The Hunting Party (2007 film)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Spring Break in Bosnia)

The Hunting Party
Image:Hunting party poster.jpg Promotional poster
Directed by	Richard Shepard
Produced by	Mark Johnson Scott Kroopf Paul Hanson
Written by	Richard Shepard
Starring	Jesse Eisenberg Terrence Howard Richard Gere
Music by	Rolfe Kent
Cinematography	David Tattersall
Editing by	Carole Kravetz
Distributed by	The Weinstein Company, Intermedia
Release date(s)	September 7, 2007
Running time	103 min.
Country	Image:Flag of the United States.svg
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Gross revenue	$876,087 (USA only)
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

The Hunting Party is a action-adventure-thriller with dark comedy elements released on September 7, 2007, starring Richard Gere, Terrence Howard, Diane Kruger, Joy Bryant and Jesse Eisenberg. The working title for this film was Spring Break in Bosnia. It has since been changed to The Hunting Party.

The Hunting Party had its world premiere at the 64th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2007.

1 Plot
2 Cast
3 The Esquire article
4 Reception & reaction
5 References
6 External links

[edit] Plot

The movie follows a young journalist (Jesse Eisenberg), a seasoned cameraman (Terrence Howard) and a discredited journalist (Richard Gere) who embark on an unauthorized mission to find the "No. 1 war criminal from the Bosnian conflict" - The Fox. They find themselves in serious jeopardy when they are mistaken as a CIA hit squad and their target decides to come after them.

[edit] Cast

Jesse Eisenberg as Benjamin
Terrence Howard as Duck
Richard Gere as Simon
James Brolin as Franklin Harris
Joy Bryant as Duck's girlfriend
Diane Kruger as Mirjana
Dylan Baker as CIA Operative
Kristina Krepela as Marda
Ljubomir Kerekeš as Fox (Radovan Karadžić)

[edit] The Esquire article

The Bosnia-set movie is very loosely based on an Esquire magazine article^[1] by American journalist Scott Anderson published in October 2000 called "What I Did on My Summer Vacation"[1] 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 half-hearted 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 in Bosnia) 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 hit squad. 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 not at all being convinced about 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 exhibit zero interest in actually finding Karadžić, but they also actively sabotage any such meaningful attempt from within their own ranks.

[edit] Reception & reaction

Although receiving decent enough reviews and getting fairly visible promotion on American television (Richard Gere promoted it on the Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien), the movie turned out to be a disappointment domestically, grossing only US$876,087 in US theatres.

It opened small on September 7, 2007, in New York City and L.A. only, initially being shown on 4 screens only. It gradually expanded to other parts of USA in the following weeks - first to 40 screens, and then to 329. It ended its US theatrical life some six weeks after its release.