5 Days of War - November 29, 2011

[lkmg]

5 Days of War Blu-ray


This November, Anchor Bay and Starz Home Entertainment will release 5 Days of War on Blu-ray. Directed by Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger), the film follows the harrowing exploits of an American journalist (Rupert Friend, The Young Victoria) trying to survive the five-day war between Russia and the Georgian Republic in 2008. In addition to Friend, 5 Days of War stars Emmanuelle Chriqui (You Don't Mess with the Zohan), Val Kilmer (Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), and Andy Garcia (Ocean's Eleven).

Anchor Bay's Blu-ray presents the film in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 with a 5.1 Dolby True HD soundtrack. The disc also includes a number of special features, such as:

Commentary track by producer/director Renny Harlin
Deleted scenes

5 Days of War is expected to street on November 29th.

[witheygull]

I saw this about a decade ago and liked it at the time, but I hadn't watched it again since that initial viewing. I decided to revisit it and see how it resonates with the current war in Ukraine, and it did not disappoint on that front.

The movie itself is not one of Renny Harlin's strongest efforts; the action sequences are less coherent than ones in his other movies, and the thin narrative suffers from some Hollywood narrative contrivances. Despite its weaknesses I don't think it's bad, just lackluster compared to Harlin's other features or other movies dealing with war with a greater narrative heft.

What does make this unique (at least in terms of movies I've seen) is the aura of geopolitical prescience that the movie now seems to contain in regards to Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Putin using the same lies to justify invading a neighbor seeking closer ties to NATO and the west, using the same tactics to terrorize civilians and destroy villages, and timing the aggression around the Olympics.

A detail towards the end of the movie which I definitely didn't catch on first viewing this a decade ago now is blazingly obvious:

[Show spoiler]The vehicle with the upload link features a two color paintjob, with yellow on the top half and blue on the bottom. This immediately drew my attention as an inversion of Ukraine's flag and I wondered why it wasn't painted the other way around. Shortly after being introduced, the vehicle is flipped over by an explosion and then shows the blue top/yellow bottom pattern that is now a common sight in reports on current events.

Is the color of the car a coincidence? Perhaps. Perhaps not though, because I know from listening to Harlin on commentary tracks and interviews that he deliberately places flags in his movies, especially the one of his native Finland. Ukrainian flags are also prevalent in the large crowd at the end (and at least one American flag for some reason).

If you haven't seen this before and are willing to watch something with strong parallels to a current crisis, then you may find some worth in this movie.