In Continuum.

It is not my habit to review a film that is almost ten years old. The War Zone is 1999 film that never actually received much attention in the public arena, and not even at the major award shows despite its utter brilliance and beauty. Perhaps it is the nature of this film, and it might have seemed to be inappropriate to recognize a film with such a difficult and dense subject. It is the kind of things most people would want to avoid, a sort of taboo that we don't talk about it casually, even if it is in a locked room with all the windows closed shut. The War Zone isn't a movie that is easy to stomach, because it is like a dead whale on the beach with its guts spilled opened and the intestines strewn everywhere. The raw smell in the air mingling with the salty smell of the sea, and your gag reflexes start to kick in because it is too much for you to handle. That's The War Zone, that is the density of this film. I feel like I need to review this film, because of the profound effect it incurred on me after watching it.

Before last week, I have never even heard of this film before. I was reading through the review of The Hottie and the Nottie by James Berardinelli, and in describing the humor in the film he said "The humor in this movie is as funny as the anal rape scene in The War Zone". I stopped there for a moment, and tried to go through my memory bank as to where I have heard that name before. Nothing registered, and I clicked on the link provided to the film and realized that not only is the film the top film of 1999 according to him, it is also on his top 10 list of the 90s and his top 100 films of all-time list. There are a lot of films I have yet to watch, but at least I have heard of them before, but not this one. In plain honesty, I have never heard of Tim Roth's The War Zone, and was surprised by the critical recognition it seems to have received. On further investigation, I realized that this film is actually banned in Singapore, probably because of the anal rape scene I reckon. But that wasn't what made me want to watch this film to begin with. It was because of the incident James Berardinelli mentioned during the screening of this film during a film festival, when a man dashed out of the theater halfway through a movie and threatened to pull the fire alarm, because he thought nobody should watch such an appalling film with such explicit details on a social taboo. That, got me intrigued, and I made it a point to watch it. 

The title itself may remind you of a traditional war movie, with bullets surging through the air and the guts of soldiers spilling out of their wounds. However, this film is much quieter than movies such as Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line. In fact, this is not even a war movie at all, and yet as harrowing an experience as the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan, or the whole three hours of Schindler's List. The stunning directorial debut by actor Tim Roth was an uncompromising one, tackling a subject of taboo without any mercy or any intentions of holding back. It slaps the audience in the face with its graphical depiction of a war zone, a war zone without soldiers and tanks, but just an English family tucked away in a remote house in the countryside of Devon. 

The War Zone begins with a family of four moving from London to Devon, a remote countryside by the sea and miles away from everything else. The head of the family, played by Ray Winstone, is the only source of income for the family which consists of his wife, played by Tilda Swinton, their fifteen year old son Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) and their eighteen year old daughter, Jessie (Lara Belmont). While being on the way to the hospital one night after the mother's water broke, the family got involved in an accident and the baby was being born in the wreckage of the car. Despite the horrors of the accident, however, the family pulled through unscathed, and the family moves on from the trauma and carried on with life as per normal. That normalcy ended one day when Tom came home on a rainy day to find his father and sister doing something together in the bathroom, as he silently watched from the misty window from the outside of the house. Slowly, but surely, Tom figured out what was happening, and unveiled the horrible truth that was happening in the family under wraps. His father was having an incestuous relationship with his sister.

This film isn't about a tiny little family secret better left to the members of the family, nor is it about a dysfunctional family because the word 'dysfunctional' hardly begins to describe the state of the family. On the surface, the family operates like an ordinary one, but it is what happens when Tom and his mother are away that makes this family a devastated and disturbing one. This film is about the abuse of trust and power by the father, about the father raping the sister while everybody else is away and then pretending that nothing has happened at all, like many other similar cases out there that are buried under the silence of the victims, because they are too scared and afraid to betray somebody from your own family. Tim Roth's motion picture is a warning to the rest of the world, to tell everyone that there are silenced victims even in and amongst the people that we know, because such a thing can even happen to the most ordinary of families. Because of its frank and honest depiction of the subject, this film is both courageous and daring. It has zero commercial appeal, and this is the classic example of making a film for the sake of it, and not about the money. A true triumph that was overlooked nearly ten years ago at every major award shows.

In the handling of this film, Tim Roth displayed the skills worthy of an already accomplished director working in the field for ten, twenty years. There is no doubt that Tim Roth is gifted other than his abilities in the acting field, and it is easy to see it in this marvelous movie. He paints Devon in a bleak and depressing mood, with most of the color usage being dulled down to almost making the film a black and white movie. The characters are simple and almost dull, never expressing too much emotions and never too excited about anything at all. The location is always shrouded in a cloud of gloom, a sense of dread with the rain falling throughout the film, not to mention the general veil of gray across the landscape. These are just some of the hints dropped by the director, as if to tell the viewers "If you think this is depressing, wait till the rest of the film hits you". This film is as beautiful as it is morbid, a strange marriage of styles that is difficult to explain by words.

When trying to talk about a subject such as incest, one might expect very graphical usage of shots in the movie. However, I won't say that this film is particularly graphic in terms of that, but it is enough to turn your stomach upside down. Not in the way that a film like Hostel would with its blood and gore, but rather the idea of having a father rape her daughter as if there isn't anything wrong in such an act. The infamous bunker scene, the only rape scene in the film, was probably the most disturbing scene I have ever seen in my life, even without showing anything more than a pair of naked breast and a little pubic hair. The anal rape scene was not only difficult to watch, but the emotions that transpired from the screen was even more difficult to bear. I found myself turning away from the screen, hoping that the scene would end as soon as possible. Tom, who was at the window of the bunker looking in with a camera to collect evidence against his father, couldn't even bear to keep the evidence as we see him toss it into the sea right after the rape was over. It was simply too disturbing, too disconcerting for anybody to witness, even if we know that most of it was probably acted and made up. 

More than a film about the detrimental effects of incest, it is also about the dilemma of the family members who know the secret, and how difficult it is to face up to somebody you are supposed to see on a day to day basis. Tom knew about their relationship, and even confronted his sister about it. But Jessie denied Tom and brushed it off by saying that his imaginations were both wild and perverse. Still, it was difficult to see Tom carry on with his everyday life, interact with his father, all the while knowing deep inside that he lives with a monster under the same roof. To betray his father, to rescue his sister, or to just deny that anything has happened at all? It is a difficult decision indeed, and we get a subtle hint that the relationship between Tom and Jessie is even more complicated than that, as it was hinted in the film that they have a romantic relationship brewing underneath as well. The conflict experienced by the characters is the center of this film, and none of the power could have been achieved without an ensemble of great actors and actresses. 

Freddie Cunfille was great as the deadpan brother without a lot of words. His performance was arguably good, simply because his expressionlessness conveyed exactly the kind of emotion one would feel in the very same situation: conflicted and confused. The scene when he makes up his mind to confront his father with his explosion in emotions and frustration was probably one of the most intense scenes I have seen in a long time. Tilda Swinton really takes the side role here as the mother, not having a lot of lines and never finding out about the forbidden relationship until the very end. Ray Winstone's performance here is the most disturbing for me, simply because he played a normal everyday man so very well. Other than the only rape scene we witness throughout the movie, the monster within the character was very much concealed under the facade of a caring and loving father. Even after Tom accused him of raping Jessie, his character remained in utter denial and accused Tom of trying to break the family up. I thought the fact that his performance was able to put forth the idea of the father having two polar opposite personalities was both noteworthy and breathtaking. Then we have the performance of Jessie, played by the young Lara Belmont. Her performance as the rebellious sister was probably the best in the film, playing the girl with a false front of courage and the victim at the same time. Her performance during the confrontation scene, though without a single word being spoken, was probably the best I have seen in a long time. Let's just say that her character is the most complicated character in the film, and her sadness and dilemma just hits you in the face out of the screen.

This is not a walk in the park, it is not going to be an easy watch. Not a lot of films have the courage to take such a straightforward view on the topic of incest, but this one has certainly pulled it off well. By the end of the film, there was a heavy silence in the air on my part, unable to let go of the scenes that played on repeat in my mind even as the credits started to roll. I started to think about just how many of such cases actually happen in our society without being spoken or known, and how even the most ordinary families can be victims of such a monstrous act. That is not to say that this film is without its flaws, but the unflinching depiction by director Tim Roth definitely made this film one that is hard to love. It's difficult to recommend it to anybody out there simply because you'd be recommending a tool of torture, in a way. It's hard to tell people that 'I loved this film about incest!', it's just a little strange to me to be saying something like that. Nonetheless, if you feel that you are ready to take on a film as raw as this one, then take a Friday night off to catch it. It is going to grab you by the throat and never leave you for the rest of the week, like it did with me. 

9.5/10