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War Dance

War Dance (2007)

tomatometer

85

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 48
Fresh: 41 | Rotten: 7

War/Dance is beautifully filmed, and effectively captures the heartbreaking and uplifting experiences of its subjects.

90

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 19 | Rotten: 2

War/Dance is beautifully filmed, and effectively captures the heartbreaking and uplifting experiences of its subjects.

audience

91

liked it
Average Rating: 4.3/5
User Ratings: 2,761

My Rating

Movie Info

Since the 1980s, Uganda has been in a state of civil war, with the nation's leadership violently contested by a revolutionary force known as the Lord's Resistance Army (or L.R.A.). The fighting is fiercest in the North of Uganda, and there the L.R.A. recruit many of their soldiers by abducting children from refugee camps and homes in the poverty-stricken villages, where electricity and running water are still luxuries known only to a few. However, in the village of Patongo, located deep in

PG-13,

Documentary, Drama, Special Interest

,

Apr 15, 2008

ThinkFilm

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All Critics (54) | Top Critics (25) | Fresh (41) | Rotten (7) | DVD (4)

It is wonderful to watch this joyous slice of the cultural lives of these victimized, traumatized children struggling to survive and build a better life in a desperately troubled part of the world.

March 4, 2008 Full Review Source: Film.com | Comment (1)
Film.com
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This film offers a child's perspective on the ravages and complexity of war and is also a convincing testament to the healing power of creative expression.

February 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail
Globe and Mail
Top Critic IconTop Critic

'The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong at the broken places,' Hemingway wrote in A Farewell to Arms. That statement might stand as the summation of this documentary, which celebrates the strength of winsome, broken children.

February 22, 2008 Full Review Source: Toronto Star
Toronto Star
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The perfect antidote to compassion fatigue.

December 20, 2007 Full Review Source: San Jose Mercury News | Comment (1)
San Jose Mercury News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The horror and heartwarming [is] equally compounded.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: San Francisco Chronicle
San Francisco Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

War/Dance is the sort of documentary that's meant to appall us, to shake us out of our uninformed complacency. And yet there are moments in the film that may make an audience uncomfortable in ways the Fines may not have intended.

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Seattle Times
Seattle Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

This wonderful doco is heartbreaking and heartwarming by turns

November 14, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile
Urban Cinefile

An emotionally-engaging testament to the indomitability of the human spirit even in the midst of the most dire of circumstances.

April 13, 2008 Full Review Source: NewsBlaze
NewsBlaze

We celebrate joy rising from the ashes of tragedy.

March 21, 2008

This is powerful stuff that reasserts both the evil and the good in human hearts.

March 7, 2008
Kansas City Star

A truly beautiful tribute to the redemptive powers of art, music, and dance, and the insidious destructiveness that trickles down in war to the most innocent of victims. Please see it.

February 16, 2008 Full Review Source: Cinerina

The film's artsy surface diminishes its impact [but] tells a story that needs to be told repeatedly.

February 11, 2008 Full Review Source: One Guy's Opinion
One Guy's Opinion

[Dominic Fine's] camera captures beautiful Ugandan locations -- and some equally beautiful character moments. The film ends on a surprisingly upbeat note.

January 31, 2008 Full Review Source: Deseret News, Salt Lake City
Deseret News, Salt Lake City

Because no one dares to call a film about suffering children boring, Fine and Nix slack on analysis and investigation and concentrate on gorgeous saturated cinematography

January 29, 2008 Full Review Source: I.E. Weekly
I.E. Weekly

These kids are amazing in the most literal sense of the word, and you will never forget them.

January 29, 2008 Full Review Source: Flick Filosopher
Flick Filosopher

An uplifting, visually pleasing documentary.

January 25, 2008 Full Review Source: Oregonian
Oregonian

Relies a little too much on the old formula of the underdog sports movie, but it has a lot more substance to it than that.

January 23, 2008 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope
Laramie Movie Scope

War/Dance complicates documentary tradition, trying to express events that seem beyond expression.

January 17, 2008 Full Review Source: PopMatters
PopMatters

The film is a bit of a mishmash, but you will fall for the children it depicts.

December 14, 2007 Full Review Source: St. Paul Pioneer Press
St. Paul Pioneer Press

The music offers the northern Ugandan children a chance to heal from their fear and pain--that part of the film cannot be questioned.

December 4, 2007 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Children in dire situations can be a tricky, quasi-exploitive subject for filmmakers ... but it's handled here in a responsible, occasionally joyous fashion. You can still feel your heartstrings being pulled, but when it's done this well, it's tough to be

November 30, 2007 Full Review Source: The Stranger (Seattle, WA)

Audience Reviews for War Dance

Powerful documentary that is both upsetting and uplifting.
May 7, 2008
YLOWBSTARDreturns

Super Reviewer

A wonderful healing experience for children made to grow up far too early in their lives.
December 24, 2012
John Ballantine

Super Reviewer

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