The War Zone (1999) User Reviews

This is hard medicine -- definitely NFE (not for everyone)

[ruby_fff · 8/10 · 2 January 2000]

The 1998 Danish Dogma film "The Celebration" (Festen) is another hard medicine movie, intense drama about family strives and incest. The Danish film shows the intensity through dialogs and character reactions. Tim Roth's film cuts to the chase and shows the vivid horror of the actual act. Tim does not skirt around the subject. He takes the subject right on and tackles it directly and really shakes up the viewers. It's raw emotions -- nothing sentimental. The actors are in their natural appearances with not much make-up: Tilda Swinton you see her with the pregnant creased skin-folds of a tummy inelegance; the two teenagers (Lara Belmont as Jessie, Freddie Cunliffe as Tom) in their casual demeanor/slouching poses; Ray Winstone as the seemingly unsuspicious father who looks like any man of the house, full of himself and chatting incessantly (in a way, an indication of certain insecurity and self-doubt?).

We don't get to see the predator's face much. Director Tim Roth wants the focus on the heinous act vs. personal faces, which could be anybody who has had such traumatic experience at home. Home is where the trust and warmth of a family together should be. Through Tim's delivery, we see the coldness and frustration the two teenagers face, esp. Tom the son, who discovered the wrongful act accidentally and felt confused and unable to talk to anyone about it -- his sister, the victim, just as confused and unable to talk about it. The different levels of fear that each member of the family has… A poignant film, with explicit scenes sensitively choreographed, demands viewers attention to the tough subject at hand. We can't turn away -- the inevitable merciless truth presented in our face on the screen. It's a bold attempt. This film calls for attention to the subject of incest and its traumatic consequences beyond imagination. Roth succeeded.

If Bergman did an abuse movie, it might look like this.

[noralee · 7/10 · 7 October 2005]

I went to see Tim Roth's directorial debut "War Zone" to get insight into a deeply talented actor, much as that's a reason to see Sean Penn-directed movies.

"War Zone" is a cross between "Once Were Warriors," the visceral NZ movie on domestic violence, and "Wuthering Heights."

It's visually stunning, painterly, as the dysfunctional family is set in almost Edward Hopper-still life isolation on the moors, surrounded only by the elements--lots of rain, sea and relentless wind--with the characters mostly silent you sure hear that howling wind instead of conversation-- with an occasional human being staring them down.

While the family's close-knit physical intimacy was realized in an almost 17th century way of togetherness, I'm not sure the abuse was, as I thought most incest more pedophiliac than this. So the universality of any message is lost, other than the lesson that family members are love-tropic and take it any way they can get it with some fine lines dividing functional from dysfunctional.

If Bergman did an abuse movie, it might look like this. Excellent acting all around, though as usual some working-class Brit accents can be hard to decipher by an American. (originally written 12/31/1999)

Watch through your fingers

[john38-738-643099 · 8/10 · 14 July 2018]

Haunting movie, with a subject that will have you cringing, or crying. Wonderfully cast, great setting, and the background music fits like another cast member.

Uncompromising drama that borders on voyeuristic at times

[bob the moo · 30 January 2002]

A young family moves from London to a remote country house. The young son suspects that his sister and his father's relationship is more than it should be. As he looks more and more into it he finds a sinister element that his mother does not see.

This was Tim Roth's directorial debut and he certainly wasn't looking for a popcorn hit. The story by Alexander Stuart from his own novel is very slow and deliberate but is ruthlessly effective. At first the whole family seems to have a strange sexual edge to it - the mother breast feeds in full view, the teenage brother and sister lie naked in front of each other etc. It gives things a strange feel but it's quickly forgotten when you get used to it. The guts of the story revolves around the father's sexual abuse of his daughter Jessie, who no longer fights but accepts it as part of her life. Some of the scenes - in particular ‘the scene' - are too hard to watch and the whole thing is very powerful. The film develops slowly and does not allow the father to be a monster-type (the British media have a habit of demonising people rather than taking objective views). Here the film doesn't let him become a caricature even when his crimes come to light.

The cast are roundly brilliant. Winston plays it perfectly all the way and doesn't take the `monster' route. Freddie Cunliffe is excellent as Tom - although all he has to do is mope around the place. Lara Belmont is outstanding - this must have been so difficult to play but she is absolutely excellent throughout. Swinton is good as the mother, but her character is not well used or developed.

Overall it's very hard to watch. Roth's direction is a little too clever but is very good generally. A powerful story very well told - but it may not be to everyone's liking.

dark disturbing story

[SnoopyStyle · 7/10 · 14 August 2015]

Tom (Freddie Cunliffe) is bitter at the family being moved from London to rural Devon. His dad (Ray Winstone) crashes the car taking his pregnant mum (Tilda Swinton) to the hospital. She has a baby girl. Tom accuses his older sister Jessie (Lara Belmont) of having sex with their father which she denies. Colin Farrell plays local boy Nick who takes a fancy to Jessie.

This is a dark disturbing story of incest and the conflicting blame that occurs. It's Tim Roth's directorial debut. He tries to make this a quiet moody film. The extended desolate landscape scenes are fine but I don't like quietly waiting for the actors to speak. I also don't like the Tom character although I grow to accept him. I'm not impressed with Cunliffe's performance but it could very well be his character. On the other hand, Lara Belmont is compelling. The final act is terrific with Ray Winstone acting up a storm. On a side note, Farrell's role is rather small. This is a disturbing compelling movie despite a slow start.

One of the best of the 90's

[cedric_owl · 10/10 · 15 March 2005]

Strange, opaque and deeply unsettling, the War Zone is the only way a film about a topic as horrifying as incest should be. Tim Roth, realizing that the family of the film is too far gone to elicit much empathy from the audience, simply tries to convey the story as truthfully as possible. With crushing results.

At the beginning of the film, we're introduced to a nameless clan: a genial father (Ray Winstone), a mother exhausted from recently giving birth (Tilda Swinton), a sullen teenage boy (Freddie Cunliffe), and his strikingly beautiful older sister (Lara Belmont). All four have recently moved from London to the remote, seaside village of Devon, leaving the two kids feeling isolated and adrift.

What follows for the next hour or so is a brilliantly confusing experience--Roth presents a series of odd quirks about the family that makes the audience question what is merely eccentricity and what hints at something darker. Why, for example, does the family walk around naked most of the time? Don't those siblings seem slightly too "affectionate" given that they're teenagers? What exactly does the boy see his father doing with his sister in the bathroom that bothers him so? All of this mystery leads up to an absolutely harrowing scene which leaves no mystery as to the dynamic between father and daughter. More emotionally explicit than physically so, the scene is rightfully regarded as one of cinema's more horrible acts of on-screen violence, yet doesn't feel gratuitous in the slightest.

This film is as sparse as possible, with almost no inflection or melodramatic effects. Scenes are generally shot in long takes with a static camera (gorgeously framed in widescreen). There is little excess dialogue, and almost no music. Often we are placed into the middle of confusing scenes that are open to numerous interpretations. We more or less have to come to our own conclusions about what is going on. The teenagers are as inexpressive and introspective as teenagers in real life, which makes there unexpected emotional outbursts all the more powerful.

Why Roth hasn't made any other films is beyond me. He has a lean, cinematic sensibility which is unmatched by any other actor-director. I hope he gets an opportunity to use it again soon.

Mission Accomplished

[view_and_review · 7/10 · 25 January 2022]

There are some movies about deplorable events that are like a train wreck that you can't help but gawk at. Then there are the other movies about deplorable events that are like the human carnage from that same train wreck and you can't help but avert your eyes. "The War Zone" is the second type.

What you need to know:

A man (Ray Winstone) was raping his teenage daughter Jessie (Lara Belmont). His son, Tom (Freddie Cunliffe), found out about it quite by accident. His wife (Tilda Swinton) was totally unaware. What in the world does a fifteen-year-old boy do with that information? No matter what he does the results will be catastrophic. If he keeps it to himself, his sister will continue to get victimized. If he tells anyone his family will be irreparably ripped apart. Tom did something I didn't consider, and that was lay the blame on his sister. He didn't lay the blame on her so much as he put the onus upon her to stop the "relationship" as though she was a willing participant. He didn't hold fast to this attitude, but it was all a part of the wave of negative emotions that hits a boy when seeing something so gut-wrenching.

This movie was disturbing and very hard to watch. I admit that I turned away a few times. Director Tim Roth (known for acting in "Reservoir Dogs") put it in your face and it was uncomfortable. Lara Belmont must've been legally an adult, but it sure didn't feel like it watching the movie. If Roth's goal was to shake you up, then mission accomplished.

A captivating work of art.

[Ruvi Simmons · 9/10 · 6 December 1999]

A film dealing with the subjects of rape and incest could easily be sensationalistic and, consequently, undermine the very issues it supposedly tackles. It is, therefore, highly commendable, and testament to Tim Roth's skill as a director, that the War Zone does not cheapen its plot by doing this, but instead, provides a sensitive, dignified and beautiful treatment of the devastating effects of a father's depravity on the rest of his family, and, indeed, on himself.

One of the most striking aspects of the War Zone is the stunning and epic cinematography. Filmed in Devon, on the southwest coast of England, bleak, grey skies, the vicious sea and jutting cliffs frame the desolation of the central characters of the movie: Tom, the son, and Jessie, the daughter. The former, a withdrawn teenager, is devastated when he unwittingly discovers the secret relationship between his sister and father, and struggles with hatred and horror for them both, as he endeavours to find out the depths of the depravity he is privvy to. Jessie is equally, though differently, affected by the actions of her father. As she attempts to hide the truth from mother and brother, while also in turmoil over her own part in the secret, she feels a burden that manifests itself in moments of self-loathing, anguish and despair. However, the true depths of these emotions are never laid out for the audience, never portrayed in such a way that they could simply wash across our path and be discarded; they are merely hinted at, shown in fleeting moments. The fact that the protagonists in the film are being tormented by the events they are part of is obvious; it is left up to the individual to interpret and imagine the depths of the feelings being felt. This subtlety serves to add realism to the film, and also heightens the harrowing effect of it, as the events and feelings hinted at, or partly displayed, are absorbed and twisted by the mind of the viewer, almost contaminating him by forcing him to do the work in fully comprehending the goings- on in the family; making him empathise with Tom.

Although the emotions and feelings the characters in the film undergo are shown in an equivocal manner, several scenes are, in contrast, stark, with events lain bare to the audience. Again, this could be a point at which the War Zone sensationalises the subject matter. However, even the supposedly shocking scene between Jessie and the father is portrayed with sensitivity through the dignified direction. Indeed, in a film made as the War Zone is, it would undermine the very realism of it to avoid showing what goes on between the father and daughter. It is a movie that endeavours to show the realities of abuse in a family, and to gloss over an aspect of this would lead to an unfulfilling exploration of the subject. To re-iterate, though, it is testament to the skill of Tim Roth, that while not hesitating to show the full horror of abuse on screen, he does so in a way that does not cheapen the feelings of those involved. Indeed, there is almost an air of gentleness in several of the more harrowing scenes; despite stark images being portrayed, one feels they are being shown in a highly respectful manner.

The War Zone is, in sum, a beautifully artistic piece of cinema. The cinematography, solemn, despairing music, slow yet strong direction, and fine acting contribute to a film that, though harrowing, is highly rewarding and enjoyable. I think the fact that it offers no answers or "satisfying" resolution to the events it has portray is again something the serves to add realism to the subject matter. After all, abuse is not a topic to be resolved without reducing it to trite concessions to viewers keen not to be forced to realise that some facets of life are not rounded, with simple answers and easy reprieves, but jarring and jagged, with no answers, resolution, or simple end.

Not Bad ****SPOILERS****SPOILERS****

[kngbanana · 7/10 · 22 January 2003]

I'm a fan of Tim Roth's work and I think he did a great job Directing this movie. I think the movie could have had more substance, but over all it was better than average. I found the sex scene a little disturbing, but I'm glad it was left in the movie. It really made me hate the father more. All in all it was good...great scenery, great actors and put together well even thought it was a bit predictable and a little slow. I don't know how things are in Europe, but I know that in America....brothers and sisters in their teens don't sit around and talk to each other naked (as in the movie)..well maybe in Arkansas. I gave it a 7 outta 10.

Disturbingly Realistic, Incredible Acting, Sad.

[ebert_jr · 10/10 · 2 October 2000]

Whew. At a loss for words. You really feel like your gut has been ripped out after watching this truly sad story. Lara Belmont definitely deserves some kind of award for this; her role of Jessie, the sexually abused daughter is amazing. I didn't know who to feel sorry for most, Jessie, her brother, or the mother.

The love between brother and sister through this dilemma is tear jerking. Rarely has a movie caught such realism in the expression of utter despair and hopelessness. My desire to reach through the screen and strangle the father was outweighed only by my desire to hug the daughter, and root for the brother. It's hard to believe this actually happens for real, but unfortunately the reality is, it does. I think part of the "penalty" for such a horrible thing as incest and child abuse is to watch "The War Zone".

The cinematography is outstanding and serves as almost a beautiful counterbalance to the main story's theme. I guess it takes some of the best scenery in the world to help balance _that_ out.

This film easily gets a 10, and deserves every bit of it.

The more I watched the angrier I got

[kathhead · 7/10 · 26 August 2023]

A difficult watch. This film is grim throughout and doesn't lighten up. But that's intentional however and works well with the content. It's a good film, well directed, perfectly casted with strong acting. Bare in mind that there is nothing joyful about this film. Incest, rape, abuse...it is what it is and every element is executed well. It's sad to say that these issues are disturbingly realistic. I'm sure it hit a lot of viewers on some emotional level who have been unfortunate enough to experience such traumatic things. What angered me (and I'm sure this comes as no surprise) was the dad. I don't think I have to explain why. But what angered me more was the brother. I'm not sure what Roth's intentions were with this character. In my eyes he's an awful human being, yet he was portrayed as some kind of hero which I really couldn't understand (unless I've missed the point entirely?) He knew everything that was happening to his sister, yet he ignored it and even blamed his sister for everything, like it was her fault that she was getting horribly abused. I wasn't sure how to take this. By the end it was like we were supposed to commend his actions and sympathise with him. I get it, he's young and doesn't understand right from wrong yet, but I just didn't buy it and couldn't get on board with his heartless actions. I don't know who I was more angry at, him or the dad. But then again, are we supposed to hate Tom's character? Was that Roth's intention? I'm not sure what to think to be honest, I just know that I hated them both with a passion and felt so awful for Jessie. I feel the main focus should have been on her, not Tom. I also wasn't sure what the purpose of Nick's character was. He makes one appearance and is never seen again. I don't feel he added anything to he story. Overall, good film but tainted with some serious flaws, otherwise I would have rated it higher. For a film that's almost 30 years old though it holds up well.

approximately harrowing

[Quinoa1984 · 10/10 · 6 October 2008]

Tim Roth as director delivers a drama with the kind of gut-wrenching family story that happens only so often in the movies; not even Todd Field's films, however excellent, come close to The War Zone as being truly insightful into a specific dark corridor of a family slowly ripping itself apart. Part of it is the exceptional naturalistic acting, wherein actors I've never seen before like Lara Belmont and Freddie Cunliffe are subtle in just glances and stares to one another, and when they dig deep into the tragic parts of the story they're revelatory, maybe even more so than Ray Winstone and Tilda Swinton. You can't take your eyes off of Cunliffe.

In the War Zone the family is a father, mother, son and daughter, with the mother giving birth to a newborn daughter at the opening of the film. The story, however rightfully thin, concerns the secret that Jessie and Tom holding fragility when Tom sees Jessie and their father in an incestuous act. There's denial, fighting, lots of scorn that grows between the two, while the rift between the son and the family becomes so thick that it could explode at any moment. But what's brilliant about the story, as well as rightfully heartbreaking, is how logically the tragedy unfolds, how the secret soon comes apart and leads into some unexpected scenes (one of which involving self-abuse, the other towards the end, a more conventional but still shocking act of violence).

Roth could be considered purely an actor's director, and he is one first and foremost. But he also is able to convey a profound sense of agony if only with the choice of scenery, of this quiet and dark seaside area and the bunker by the house where the incest takes place (apparently the R-rated version omits some explicit bits, but it doesn't feel compromised and actually helps by showing little), and the shots he films linger as much on the characters as in the viewer's mind. This isn't merely some pretentious decision but a deliberate choice that, somewhat akin to a Bergman picture, emphasizes those crushing beats that are much truer than something more stylish.

With the "unflinching eye", as some other critics have noted, Roth shows us things that make us uncomfortable, but because of this it doesn't lie and that's a great service through art for those who have been afflicted with abuse in families. At the least, it isn't a schlock-TV movie. A+

An excellent film but underdone.

[=G= · 7/10 · 26 August 2000]

Mum, Dad, teenage brother and sister, and a newborn. This is the mix of an ordinary but slightly eccentric family of Brits who we watch trudging laconically from day to day with incest burning at their core. The film does a good job of revealing the central issue and telling its story. However, the stoic nature of the film and its characters keeps us from understanding the deep emotional trauma lurking below the surface as the principals become aware of the family's malignant secret. Some are likely to find this dreary drama tedious while others will find it compelling.

Problematic to an enormous degree

[zetes · 4/10 · 5 November 2001]

The War Zone is a very frustrating film. Most self-proclaimed film buffs and critics will and have been easily convinced by the film. That's not to say that if you like this film you're dumb. You just missed the flaws. Anyone who wanders upon it unawares is likely to be repelled, needless to say. I, who have been wanting to see it since Jamie Berardinelli spewed about it as being one of the best films of the 1990s, that bone head, I myself found it contrived and very annoying, containing some bits of worth in individual scenes. To me, it seemed that Tim Roth, as well as the screenwriter (who also wrote the novel on which it's based), had calculated every iota of this film from the dialogue to the shot composition. Their goal was emotional manipulation, but the camera records the film's falseness clearly.

This film is an attempt to produce a realistic situation. In the cinema, realism is achieved by a naturalness in the actors and writing, as well as the actual filming. In a good 90% of the scenes, dialogue was obviously scripted with nothing improvised. I would bet that the minutest detail of tone of voice was written into the script. You can tell this because the rhythm of the dialogue is so precise, it leaves no room for invention. It might seem natural to the untrained ear, but it is phony naturalism. In the remaining 10%, I think it is possible that there was some improvisation, especially in the scene where the father denies everything and attacks his son for suggesting such awful things. I would bet my life that Tim Roth began his career on the stage. He's a mediocre but entertaining actor, speaking his lines, even those in the basest slang, as in Pulp Fiction, with the most eloquent and practiced diction. As a director, this is how his actors turn out, too. It should not be this way. The acting is measured to an unnecessary degree. All of the performances, except for a few individual scenes, seem forced. I can just see Roth directing these actors from behind the ever-present camera.

Also, the impeccably composed photography is totally out of place in The War Zone. This should have been done with hand held cameras, maybe even on video. It should have seemed sloppy. Instead, we get one of the most beautifully shot films of the past few years, which tells me that Roth was so confident that his subject matter was important, the only thing he was worrying about was the cinematography. Movies about sexual abuse should not be beautiful in any way. The photography definitely undermines the weight of the subject.

Even if the film had not seemed so phony to me, I still would have had problems with it. The film sickened me, not because its subject matter was sickening, but because it is treated in an exploitative way. My guess is that more people would get off on it than would get anything from it. Nudity is rampant, which is called for, I suppose, but Roth couldn't have found a more sexually compelling actress to get buck-naked. I guess if the film had worked, I would have felt guiltier about finding that actress so attractive. But she seems like she's playing naughty through the whole film. Sadists will love the scene where she burns her nipple, not to mention the very graphic depiction of daddy-daughter anal sex. Speaking of which, the version I saw was rated R. I swear it was rated NC-17 in the theaters, so I assume that there was some editing done to reduce it to R for HBO. But what the hell could have been removed? I'm certainly no prude, but, if any film has ever earned an NC-17, whether or not I saw an edited version, it is The War Zone. It's the truth that the evil MPAA castrates a ton of indie films with that rating when they don't at all deserve them, handing awful Hollywood products R's, but this is not a case of that sort of discrimination, for sure!

This is most definitely a failure, an enormous one. 4/10.

Father Knows Best

[lou-50 · 17 January 2000]

A melancholic boy faces the prospects of adapting to life in a craggy, rugged English countryside separated from the London he knows. We soon discover things are going to go from bad to worse. "The War Zone" is a special film about incest taken entirely from the perspective of the teenage son, Tom, and his sister, Jessie, giving it a quality of children versus their parents. Incest has been broached before in other films like "Celebration" and "The Sweet Hereafter" but never with such all encompassing realism as "The War Zone". You feel like a voyeur prying in other people's business. Director Tim Roth presents scene after scene of stark, uninviting, seashore landscapes as well as a mesmerizing movie score that vacillates between rushed crescendos and unnerving calm to give "The War Zone" a cold, somber tenseness. The acting is outstanding but Freddie Cunliffe as Tom and Lara Belmont as Jessie carry the film with their brave, demanding portrayals. Tom must weigh the secret he knows with preserving the stability of the home. He is so perplexed about normal love and the mere act of lust that when he comes upon attractive neighbor, Lucy and the set-up vixen, Carol, he becomes stupefied rather than attracted to them. Jessie must walk a fine line between the sex act she craves and her sense of right and wrong. Indeed, at one point, we sympathize with her less because she doesn't seem to mind her predicament. "The War Zone" ends in a way some will find unsatisfying but it is very consistent with the film's theme - lost children who will never find their way back.

whats happened to this film???

[opinionated86 · 6/10 · 1 January 2006]

i've seen about half this film and am desperate to see the rest to try and understand it, but wherever i look it shows signs of having been available recently but for some reason now is not. the majority of internet shops such as amazon and play.com have no record of it being up for sale but there are some sites such as dvdimport and the virginmegastores site that have it up but when you come to buy it a "this product is currently unavailable" comes up for goodness sake. on top of this amazons second hand sales have one copy up for around £50 claiming it is "rare and deleted" i'm not sure what all this means but it's very frustrating.

An Excellent Find

[MichaelMargetis · 9/10 · 11 November 2005]

I have seen many powerful films in my life, but few compare to the off-beat, unsettling and totally uncompromising 'War Zone', actor turned director Tim Roth's first film. Many people despised it for being so raunchy, straight-forward and too realistic, while others praised it for that very same reason. 'The War Zone' is a very hard-to-watch film because it portrays incest -- such a terrible and disgusting event going on in some families today. I was repulsed by the film's haunting and brooding score, but I have to say I was amazed also. 'The War Zone' is a brilliant film and an incredible first effort from Tim Roth.

'The War Zone' follows an isolated British family living in the lush green hills somewhere in England. The family consists of a dad (Ray Winstone - Sexy Beast), a mum (Tilda Swinton - The Deep End), a baby (Megan Thorp), a in-her-late-teens daughter (Lara Belmont) and a in-his-younger-teens son (Freddie Cunliffe) who's perspective the film is shot from. Everything seems to be going so excellent for this new family with the new baby and all, until one day the son sees something he's not supposed to -- the dad molesting the daughter. This tears this seemingly happy family apart and it comes to a huge, yucky boil at the end of the feature.

'The War Zone' moves a little slow towards the beginning but in a way that it is it's only flaw. Tim Roth does a semi-amateurish but mostly consistent job directing while Alexander Stuart provides an incredible screenplay that should have picked up an Oscar nomination. The cast is astounding with a powerhouse lead performance from Ray Winstone that proves him to be perhaps one of the finest British actors working in film today. Tilda Swinton is excellent for the limited screen time her character as 'mum' has, while the movie in a way belongs to the kids. Freddie Cunliffe is extraordinary in his role, while newcomer Lara Belmont is spellbinding in every scene and never ceases to bring emotion out of the viewer. Supposedly she was working at 'Burger King' before she did the film. I think it's safe to say she won't be working there anymore. The camera-work is really low-budget and the DVD frustrated me because it had no subtitles.

All in all, Tim Roth's 'The War Zone' is an amazing motion picture but a crappy DVD. The poorly-formatted DVD is worth buying just because of the awesome quality of the movie itself. If you love and appreciate film and think you have a strong enough stomach for this one, be sure to do a 100-meter dash to the videostore and snag a copy of 'The War Zone'. Grade: A-

Ugly but powerful

[SalutToi · 7/10 · 7 August 2002]

This is not a family movie. This is also not your average American child-abusers-bashing type of movie. Usually, in movies about incest, the father is a violent nothing-to-like-about-him type of guy. In The War Zone the father is actually a caring and "loving" father but with a twisted idea about acceptable sexual behaviors. The pace is very slow and nothing is totally black or totally white in this movie. The characters are really deep and twisted and the acting is top-class. The problem with this movie is that it is too good and because of its subject-matter it translates into an unpleasant experience. 7/10.

Darkness in Devon.

[hitchcockthelegend · 9/10 · 27 February 2016]

Tim Roth dons the directing hat for the first time and brings to the screen a shattering tale of incest and child abuse. Alexander Stuart adapts from his own novel and it stars Ray Winstone, Lara Belmont, Freddie Cunliffe and Tilda Swinton. Story is about a family who have moved from London to the Devonshire coast. The son, Tom, is unhappy and feels alienated in the new surroundings, but when he discovers a dark family secret, things become much much worse.

It's an uncomfortable viewing experience at times, making it a film you don't readily recommend, but Roth's approach to the story gives out a powerful message without exploitation or sermonising. The script is deliberately taut and sparse, while the marrying up of the crashing waves and jagged rocks of the locale with the emotional turmoil is a deft piece of directing. The use of newcomers Belmont and Cunliffe add a potent sense of realism to the whole thing, aided no end by an intelligent screenplay that doesn't go for conventionality. Quite simply it's an unforgettable film, a claustrophobic emotional battering ram of celluloid. 9/10

The power of the content is not matched by its form

[Pete.B · 7/10 · 3 August 1999]

Tim Roth's directorial debut bleakly portrays the break-up of a family due to incest. Set in Devon, a location so grim it actually does justice to its subject matter. Roth attempts to portray the gritty realism of such a touchy subject but fails to deliver through the way he handles his actors. The deadpan acting-style of the family members appears contrived and is banal.

Nearly all of the characters seemed resigned to the current state of affairs. Tom, the brother who becomes aware of his father's incest with his sister, remains passive and the spectator gets the impression that he is indifferent vis-a-vis the incest. Ray Winstone is convincing as the ostensibly 'good' father who is really the most sinister character in the film. Tilda Swinton plays her role well as the mother who is too caught-up with her new-born baby that she fails to realise what is transpiring around her. But the character with whom I most identified was Jessie, the victim of her father's incest. One gets the impression that she is willing to suffer her father's abuse for the well-being of the family. I would have liked the film to have been more melodramatic, thereby involving the spectator more in action. But considering this, a subject such as incest is not one which is openly dealt with in everyday life. In this regard, I think Roth's directorial debut is powerful in what it acheives. Worth a look.

Beautiful, troubling, superbly acted

[paul2001sw-1 · 9/10 · 4 December 2005]

Probably the worst thing about Tim Roth's audacious directorial debut is its title: 'The War Zone' conjures images of something rather noisier, and less subtle, than this film about aberrant sexuality within a family unit. Roth is brave enough to show love among the hate, and to assign a limited degree of complicit guilt to the apparent victim: the film gains greatly from both of these decisions. He also has interesting visual ideas: the film is full of lonely, widescreen images in which the central subjects appear almost lost; and homely Devon has never looked wilder and less civilised than it does here, depicted in winter and at night. Roth also gets great performances from all his cast: in what is essentially a four-hander, Tilda Swinton is good in a limited part, Ray Winstone shows (not for the first time) that he has talents beyond those required for his customary hard-man roles, but it's the young actors who are most outstanding: Freddie Cunliffe as the troubled boy who discovers dark secrets, and especially the beautiful, opaque Laura Belmont who is simply tremendous as his sexually aware, not-as-cool-as-she-seems sister. At time the soundtrack seems a bit generic, and I'm not entirely convinced by the open ending, but this is still a better film than many directors make in their careers. On the strength of this movie, Roth should enjoy a long career behind the camera.

slow moving development with sudden dramatic ending

[dariodgg · 6/10 · 19 February 2001]

I was disappointed after reading so many reviews describing this film a masterpiece. Frankly it was rather slow moving, and only towards the end does the tension wind up. I also thought the ending was somewhat overdone, and that there wasn't enough development of the son's character to make this really credible for me. Having said that, the cinematography is superb, and the choice of location as an almost constantly rain-soaked bleak Devon coastline in SW England provided the ideal backdrop to this dark story.

Disturbing But Good

[fanhybrid · 8/10 · 2 December 2005]

Well yes this film does portray a rather taboo subject, probably the first one I have seen with incest in. But my god this is a great film. All of the actors are incredible, Ray Winstone is a fine actor and so are the two children, the boy Tom is excellent, when he finds out what his dad is doing he is completely cold to him, what he does to him at the end of the movie is understandable.

This is a very gritty film quite slow as well but it needs to be I think to give a harsh account of the family. The scene of the actual incest will be very disturbing for some, their is quite a lot of nudity in this film from most of the actors, also there is a lot of swearing ad violence too.

I think this film is harrowing at first but after all things like this happen in real life and I think Tim Roth has done a great job of portraying a touchy subject to film.

Unbelievable, innit...

[jamesmcauslan-33069 · 6/10 · 25 October 2020]

1/ Winstone would not have been married to Swinton in the first place (they seem incompatible) 2/ the daughter seems complicit in all of it, and too old to have just accepted it without complaint, without doing something and/or saying something about what her father was up to 3/ why would a London family have moved out to this windswept cottage in Devon to begin with? 4/ why would neither child have reported this ridiculous abuse to the mother and/or the police? they're certainly old enough to be taken seriously 5/ the whole thing requires a suspension of disbelief and with a story this grim and ludicrous, why bother?

So Unrelentingly Grim And Bleak As To Be Unwatchable

[Theo Robertson · 4/10 · 1 December 2005]

It's always something of a cliché when actors decide to direct and certainly a mixed bag . Without doubt one of the outstanding directors in the world today is Clint Eastwood who deservedly won two Oscars and would probably have earned another if MYSTIC RIVER hadn't been released the same year as RETURN OF THE KING . Watching THE WAR ZONE Tim Roth's first - And hopefully last - movie behind the camera it's a safe bet that actor Roth won't be gaining too much acclaim as a director

I have to question Roth's judgement for picking THE WAR ZONE as a directorial debut , couldn't he have done a romantic comedy instead ? I mean people could have flocked to the cinema to see characters on screen laugh , kiss and fall in love with the audience walking home hand in hand in a nice happy mood . Instead of filming a story with commercial potential Roth has made a movie centered around a teenage girl being sexually abused by her father . There's no implication involved , everything is blatant and the audience are shown a quite sickening scene where the father has anal sex with his daughter that will have a TV audience scrambling for the off button of their remote control . This is the most distressing scene in the movie but it's not the only scene that will depress the audience . The whole movie has a bleak , grim atmosphere with close ups of emotionally traumatised characters faces along with scenes of self harm . It should also be pointed out that one of the aspects Roth fails in as a director is the sound mix since I could hardly understand a single line of dialogue

I will give Roth credit for getting the best out of the cast but since the actors are playing characters crushed by revelations of sexual abuse the performances are difficult to watch . Lara Belmont is to put it kindly not the most attractive actress you'll ever see but she gives a truly great performance as incest victim Jessie . Likewise Freddie Cunliffe who plays Tom and who finds out his father is having sex with his sister gives a haunting performance as a devastated teenager . It's not often the words " courage " and " actor " appear in the same sentence but I will praise actor Ray Winstone for having the courage to play the part of the abusive father . It's a sad fact of life that some indivduals can't tell the difference between fictional movies and reality so you can just imagine Winston being in the pub pleading : " look mate I'm an actor , I play different characters and I'm a lovely bloke in real life so can you please put down that machete " . Perhaps it's just as well for Winstone that THE WAR ZONE didn't reach a bigger market since he'd never be able to walk down a dark street again

As I finish off writing this review I feel myself being more and more distressed by the movie the more I think about it . I read the story on the IMDb trivia page of the man who attended the Toronto Film Festival and who became almost hysterical while watching the movie and I can understand how he felt and the more I think about THE WAR ZONE the more I start to wish I had never seen this movie in the first place . You have been warned