Harrison's Flowers Movie Review: A Tribute to the Media

Despite the fantastic cast and several wins at the San Sebastián International film festival in 2000, this profound movie received little attention by mainstream movie goers. This beautiful film provides a look at a group of heroes that often get little acknowledgment for their wartime efforts: journalists.

In the film, Newsweek photojournalist Harrison Lloyd (David Strathairn) goes missing while on assignment covering the Serbo-Croatian war in the former Yugoslavia, 1991. He is believed to have been killed when a building collapses, but his wife Sara Lloyd (Andie MacDowell) refuses to believe it, so she embarks on a dangerous journey to find him. She arrives in Yugoslavia and teams up with fellow journalists Kyle Morris (Adrien Brody), who turns out an amazing performance, and Marc Stevenson (Brendan Geeson) and is later aided by Harrison's close friend and colleague Yeager Pollak (Elias Koteas). Sarah believes that Harrison is in a hospital in Vukovar, which is the epicenter of conflict. Despite the risks, Sarah and her partners battle their way through every obstacle to reach their goal of finding closure, be it joyful or heartbreaking.

While the plot is driven by the love story of Sarah never giving up hope that she will rescue her husband, the journey reveals the hardships and extreme risks that journalists endure to give the public at home a glimpse of life beyond our borders. Harrison's wife undergoes an eye opening experience of being immersed in chaos and fighting, where no rules apply. The film gives the viewer a glimpse of living in constant fear, both for the photographers hell bent to capture the story, and the lives of the people being atrociously murdered in the name of ethnic cleansing. While often times media are granted a level of neutrality, these armies often took no exceptions as to who would suffer from the brutality of war.

The bravery of the men and women who risk their lives for the sake of sharing humanity, and frequently the lack there of, deserve praise and respect. This movie honors the lives of all of those professionals killed in the line of duty.

Source: Awards for Harrison's Flowers (2000) IMDb
Constant Brand 109 journalists killed on assignment in 2008 Cnews