for the war and personal well-being wrestles with loyalty to old friends.

I found the interaction between the 2 central characters very touching and credible. It sets the scene nicely for the nightmare scenario they're confronted with later in the story.

The zeitgeist conjured up both pre and post conflict work very well for me, though of course I cannot comment on how accurate a reflection of reality this is - it just comes pretty close to what I imagine and what footage I saw of Yugoslavia during this time.

They did a good job of depicting civilian normality suddenly violated by some sacrilegious military intrusion, whether it be an exploding shell in the night or a sniper's round to an old lady fetching water. As well as illustrating the insidious and deliberate intent to terrorise innocent civilians in order to break the will of their leaders, I think this sudden and violent change in mood is as much as you can do to describe the start of a conflict like that on screen.

Linus Roache and Vincent Perez were great in the lead roles, along with strong support from the doctor, wives, and girlfriend. The locations were extremely well-picked out. I appreciate some of it was actually shot in Sarajevo - a bold move only 5 years after the events depicted.

I guess my sole criticism would be the apparent ease with which Slavko seemed to transform from warm-hearted friend of the family into a cold killing machine. It just seemed a little devoid of soul-searching or intense emotions I'd expect to see a man go through faced with that kind of dilemma. That said, I've never been in that situation so perhaps I am naive - perhaps that's roughly what would happen in a situation like that where the only way one could proceed is to over-compensate and brutally reject what came before. So the jury's out on that one.

Other than that nit-picking, I thought this very sensitive subject was handled with the appropriate amount of respect while still telling the gripping dramatic story at its core. Furthermore, it manages to make some very striking points about what's so unacceptably wrong about warfare inflicted upon a civilian population, whatever the perceived justification may be.

The central story is an unusual and intriguing one in its own right which is justification enough to bring this to the screen. Transcending that though, I think this film helped shock a largely ignorant UK audience into re-educating themselves a little more about a conflict they never really understood in the first place.

Powerful indictment against ethnicidal war but demonizes Serbs

[elcoat · 5/10 · 28 April 2014]

I was moved by the film also, and I think the moment of ultimate tragedy is the beautiful young Muslim girl's death/murder, and the moment of truth is when Muslim Vlado confronts Christian Serb Slavko with that. They part as the friends they once were, and then Vlado waits through the night and kills Slavko the next morning.

The film is intense and makes anyone who sees it search their soul.

However, as other reviewers have said, the Serbs are unfairly painted as the villains in this. As we are seeing right now in the Ukraine, the legal government had been overthrown, and ethnic groups were taking up arms to secede from Yugoslavia, and the Serbs were trying to prevent that and future conflicts which would result.

Note that this Serb-demonizing film came out right before our Kosovo war, which we - the West - wrongfully forced on the Serbs with the initially secret Appendix B of the Rambouillet Treaty which demanded unconditional NATO occupation of all Yugoslavia, including Serbia, an unconditional surrender ultimatum we well knew the Serbs would never accept, which was our pretext to start bombing them. (I whistle-blew App. B on H-Diplo on 14May99, and Henry Kissinger did so unspecifically in his 31May99 Newsweek New World Disorder article.)

So as good as the film is, I think it has hurt rather than helped our understanding of the Yugoslavian tragedies.

Other excellent films about the Balkan tragedies are Before the Rain (1994) and - as others have noted - Savior (1998).

What happened to "Love Thy Neighbor"?

[bigfoot2 · 24 March 2001]

This film explores the complex relationship between two men, one who is Christian, the other Moslem, in war-torn Bosnia. In my attempt to understand how people who live side-by-side could brutalize and murder each other, "Shot Through The Heart" was an unsettling opportunity to gain some insight into a confusing and disturbing conflict. I am sure that many people in the United States have little point of reference with which to compare what is depicted in the film to our everyday life. Having read about the conflict in Bosnia, and studied Balkan history, I know, abstractly, of the age-old conflicts there. What this film did for me was to depict, in a very visceral way, the insanity of old hatreds that, bubbling to the surface, turn what should be abnormal, into the normal; society turned upside down. To see people sublimate their humanity to base and inhuman themes of ethnic purity raises the question to all of us; can we shed ourselves of all our prejudices and truly love our neighbor?

Best Film yet of Bosnian War

[zensixties · 10/10 · 13 April 2000]

Shot through the heart is the best film I've seen on the Bosnia war. Others I have seen are Welcome to Sarajevo, Savior, Pretty Village, all good films, but this is the best. It really shows the true situation, and I couldn't help feeling the anger when the lead character says before the war, "just let them try to have a war, the American's will come right in like in the Gulf".

This film is totally on location in Sarajevo, and you can see all the bombed out buildings. The main character has to make a big decision: whether to let his friendship with a Yugoslav turned Serb murderer get in the way of defending his neighborhood, or not. Very well done and well acted. I think this film must have hit too close to home for Sarajevans filmed so soon after the actual siege took place.

Other good films I recommend: Ulysses Gaze, Underground, Cafe Balkan, Vukovar.

One fantastic movie

[WinterRain0205 · 8/10 · 2 September 2002]

This is one fantastic movie. It really gets to you. Superb acting, dialogue. All too natural scenes.

You would expect a high-adrenalin duel between the two sharpshooter, like in 'Enemy at the Gates', and when the events unfold in a different way you would start to think, 'Yeah, that's perfect'. And you would realize that had the final confrontation turned into a John Woo-ish 45-minute-long-butt-kicking nonsense, it would have spoiled the movie.

Why did this happen?

[blackasp98 · 10/10 · 4 March 2008]

I have to say that of all the docudramas i have watched this one impacted me the most. As the movie starts,you can see people going about their daily business of shop keeping or industrial jobs for the common folk. Streets lined with walkers shopping,school children playing and elderly watching it all on park benches. This is the world that Sarajevo knew before the government collapsed. Muslim,croates,and various other religions living together in one city and village,working together to make their worlds just that much more happy. Until the new appointed dictatorship stole it all away. This film was excellent in showing the lives of a select few who survived to tell their story of this horrible genocide that took place in 1992. People that used to live and breathe the same air together becoming enemies in the vast war that followed. Separating the Muslims,croates and others,killing each other in cold blood,snipers firing on children for the sheer pleasure of watching them die. And the most horrible tales of women and very young girls being violated in the most evil ways a human can imagine. Today there are still some remnants of those years but not as conflictive,but still in some small way could explode again. Sarajevo and all of its history of neighbors living together has been lost for all time,with children laughing during or after school,people shopping for their families,businesses helping to expand their way of life,and the elderly watching on park benches smiling no more. The cast of this movie was impeccable,i was moved seeing the despair rise out of newly formed ashes and the cast,Linus Roache was fantastic in his role. Along with his Serb character Vincent Perez,two lifelong friends separated by the conflict. I would recommend this movie even for the universities who study the human mind and why they can change at any given time out of fear.

In this fact-based story, you get to know the characters before the war tears them apart.

[grywolf · 9/10 · 8 August 1999]

I found this story of two friends caught on opposites sides of war-torn Sarajevo, quite moving. In times of war, in far away countries, we seldom have the opportunity to know or understand the individuals caught in the cross-fire. In this fact-based story, you get to know the characters before the war tears them apart.

Vincent Perez and Linus Roache are very effective as the two friends who find themselves faced with the fact that their friendship cannot stop a sniper's bullet.

Yes I am Serbian if anyone wants to know

[shiobahn75 · 1/10 · 20 January 2005]

Previous comment made me write this. It says that Muslims are blonde and Serbs are dark (because our blood is mixed). This comment just says that this opinion can be made by racist.Look,race is nothing.I'm color blind.I look like Pierce Brosnan but I'm no Irish. So what?I might add that I am not 100% Serb,that I have some Austrian and Croat blood within me but whats the point.I'm dark, half-breed?Is that so? Anyone using racial prejudices with such bad intent like Lantos(producer9and director is racist for me.Karadzhic, Izetbegovich, Milosevic, Tudjman they are all monsters and I blame them for destroying my life, my family, my country, Yuggoslavia. Hope they will be all in hell but that wont return our dead relatives back. I am proud of being Serb and I am proud of my cousins, Austrians,Croats,Muslims, Hungarians, Arabs (yes I am from Serbia and I have multiethnical family).This movie doesn't show sufferings of Serbs or Croats within Sarayevo,terrible terrorism of street gangs,Muslim extremism.I add: I kneel and pray for all innocent sisters and brothers Muslim,catholic or orthodox, killed in this war.This film is manipulation with our misery,false humanitarianism's which doesn't help at all.It helps Lantos to fill his pockets with more doe,alright!

I've seen this, and it NOT realistic

[fmcraven-1 · 17 April 2001]

First, in the movie, the bad guys (the serbs) are really dark complicated, and the good guys are (muslims) lite complected. Serbs are dark, thats because of muslim blood, in them, from the turkish conquest of the balkans for 500 yrs. It doesn't tell the t.v. audience, thats one of the serbs major distrust of the muslim population.