Hart's War
Hart's War
R | 15 February 2002 (USA)
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When Col. William McNamara is stripped of his freedom in a German POW camp, he's determined to keep on fighting even from behind enemy lines. Enlisting the help of a young lieutenant in a brilliant plot against his captors, McNamara risks everything on a mission to free his men and change the outcome of the war.

Reviews
Perry Kate

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

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Raetsonwe

Redundant and unnecessary.

filippaberry84

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

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Calum Hutton

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

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Paul J. Nemecek

I have to confess that one of the main reasons I was anxious to see Hart's War was because I was in the Czech Republic when it was being filmed there. I had hoped for glorious images of the beautiful countryside that I had seen last May. Because the majority of the film takes place in a POW camp (therefore a studio set) there is very little of the Czech landscape to be seen in this film. The film does offer a view of the American landscape from the not-so-distant past by focusing on racial conflict among U.S. military personnel during World War II.I had expected a film in the tradition of Stalag 17 or The Great Escape. While there are elements of these films here, the heart of the film is closer to A Soldier's Story or Men of Honor. The film actually weaves together several different stories and is part hero's quest, part racial conflict, part courtroom drama, and part POW film. It is to the credit of director Gregory Hoblit (not Hobbit-different film) that the different threads come together reasonably well.Initially, the film is about Captain Hart (Colin Farrell) and the circumstances surrounding his arrival at the POW camp. Because of a conflict with the senior officer (Bruce Willis) among the POW's, he is placed in a barracks with the enlisted men. He is just getting to know them and win their trust when two more officers are placed in the barracks-two black pilots who are part of the Tuskegee Airmen. The other enlisted men resent their presence there and the racial tension results in a betrayal, a murder, and ultimately the framing of an innocent man.At the heart of the film is the irony of the U.S. involvement in fighting the evil perpetrators of the holocaust while tolerating "ethnic cleansing" at home in the U.S. In one of the more powerful scenes, one of the black officers tells the story of watching German POW's in the US being escorted into movie theaters where blacks were not allowed-not even blacks training to be Tuskegee airmen.The acting in the film was very good and the visual elements were solid. The Rachel Portman score added just the right touches at just the right times. There are points where the drama is a bit contrived, and I have mixed feelings about the twists and turns at the end of the film. On the whole, however, if your only other options are a seventh viewing of Lord of the Rings, yet another thoughtless shoot-em-up, or Britney Spears in her screen debut, Hart's War is definitely worth a look.

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David J Browning-Roberts

As a Disabled Combat War Veteran of The Iraq War it seems fitting that this is my first review. Esp as i am watching the movie as I type this. I won't waste any time or space on explaining the plot as that is easily found elsewhere. I will say that i think this movie is an incredible depiction of an... Amazing story. A story about war, racism, education, hope, and I BELIEVE, most of all, a movie about the ideas & ideals of A United States Soldier. (Please keep this mind).I am completely blown away by all of these reviews by people that think the story is so stupid because it would quote... Never happen! Unquote. I am also very disappointed in all of the subsequent reviews stating that the movie is stupid and boring on the premise of its plot alone.If you want to watch a war movie full of guns and battle scenes then watch a different movie. This is a movie about a prisoner of war camp... There were a lot of gun fights. This is after the battles... In between the waring and the fighting. And most of all I just want to point out that every review then even once includes the word concentration camp is a complete waste of time. This is not a concentration camp this is a P.O.W. camp. And furthermore it is a German P.O.W. camp not a Japanese. P.O.W. camp. There is a big difference.So many reviews that implausibility of the movie because the Germans were so nice to them and they would never let this happen... first off, the second apex and inciting incident in the movie is the execution of an American prisoner without cause or conversation.Also, One of the most poignant facts about this movie is that the German soldier in charge is a Yale educated German. Meaning he spent time in America & understood American ways. Some German officers even did follow the Geneva Convention. & some POWW camps were not strictly execution camps (as were so many P.O.W. camps in the pacific... Now while I have absolutely no citing that this actually ever occurred (the trial w/in the movie) the reason that this makes perfect sense is that this German DID allow it to happen... As so many other German soldiers allowed other random things to happen in other pow movies. Whether it is because he is amused by the entire situation or he is simply trying to pacify the masses and keep the Americans busy... It's simply happensI think one of the best comparisons to accurately portray this movie would be to the Great escape. As were that movie actually was about the prisoners and their escape plan & what followed. This movie is more about the prisoners...&... Their actual human emotions DURING the plot to escape. Racism during World War Two was real & very serious. Gentrification and separatism were very much alive... Even in... & especially sometimes soldiers minds.I was especially surprised by some of the professional reviews and how disappointed they were in the finale of the movie. HUGE SPOILER ALERT!!! The movie is not ruined, the plot or any of its points are not discredited, by the idea of, or the subsequent execution of Bruce Willis's character. As I stated in the beginning, this movie is about the ideas and ideals of a soldier. Or perhaps even more so, the ideas and ideals of what the United States Army considers a perfect soldier. The rules in a p.o.w camp were simple... If you try to escape you would be executed.In the Great Escape almost all of the near dozens of men who participated in the plotting & action of, escaping were rounded up & executed. Which is exactly what is about to happen at the end of this movie. Until Bruce Willis stops it by offering up his life, the life of an officer, for the lives of his men. He is, by the Army's actual manual, every aspect of a hero. Of a true hero. Yes he's racist, No he wasn't exactly open to the idea of lesser educated officers... but not only do both of those thoughts change slightly by the end of the movie... But by sacrificing himself for his men he is, in that single action, showing you, the contrast of Colin Farrell's character & his actions in the opening of the movie. When Colin Farrell is captured & interrogated, he is only released into the p.o.w camp after he gives up the location of other men other units & equipment locations. One of Bruce Willis's character's biggest problems with Colin Farrell's character throughout the entire movie is that he knows that. He knows Colin Farrell gave up other soldiers, possibly even their lives, for his life to be spared. Now, as immediately as Bruce Willis hates Colin Farrell's character for that, he grows to understand that not all men are the perfect soldier, & that some quote lesser perfect soldiers unquote can sometimes be better men.This is, VERY SIMPLY Hart's war. Who is worth it? How many men, how many lives, can equal to just one life?When is sacrificing yourself, or perhaps in metaphor... Sacrificing your very ideas and ideals, your belief system, and therefore your life as it was... Worth it?Bruce Willis is not just letting a German soldier of shoot him in the head so that he won't execute 50 other men instead. Bruce Willis Is allowing Colin Farrell and all of the men watching, the opportunity to realize that all men can change. And that that change is worth it... If its for the greater good.

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thinker1691

Amid the heavy snows of the winter of 1944, near the Ardennes forests of what would later be called the 'Malmedy Massacre' lay the quiet, frozen bodies of 150 dead American soldiers murdered by the Sixth SS Panzer Army. Other Americans who survived were captured by Wehrmacht forces and sent to one of a dozen German P.O.W. camps. It was in one of these camps that Lt. Thomas Hart (Colin Farrell) and others are sent for internment. Here amid the growing number of captured Prisoners, he is introduced to Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis) a serious, disheartened West Point officer who believes every leader must prove himself worthy of command. Settling in a non-com barracks, Lt. Hart meets Staff Sgt. Victor Bedford (Cole Hauser) a 'scrounger' and man of surprising resources. Aside from his talent, he is a myopic, hate filled bigot who angrily protests the inclusion of two captured black pilots sent to their unit. When one pilot is shot for allegedly trying to escape, Bedford is accused of betraying him and is subsequently murdered. The blame immediately falls on Lt. Lincoln Scott (Terrence Howard) who is charged and given a General Courtmartial. With his life in the balance, Col. McNamara assigns Lt. Hart to defend him. With little experience Hart begins to construct a defense when he learns of the restrictions place in his way by his commanding officer. However, Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures), the German officer commanding the P.O.W. camp seeks an opportunity to prove his superiority over McNamara, decides to help Hart. What the ulterior motives of both Commanders are becomes Hart's objectives as he realizes there is more at stake than a single man's innocence. The dark drama of this movie is filled with tension, anger and shadowy perceptions. I believe this film will be seen in the future as one of Willis' all time Classics and a silent tribute to the spirits which linger in the Ardennes Forests. ****

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robertofuiano

beautiful film. As to the usual one, the usual negative comments which talk about a classical film some years 80 which everyone does not like it to the nostalgic ones are met.Sure Heros that this film had to have a judgment in this site. In fact reviewers' good part has put a high vote to the previous episodes. Because this contrast? I know the reason. Since assumptive reviewers' good part favorably sees the past and as the past is "better" than the present they have given several credit to the preceding episodes being still the last episode more explosive and spectacular. At this point should reject also the old episodes but there are here two weights and two measure.In fact also cinema masterpieces have been criticized and denigrated. Good part some reviewers of this site belong to the very bad reviewers. Better think separately with its head. I was sure that the god fun old episode did not like it. Who has to be withdrawn is not george lucas but the last reviewer

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