48
Metascore
15 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 70Chicago ReaderChicago ReaderDirector-writer Steven Silver deftly juxtaposes exciting (and sometimes horrific) battle re-creations with scenes of the photographers' personal lives.
- 70Los Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinLos Angeles TimesGary GoldsteinWriter-director Steven Silver (with an able assist from cinematographer Miroslaw Baszak) captures this brutal time - which led to the country's first free, multiracial elections in 1994 and the end of apartheid - in vivid, often bold, but never overpowering strokes.
- 50The Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenThe Hollywood ReporterMichael RechtshaffenWhen all is said and done, their Pulitzer-winning photographs prove more potent than this well-intended but frustratingly generic picture.
- 50Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsChicago TribuneMichael PhillipsWriter-director Silver, who trained in documentaries, appears flummoxed by the challenges of getting the audience inside the heads of these young men.
- 50The A.V. ClubScott TobiasThe A.V. ClubScott TobiasSilver means to get across the adrenaline rush of lives lived in dangerous extremes, but winds up trivializing their accomplishments and making them seem like men of hearty appetites, but little intellectual depth.
- 50Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertThis question, which will instinctively occur to many viewers, is never quite dealt with in the film. The photographers sometimes drive into the middle of violent situations, hold up a camera, and say "press!" - as if that will solve everything.
- 50The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisThe New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisWhy, then, do we care not one bit when Pulitzers are won and bullets unsuccessfully dodged? The answer lies partly in Mr. Silver's refusal to elucidate the racial politics or engage with the world outside the film's incoherently chaotic bubble.
- 40Village VoiceVillage VoiceSilver treads around and too heavily on the moral ambiguities involved in documenting atrocities, moving between frantic, poorly explained scenes of African conflict and the equally familiar, benumbing aesthetic of boys making a macho game of war.
- 40Time OutDavid FearTime OutDavid FearA single arresting shot of a photographer chasing a man on fire says more about journalistic ethics and the queasy power of the image than all of the speechifying and star-posing combined; if only the rest of this muddled movie had as much insightful Sontagian bang.