User reviews

In Sarajevo, Muslims, Croats and Serbs live in peace. The Muslim Vlado (Linus Roache) and the Serb Slavko (Vincent Perez) are best friends, almost brothers, and the best shooters in Yugoslavia. They are going to the Olympics in Barcelona representing Yugoslavia. However, with the Bosnian war in 1992, Slavko joins the Serbian army for training snipers and Vlado joins the militia in the streets of Sarajevo to defend his people. The duel between the former friends ends in a tragic way.

"Shot Through the Heart" is another magnificent and touching movie about the Bosnian war. The first time I watched it was two years ago, and the school teacher of my son borrowed it to present to her class. This week, I have watched 'Harrison's Flowers', 'Vulkovar' and 'Pretty Village, Pretty Flame', all of them about this sad war, but having different approaches. I decided to see 'Shot Through the Heart' again. All these movies show friends and lovers getting apart after years of friendship or love due to this stupid war. This movie is literally a shot in the heart. Impossible not be touched by such a sad story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): 'Um Tiro No Coração' ('A Shot in the Heart')

Excellent TV production, harsh, moving, real. To watch it hurt me almost at a physical level, I have lived in Sarajevo, I know the city, it's people, and I understand their plight. Take it from somebody who has been there; this is a movie well made, the situations, feelings and emotions it depicts are very real, almost exactly as it was. There is no overt dramatization here, no going over the top; I almost felt as if I was there... Unbelievably good for a TV movie.

If there is one weak point in the film, it is that they should have utilized local actors, they should have filmed it in the original language with subtitles. That would have made the movie even more powerful. Well done!

In Sarajevo, Muslims, Croats and Serbs live in peace. The Muslim Vlado (Linus Roache) and the Serb Slavko (Vincent Perez) are best friends, almost brothers, and the best shooters in Yugoslavia. They are going to the Olympics in Barcelona representing Yugoslavia. However, with the Bosnian war in 1992, Slavko joins the Serbian army for training snipers and Vlado joins the militia in the streets of Sarajevo to defend his people. The duel between the former friends ends in a tragic way. This is another magnificent and touching movie about the Bosnian war. The first time I watched it was two years ago, and the school teacher of my son borrowed it to present to her class. This week, I have watched `Harrison`s Flowers', `Vulkovar' and `Pretty Village, Pretty Flame', all of them about this sad war, but having different approaches. I decided to see `Shot Through the Heart' again. All these movies show friends and lovers getting apart after years of friendship or love due to this stupid war. This movie is literally a shot in the heart. Impossible not be touched by such a sad story. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): `Um Tiro No Coração' (`A Shot in the Heart')

I have been in Sarajevo during the horrible civil war, and this movie shows how really it happened. I have been in all of the places they showed in the movie and, yes it is how happened. Acting is great. Actors did very good job, also music was good. This movie is one of those movies who present the real war (like Saving Private Ryan), not like many fake movies do. It is worthy of watching.

This was definitely one of the best movies I have seen in quite a while. It wasn't the most exciting and it wasn't the most inspiring, it was simply the best drama and acting depicting a horrific situation. This movie may not necessarily make you feel better about yourself but it certainly makes you happy to be living in a place where you're safe. The focus on two men who are life-long best friends and get pulled apart by surrounding events is a story that tracks back to the beginning of time and was most noticeable in the U.S. civil war. The buildup to the inevitable confrontation at the end was all too realistic and very well done. The scenes where people are okay and then suddenly fall over from being shot were very well depicted. One of the more subtle but well-done transitions was the eroding condition of the buildings and landscape as the war went on. This is one of those movies that is about something real and horrible and therefore rather difficult to watch.

Firstly I must let you know that I am from Kosovo, former republic of Yugoslavia, right now it is under UNMIK administration. It hasn't been a long time ago since the war ended here, and certainly neither since the war on Bosnia acured.

Now back to the film: this movie is about two friends since the childhood with different nationality and different religion, but the way the circumstances are each of them must fight for their country. All that right said is very ok with me!

Now the movie itself consists some good thought camera shots and a few nice scenes but other than that it is historically inaccurate and pointless though is consists a good message to all the viewers. Now the main and a huge flaw is that this movie was in english, with guys from different nationalities in it. I mean how many best friends born and raised in France do talk english with each other? How many German families talk English all the time? And how many soldiers from a specified country(non english native language) speak in English like the one at the beggining when the Serbian soldiers pull over the car of the muslim family? This is deeply incorrect and unbased at nothing. A little bit smaller flaws: 1. Firstly the Serbians didn't lead a war with snipers, they always captured every city with tanks, bombing and fighting but never included snipers.

2. Serbian police uniforms are not correct. 3. Vlado is not a muslim name (I'm a muslim myself) 4. The war at Bosnia didn't begin in Sarajevo as told in the movie, Sarajevo was the last city to be attacked from Serbian forces.

I could go on and on, but it's not worth it. Anyway the movie had a very respectable direction, but I can guarantee you that the movie itself is not based on a true story. Rating: 6/10

This film made a tremendous impact on me. I am stunned, overwhelmed and profoundly moved. Watching this remarkable photoplay, my emotion is intense. It immediately reminded me of a nonfiction book I had read about the war in Bosnia, it feels like all the things described in that book come to life. It's shocking.

All the events depicted in this movie ACTUALLY HAPPENED. Children getting killed by pieces of shrapnel, friends being on opposite sides and their friendships being torn apart by the war, losing your family, friends, neighbors, attending one and yet another funeral of someone you knew, people being shot while they carry water...my heart broke when I watched these cruel facts portrayed in this impassioned work. It is so true to life that I felt as if I was there, witnessing the whole thing.

Based upon a true story, "Shot Through the Heart" is about a life long friendship between two marksmen who are residents in Sarajevo. When the war breaks out, Vlado, a Muslim, and Slavko, a Serb, are on opposite sides and eventually, they will have to face each other. People in Sarajevo used to live peaceful and carefree lives, now their lives become tragedies all because of this hideous war.

History, the sense of retaliation and false beliefs make human beings turn into killing machines. War is destruction and agony. If only we could realize it and remember the lessons we've learned. If only we could reach world peace sooner.

This war drama is finely filmed, and the acting is very believable. The movie helps us understand more about the ex-Yugoslavia war that took place in the early nineties and makes us think about it, how wars affect people and the importance of making peace. I heartily recommend this film to anybody who is interested in what happened in Sarajevo.

"Shot Through the Heart" is an even tempered, dogged, austere production of people caught in the rift in Sarajevo during the Bosnia war. The film focuses on two long time friends, both expert competitive marksmen, who find themselves as snipers on opposite sides of the conflict. Not unlike other "friend against friend" civil war stories (eg: Gettysburg), the two men are on a collision course with the ultimate showdown. A well managed drama which imparts some sense of the strife in the splintering of Yugoslavia while telling its story of families and friends divided, "Shot..." is a worthy film making effort.

You guys are missing the point, honestly, UNIFORMS, incorrect use of a mosin M-44? Who cares, it's the message that counts. Maybe I have to apologize for having a life outside of looking up little discrepancies in movies, but I try to take the movie for what it's worth rather than pick it apart. It was an HBO movie, yes, it's going to be in English! Get used to it, most movies are written in the language of the intended country of release. It's a message that goes back to the US civil war but brought up into modern times. It was a well made movie with good acting and an exciting screenplay. I was thuroughly entertained while at the same time being forced to know that the back-story was taken directly out of real life. Great movie (period)

There are only two films which I could say that they portray war in Sarajevo in an excellent manner. One is The Perfect Circle (1997), probably the best one, and the other one is this one. There are many other films made about war in Bosnia, but I do not agree that they come even close to these two.

It is a pity that this film did not make it to the wider audiences (it was shown only in the North America). This way I invite distributors to show this film to the European audiences, especially in the former Yugoslavia.

Europe is full of the geopolitical rifts and former Yugoslavia was full of them. Some of them do not materialize into war like for example Catalonia, others do like Ukraine.

This film tried to put a human face on what was happening in Sarajevo during the war. It certainly did a great job! If you want to know what was happening during the war in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995 this a film to watch. Excellent work by all means!

I was in Sarajevo at the time (7 years old) and the movie is pretty accurate.

Uniforms and bad accents don't matter, its a good story, especially the trench type of warfare that was fought. A bit different from the blitzkrieg style campaigns that we see now days over the TV in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There are a lot of small details that make it very realistic, like the wood for burning during the winter stockpiled in the appartments, the way people die, living conditions in general, no water, no electricity, barelly enough food, etc

Somethimes that period of my life seems like it was only a dream...

Shot through the Heart is a movie about two best friends who end up on different sides of a war. This movie goes through the horror and sadness of war and how it can tear even the best of friends apart. The sniping scenes give you an adrenaline rush. The anticipation is brutal. And on top of it all is the great acting. You will not be disappointed.

'Shot through the heart' turned up on HBO while I was bored killing time in a hotel. The title initially put me off - I nearly went to the gym instead. But when I realized from the initial Cranberries track that it wasn't going to be the usual made for HBO slushy American trash, I started watching. A powerful movie, not the usual war film, it explored the added horrors of a civil war with friends pitted against friends. The scene where the main character, a Moslem realiszes that it is former best friend and Olympic shooting hopeful, a Serb who is the sniper accounting for a lot of the civilian deaths in his neighborhood brings this home. I like a previous reviewer was involved in the conflict in the former Yugoslavia and the gritty low-budget 'almost documentary' style gives this film an edge over other war films which usually fail to achieve such authenticity.

Well written, although a familiar storyline. The acting of Roache and Perez is excellent. Disturbing war scenes are at a premium. Worth the watch.

Previous comment made me write this. It says that Muslims are blonde and Serbs are dark (because our blood is mixed). This comment just says that this opinion can be made by racist.Look,race is nothing.I'm color blind.I look like Pierce Brosnan but I'm no Irish. So what?I might add that I am not 100% Serb,that I have some Austrian and Croat blood within me but whats the point.I'm dark, half-breed?Is that so? Anyone using racial prejudices with such bad intent like Lantos(producer9and director is racist for me.Karadzhic, Izetbegovich, Milosevic, Tudjman they are all monsters and I blame them for destroying my life, my family, my country, Yuggoslavia. Hope they will be all in hell but that wont return our dead relatives back. I am proud of being Serb and I am proud of my cousins, Austrians,Croats,Muslims, Hungarians, Arabs (yes I am from Serbia and I have multiethnical family).This movie doesn't show sufferings of Serbs or Croats within Sarayevo,terrible terrorism of street gangs,Muslim extremism.I add: I kneel and pray for all innocent sisters and brothers Muslim,catholic or orthodox, killed in this war.This film is manipulation with our misery,false humanitarianism's which doesn't help at all.It helps Lantos to fill his pockets with more doe,alright!

This film explores the complex relationship between two men, one who is Christian, the other Moslem, in war-torn Bosnia. In my attempt to understand how people who live side-by-side could brutalize and murder each other, "Shot Through The Heart" was an unsettling opportunity to gain some insight into a confusing and disturbing conflict. I am sure that many people in the United States have little point of reference with which to compare what is depicted in the film to our everyday life. Having read about the conflict in Bosnia, and studied Balkan history, I know, abstractly, of the age-old conflicts there. What this film did for me was to depict, in a very visceral way, the insanity of old hatreds that, bubbling to the surface, turn what should be abnormal, into the normal; society turned upside down. To see people sublimate their humanity to base and inhuman themes of ethnic purity raises the question to all of us; can we shed ourselves of all our prejudices and truly love our neighbor?

Shot through the heart is the best film I've seen on the Bosnia war. Others I have seen are Welcome to Sarajevo, Savior, Pretty Village, all good films, but this is the best. It really shows the true situation, and I couldn't help feeling the anger when the lead character says before the war, "just let them try to have a war, the American's will come right in like in the Gulf".

This film is totally on location in Sarajevo, and you can see all the bombed out buildings. The main character has to make a big decision: whether to let his friendship with a Yugoslav turned Serb murderer get in the way of defending his neighborhood, or not. Very well done and well acted. I think this film must have hit too close to home for Sarajevans filmed so soon after the actual siege took place.

Other good films I recommend: Ulysses Gaze, Underground, Cafe Balkan, Vukovar.

This is one fantastic movie. It really gets to you. Superb acting, dialogue. All too natural scenes.

You would expect a high-adrenalin duel between the two sharpshooter, like in 'Enemy at the Gates', and when the events unfold in a different way you would start to think, 'Yeah, that's perfect'. And you would realize that had the final confrontation turned into a John Woo-ish 45-minute-long-butt-kicking nonsense, it would have spoiled the movie.

I found this story of two friends caught on opposites sides of war-torn Sarajevo, quite moving. In times of war, in far away countries, we seldom have the opportunity to know or understand the individuals caught in the cross-fire. In this fact-based story, you get to know the characters before the war tears them apart.

Vincent Perez and Linus Roache are very effective as the two friends who find themselves faced with the fact that their friendship cannot stop a sniper's bullet.

First, in the movie, the bad guys (the serbs) are really dark complicated, and the good guys are (muslims) lite complected. Serbs are dark, thats because of muslim blood, in them, from the turkish conquest of the balkans for 500 yrs. It doesn't tell the t.v. audience, thats one of the serbs major distrust of the muslim population.