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Colin Farrell, Freddie Cunliffe, Kate Ashfield

As unflinching and bleak as it is beautiful, Tim Roth's directorial debut, The War Zone, is remarkably accomplished filmmaking. Adapted by Alexander Stuart from his own novel, the film centers ...( read more  read more... )on a family that has just moved from London to the wind-swept English seaside during winter. The relative isolation soon reveals an ongoing incestuous relationship between the working-class father (Ray Winstone) and his 17-year-old-daughter, Jessie. The middle-class mother (Tilda Swinton) has just given birth to their third child and desperately avoids knowing the truth, leaving Tom, the younger brother, with the horrific responsibility of exposing the family secret. Fearless in its hard-fought depiction of incest, The War Zone pulls no punches; this vivid portrayal of abuse within a family and the scathed consciousness that results is not for the faint of heart. True to his theater background, Roth doesn't explain how or where such brutal choices were first taken, choosing rather to let the actors bear the ambiguities and anguish of a terrible knowledge in the their body language. --Fionn Meade

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4,139 ratings

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28 critics

R, 99 min.

Directed by: Tim Roth

Release Date: June 1, 1999

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DVD Release Date: September 19, 2000

Stats: 251 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (251)

  • kiriyamakazou
    April 15, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    The themes and the film itself can be summed up by one early scene. As a mother is giving birth in a car, it suddenly crashes. This perfectly represents the destruction of something beautiful. Like the love of a father for her daughter being very corrupt and unsettling. Roth show...( read more)s excellent talent as a director. He handles a cruel and disturbing subject with great sensitivity. The film is never too explicit, and leaves many things up to the viewers interpretation. It's all too real, and all too bleak. Winstone gives a fantastic performance, being shown as a decent man and a good father. As the film unravels he shows the sickening glimpses of his uncontrollable lust. He doesn't play the role as a "bad guy" which is paramount in it's success. This is obviously a man in denial and suffering from dissociative disorder. It also shows the impact, psychologically, on the entire family. The son, whom is the closest character we have to a hero, certainly has problems, and the daughter has moments of predatory nature. Are these wounds inflicted by the father or inherent in their own make-up? A great thought provoking film, but never an easy watch.
  • Stinger839
    March 6, 2009
    Stinger839
    Review addendum March 6, 2009:
    I realized just now what would/could have made this film perfect: more scenes with dialogue between the brother and sister. Just more verbal communication between those two would have altogether changed the dynamic of the film from nihilistic and bl...( read more)eh to ambiguous and arresting.
    --
    For the most part, I will just bitch because I'd get quickly tired of making a list of all the things that this film does well. I will say the setting is my favorite component.

    This is quite emotionally loaded for being so slow, uneventful, and unevenly paced; that's because when something does happen, it is gigantically dramatic like (SPOLIERS) a graphic car wreck with the entire family racing an in-labor Mum to the hospital or Dad anally raping Jess while Tom watches .

    A family has moved from London to a remote seaside area where they are isolated with their immediate familial problems: Mum has just had a baby, Tom is coming of age sexually, and Dad is fucking Tom's older sister who is close in age to Tom. The story is meant by cinematic suggestion to be told from Tom's point of view, but that is a major deficit as I feel his character is so underdeveloped to the extent that he has no uniqueness besides his detached demeanor.

    Everyone besides the actor for Tom delivers intriguing and multi-layered performances or real people. Perhaps Tom is meant to be stilted and removed, like the camera that simply records. It would mean that we have to do a lot of filling in the blanks for Tom's internal monologue, so in a way, our thoughts could become projected as Tom's. So whether or not the director intended this, it works.

    There are some detrimental sound mix issues, as some of the dialogue is inaudible even at quiet moments, and then the ocean roars or engine drones over the already near-muted speaking.

    This is a very bleak film, both in color tones and story theme. I doubt there is much of a traditional market for a work this serious about itself, but those who do see it certainly will not feel any closure about this film.

    Ultimate in conveying the ambiguity of reality to a point that you will be left in an ambiguity haze after seeing this film. That's what makes this so good and ALMOST earned it an extra half star; it is an art house melodrama that does what it's meant to. Watch to find out.
  • gilbertgumphrey
    April 15, 2008
    gilbertgumphrey
    There's a graphic anal rape scene in The War Zone that causes everyone who dares to watch it flinch and wince in agony. Mostly because it's between a man and his daughter, with the son secretely videotaping the event. But it's not this scene (which is easily one of the most pow...( read more)erful and troubling scenes of recent cinema) I want to talk about. It's the moment immediately following it, which hopefully helps explain why I can only give this movie 3.5 stars. The son witnesses this horrible, disgusting event. He walks away, holding the camera, the evidence inside. He goes to a rocky cliff with the crashing waves below. And then, without a change of expression, he throws the camera away, destroying the evidence. Now, many people love this sort of ambigiouity. But, for me, it ruined the entire film, and is the primary reason why I don't love this movie as much as seemingly everyone else. You see, I don't believe this character would do that. Moreover, I don't believe ANY human being in they're right mind would throw away that camera. I can only imagine how horrible it would be to discover and witness this sort of event, but no matter how disturbing it would be, I know without a doubt any sane person would keep that footage and use it to send that sick bastard straight to jail. So if no human being alive would do this, why did this character do it? Simple - because he's in an independant, art house film. And that is this movie's ultimate weakness. It caves into the art-house style of filmmaking so often, so easily, and so excessively, that no enjoyment can be had from watching the flick. You probably know what I mean when I say "art house film". I'm sure you've seen the type - glacial camera movements, characters barely speaking more than a couple words at once, everyone acting very morose and quiet, no character really doing or saying what real people would in that situation. These are just some of the art-house film characteristics that almost sink The War Zone. It's not that these elements are bad, it's just that they're so common in independant movies that they become tiresome. Having said this, and now that you know that this movie is filled from top to bottom with characters never breaking a smile or speaking above one decibal, and how characters will often act or react in completely inhuman ways, it still manages to be a powerful film. The subject matter of incest itself is so harrowing that I'm glad director Tim Roth refused to pull any punches. Make no mistake - this movie will shake you and be hard to get rid of. Ray Winstone, who plays the despicable pedophile father, is so good in this movie he'll likely give you chills of fear and disgust. He's simply excellent in this movie, as is the girl who plays his daughter and bares herself emotionally and physically for the role. Everyone in this movie is brave and respectable, except the kid actor who plays the main character, the son. He's awful. I hated his character - not only for doing inanely stupid things like throwing away the camera, but because he never does anything. He's not a human being - he's a robot, gliding around, moping, sulking, his head always down, his voice rarely above a whisper. It's a terrible teenage performance. The direction of the movie is solid, the cinematography and music are exceptional. The screenplay, however, I have a problem with. Roth eschews so much sentimentality in this movie that he winds up with a script that occasionally is so muted and dour, it threatens to become nearly invisible. There's no character we can relate to - feel sympathy for, yes, but when no character is given any interesting or remotely revealing lines of dialogue to say throughout the entire film, it's hard to really relate and become engaged. All this ambigiuty, mystery, and real-life messiness causes the film to be unbelievably praised. Critics adored it - in fact, one of my favourite critics thinks it's the 25th best film of all time. Astounding praise. But I just couldn't quite see it. The movie redeems a lot of it's failures by having some scenes of incredible power and an ending that's suitably haunting and eloquent. The film is painful, yes, the critics are definitely right about that. But is any of it especially real? I'm sure many people would tell me that incestual rape is something many keep secret and that the boy throwing away the camera is not that unlikely. But I still just couldn't buy that scene, and several others. The movie's I find particularily moving - not just painful and important, but really strong enough to get under my skin - are not usually art-house films where characters act and talk too much like they're being written. The movie's that really get to me are ones where characters are real, human beings, allowed to think and speak in a manner which can actually express more than just the basic horrible things we humans can do. All in all, The War Zone is indeed a good movie, but I don't think it's worthy of all the high praise heaped upon it. It's very graphic, chilling, and disturbing, so it's not for every viewer. But if you can stomach it (and can suspend your disbelief in regards to the typical art-house form), you will definitely see a film you'll never forget.
  • johnd62
    March 24, 2008
    johnd62
    Recently I've talked to friend discussing who is the best example of a evil on screen. Daniel Plainview, Anton Churigah, Hannibal and Darth Vader were all mentioned. However after seeing Tim Roth's beautiful and underrated The War Zone I'd like to suggest that Ray Winstone's Dad ...( read more)is hands down the best example. This is easily the most overlooked performance of the last 10 years. (I only watched it because we and me friends were looking for a movie to watch at his house.) It's amazing how Winstone can be seem so kind one minute and the next we seem his doing unbelievably cruel things to his daughter and the weird thing is both sides are perfectly believable. Also the actress who played his daughter is nothing short of heartbreaking and Tilda Swinton even with little screen time proves that she's a fantastic actress.
    The War Zone left me wondering why Roth hasn't bothered to make another film as a director? He's a extremely gifted filmmaker that doesn't hide anything for a happy ending. Even when the film almost becomes too unbearable to sit through (Some scenes just made me want to turn The War Zone off and just watch Enchanted with my little sister again.) It's a honest, gritty and depressing look at the issues of abuse and a near perfect film.
  • EarthlyAlien
    February 26, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Incest, adolescence and rainy grey beaches in Devon, England. That about sums up the material - not the film - in The War Zone, actor Tim Roth's directorial debut, which is as powerful a film as anything I've personally seen - and I've seen a few - and quite possibly among...( read more) the most depressing.

    Photobucket

    Adapted from the controversial novel by Alexander Stuart, the film is about a 15 year-old boy (Freddie Cunliffe) who thinks he has seen his older sister in the bath having inappropriate relations with their father, played by Ray Winstone. Facing opposition from his sister (Lara Belmont) he tries to establish the truth and then do something about it.

    Roth does not pull any punches with the subject-matter and coaxes out some highly charged performances from his young cast. Their personal chemistry is what may persuade an audience to sit through some shocking and disturbing scenes, much of it in a windswept WWII pillbox overlooking the beach.

    Following his critically acclaimed part in Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth, Winstone proved with this performance that he could act sensitive monsters as well as bullying ones. His character here is a loving father one minute, a manipulative sodomite the next. Tilda Swinton only plays a supporting role as the unsuspecting mother, but her onscreen presence is as magnetic as anything she's done recently - Oscar winner performance in Michael Clayton included.

    Although this would turn out to be Roth's first and only directorial effort (at least so far) he can go to sleep at night knowing that he is more than Tarantino's glove puppet, a talented director in his own right. Like Gary Oldman, he has obviously been storing up a desire to tell something honest and bleak after all those escapist film roles. He has pulled off something special here, another piece of impressively gritty, thoroughly uncommercial drama that the British seem to specialise in when they're not regrettably trying to whore themselves to American audiences. The arthouse circuit will probably love it, but it hardly qualifies as entertainment. Hard, hard to watch.
  • ahhh1989
    October 27, 2009
    ahhh1989
    Tim Roth is a fantastic filmmaker. I love the way the whole film unfolds. You see this family and you really get a sense of how much they truly love and care for each other and how they work together. Then you find out that the father is this evil monster of a man. Then you watch...( read more) the boy suffer and try to deal with this awful situation. Then it just gets worse and worse. The ending is the most disturbing part of the film. The film has no answers for the things the characters do to each other. For anyone who has suffered or who is suffering, this film will definitely make you feel not so alone.
  • doglover000000
    October 19, 2009
    doglover000000
    Wow! I love Tim Roth and so glad this is the only movie hes directed! Especially if he were to do anything similar to what hes produced here! Admitting the scenery, the atmosphere of the move shine throughs, the acting is brilliant and the tale of betrayal, fear, etc is brilliant...( read more)ly done. So hats of to the gorgeous Tim there. But that can't disguise the slowness of this film, the lack of dialog between the brother and sister at times and if the whole, rape, incest etc isn't your thing. Please don't watch this film! Its extremely graphic but the right amount to make you feel uncomfortable while watching.
  • mvieaddict
    September 18, 2009
    mvieaddict
    Image and video hosting by TinyPicfor nudity, sexual content, molestation, language and violence.

    The war zone is quite a powerful movie, dealing with incest. It was ...( read more)a realistic movie and the director did not hide anything of showing a father immorality towards his family.It was a hard to watch movie cause it showed incest ,which is a very disgusting event that happen everywhere in every country.I felt very disgusted by the movie scenes, but glad on the other hand, because they can show these kind of things openly to the viewer, so people can be more aware that these things happen also. The War Zone is a brilliant movie directed by Tim Roth.
  • MightySparks
    June 8, 2009
    MightySparks
    Not much to say about. It was really slow, but it wasn't too bad. I put it off for ages coz I hate Colin Farrell and try to avoid anything he's in (which is everything), but he was only in it for a second, yay.

    Anyway, it seemed kind of pointless, as dramas usually are. The ra...( read more)pe scene was kind of cool, but then, I like rape scenes (which is why I found the movie in the first place, I have strange interests). Um.. yeah and the brother was really creepy which didn't help the 'believability'. The dad was really good though.
  • hitandrunfacetofacedreams
    February 13, 2009
    hitandrunfacetofacedreams
    i didn't saw the whole movie...but it was good..i mean creepy, but...

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The War Zone Trivia

  • During the filming of this 1983 movie, actor Vic Morrow and two child actors were killed by a malfunction with the helicopter used on the set of a war segment. The director and crew members were found not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.  Answer »
  • Name the film who has this tag line: He saw wrong and tryed to right it. He saw suffering and tryed to heal it . He saw war and tryed to stop it ?   Answer »
  • Who was in all three of these movies: Drinking Crude, The War Zone, and Hart's War.  Answer »
  • Ray Stevenson, star of Punisher: War Zone was also the main star of which short-lived HBO series?  Answer »
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