General

Those were the words of General Ante Gotovina when he arrived back in Croatia, having been freed by the Hague Tribunal, when the previous verdict was found to be completely unfounded on appeal. He remains a divisive figure in a way, with the final sentence creating resentment among most of the Serbian populace, who still consider him to be a war criminal, but also a feeling of redemption among the Croatian populace, which nearly universally considers him to be innocent.

Gotovina heeded his own words. He refused to be involved in politics, seemingly happiest away from the spotlight. However, a certain part of Croatian society, Croatian politicians, some other spheres, simply refuse to - as the war of independence is the thing that they gain their legitimacy and importance from and it gives them excuses (flimsy but sufficient for a certain segment of the populace) for their misdeeds and corruption in the present. Now, several generations who were born after the war, never having experienced it directly, they are having children of their own... Facing only with second-hand info, they "have" to be brainwashed, certain figures need to be glorified (Franjo Tudjman, in particular is being rehashed as being a much more positive character than he actually was in the media), whitewash has to be performed. And because of that, this atrocity was forced to happen, without the main character's input. As a state project even, with the state, numerous state companies, counties, even some poor ones sponsoring the movie / series. And who would be "best" to do such a movie than Antun Vrdoljak, ever the court film director, be it the Communist Party's or the Croatian Democratic Union's, now in his late 80's, for his last project.

That's the background. Now... onto the series itself. And the first episode, depicting Gotovina's early life, on an idyllic quaint Dalmatian island, but wanting to escape Yugoslavia. As a Croat, as a Dalmatian, I was always appalled how post-independence directors and actors, somehow frequently making movies on islands, treated the Chakavian language/dialect spoken there, even the distinct Dalmatian Shtokavian vernacular - not even bothering to make characters sound ANYTHING like anything that's spoken in those areas. Vinko Bresan is a frequent offender, but the first episode of General is an insane extreme. As if there were no actors from those areas, continental actors were used who either wouldn't or couldn't do their job properly. So we have the "young Gotovina" and his best friend, whom he grew up with, sounding like people from two different parts of Croatia, neither of which is within a few hundred kilometers from the place they are supposed to be from. Extremely unprofessional, annoying and good enough only for the least demanding of watchers... which is apparently the target audience. And almost every "Dalmatian" character is like that, bar a few exceptions (the late Robert Budak who at least tried and did fairly fine, for example). And they aren't the only caricature - just the biggest one. If that was the biggest problem in the movie, jarring though it was, the series wouldn't be scored this low. However, it is, with good reason.

From the first to the last episode, the cringe is eternal. Melodramatic, pathetic, without a single break in nearly every scene. Gotovina is repeatedly and repeatedly, ad nauseam depicted as being saintly in his religiousness, pure of thought - Vrdoljak making a point of establishing that he's also definitely not gay, not even knowing what that is for some reason, not knowing what "cocaine" in a now famous scene.Every "non glorious" detail of Gotovina's life is omitted entirely - always the moral vertical, never failing as a soldier/leader, always an inspiration, blaming himself for the failures of others. It also tries to incorporate his womanizing (maybe even adultery as he's reminiscing about his wife and daughter in one scene and then making out with a journalist in the other) as a highly positive trait, failing miserably, as in love scenes, the writing is particularly awkward.

Oooh yeah, the writing, the wooden "classic theater" acting of a good percentage of the cast only makes the childish, sloppy, unrealistic writing / dialogues surreal in their melodrama. It frequently ventures into "so bad it's hillarious" territory - which is what kept a lot of viewers going. Croatia's answer to The Room - though I'm fairly sure that Tommy Wiseau would be able to improve on most of this. It tries to tug on (Croatian) heartstrings and either fails miserably in the start or ruins any fledgling warmth/pride/whatever it aims at by going, well. It cannot help shoot itself in the foot. All the time.

You see, Vrdoljak is extremely sloppy in his old age - not even bothering with continuity, fixing plot holes, well, details. So you have the completely fictional "Banat German" officer / Gotovina's mentor who is only there for Vrdoljak to bemoan the oh so "non-understandable" communists' treatment of Volksdeutsche post WW2, somehow speaking modern Serbian. He is played by Rene Bitorajac - whose name, despite being a famous actor in Croatia is misspelled in the 15th second of the first episode (!!). Bitorajac is the same age as Visnjic - and is supposed to play a character who's supposed to be nearly 30 years Gotovina's senior. No attempts are made to convey that though. You have the modern Gucci bag which is the property of Zulu, played by Navojec, roughly 70kg (150ish pounds) heavier than the person he's supposed to portray - so yes, you have a fat spec-ops soldier... You have a taxi driver "not taking Serbian dinars" - at the time when Yugoslav dinars were very much still the currency in Croatia. A slew of other details. The goofs list here can be filled up easily, if someone decides to take up that monumental task.

Technically, it's dated - looks and feels like some 80's "telenovela", particularly the second episode. Special effects are used sparingly, making for some extremely short and entirely unconvincing fight scenes, and the music is cheesy and pathetic, in line with the rest of the movie. The worst thing? An enormous amount of taxpayers' money was spent on the movie/series. ENORMOUS. Actors were apparently hugely overpaid - which is good for them, as some likely needed that financial boost in the struggling Croatian scene, not that most of them deserved it looking at the acting here...

This dated propaganda series will only be non-ironically appreciated by the least demanding, least intelligent, least informed audience, politicians to whom they might be drawn and some army officials / characters from the war whose vanity it played to (through suck-up character cameos). Nobody else.

Vrdoljak, having filmed his last overpriced teenage fanfic, now belongs to the past, let's all together finally turn towards to the future.