Smartorhypo
Highly Overrated But Still Good
CrawlerChunky
In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.
Tayyab Torres
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
Kirpianuscus
for a long period , I was tempted to consider it the film of Marcel Iures. not only for the nationalistic motifs but for the status of Romanian actor to give the right rhythm to the story. after few years, it is obvious for me - Hart's War is the film of Colin Farell. for the science to define his character in inspired manner. for the passion of young officer who could be in easy way, transformed in pathetic portrait. for the final pledge. the virtue of Bruce Willis is to be the key of crisis. to do the right character-answer to the Iures's character. but the film remains real good for the nuanced portrait of the last WWII 's part. the expectations, the illusions, the hopes, the clash between two worlds. a film about war. interesting . and almost beautiful.
Wuchak
RELEASED IN 2002 and directed by Gregory Hoblit, "Hart's War" is a war flick about a paper-pushing lieutenant with a background in law (Colin Farrell) who is unexpectedly captured in Belgium and taken to a POW camp in southern Germany in the closing months of the European theater of the war. He eventually befriends and defends a Tuskegee Airmen (Terrence Howard). Marcel Iures plays the humane German commandant while Bruce Willis plays the tough-as-nails American colonel of the POWs. Cole Hauser is on hand as a racist soldier. This is obviously not a conventional WWII flick. Although it starts out with some great war action, it has more in common with films like "Stalag 17" (1953) and "The Great Escape" (1963), albeit with modern filmmaking craft. As my title blurb points out, it's reminiscent of Hogan's Heroes but without the comedy, plus elements of "A Few Good Men" (1992). The film isn't really about survival in the POW camp, but rather the tensions of the prisoners and the criminal drama.Some have complained that no fascist camp colonel in his right mind would allow such a trial as depicted in the movie. But there are several reasons why the commandant would allow it: (1.) for entertainment, (2.) to witness and understand the American way, (3.) he knew the war would be over soon and wanted to have the Allie's favor, or (4.) a mixture of the above. Keep in mind that the commandant went to school in the US after the first world war so he was enamored by American lifestyle and had a fondness for jazz. I'm sure entertainment was a huge factor since POW camp life is just as boring for the captors as it is for the captives over time.The climax telegraphs that this is a war MOVIE and not real life, but it's packed with action and gripping drama. It's also ultimately quite moving. Although it failed at the box office, "Hart's War" is a very good WWII POW camp movie and, in some ways, great.THE FILM RUNS 125 minutes and was shot in the Czech Republic.GRADE: B+/A-
robertjmr72
This is one of the most disappointing movies I have ever seen, the reason I say this is because it started out really awesome and then slowly turned into a terrible movie that is totally forgettable. I would say that the movie is actually really good up to the point when the African-American prisoners are brought into the prisoner of war camp and then what started out as a really interesting movie about the conditions of POW's in WWII turns into some kind of misguided statement about racism. In the end, I couldn't really understand what kind of statement or message this movie was trying to make. On the one hand it seemed to be about the inequality of US soldiers during WWII but on the other hand that whole thing was just a cover-up for some clandestine sabotage operation. The ending was completely unbelievable but by that point I didn't care because I wanted to watch a "War" movie not a courtroom drama about racism that was just a sideshow to hide an operation that no one, watching the movie, knows about until the very end(and it wasn't one of those "wow, what a cool endings" either, it was just a "WTF just happened?" ending that was stupid. I seriously doubt that this movie was an accurate portrayal of how POW's, even of different races, would treat one another.Conclusion, to make a long post even longer ;), This movie starts out really good and you think you are about to see a really awesome WWII movie but instead you have been tricked and what you end up with is a boring courtroom drama that in then in is completely meaningless because it was just a cover-up for some larger goal, and top off the stupidity the unarmed Bruce Willis character walks unopposed back into the prison camp, through the front gate...seriously, and basically let's himself get killed. This movie makes me mad because from the beginning you can tell this thing had potential and then someone, I guess the writers and director just quit caring about making sense and just told a complete fiction and nothing even remotely close to a good fictional WWII movie like "Inglorious Basterds".
Jackson Booth-Millard
I knew the leading actor, that this was a war film, and how many stars the critics gave it, but it was up to me to try it, from director Gregory Hoblit (Frequency, Untraceable). Set in World War II, law student Lt. Thomas W. Hart (Colin Farrell) is captured by the Germans after a battle and put in a German Stalag Prison camp. He joins many other POWs (Prisoner of War), including the troops led by Col. William A. McNamara (Bruce Willis), quietly waiting to pounce on the enemy, and escape the camp. Soon the soldiers are joined by two African American pilots who from a crashed plane, Lt. Lincoln A. Scott (Terrence Howard) and Lt. Lamar T. Archer (Vicellous Reon Shannon), and the other take an instant racist dislike. In the middle of the night, Archer is murdered, giving McNamara the chance to get his plans in motion, but obviously Hart wants to find the man guilty. When Scott is accused of the murder, Hart demands a court case to both find him innocent and prove it was a white man responsible. Of course Hart doesn't realise the murder is a cover up to get an escape under way, and when McNamara is discovered as the murderer, it is hard to end the case. But in the end, the escape plan is discovered, and Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures) holds McNamara fully responsible, which of course he is, and allows himself to get shot, Scott is found innocent, and of course three months later the war ends. Also starring Cole Hauser as Staff Sgt. Vic W. Bedford, Linus Roache as Capt. Peter A. Ross, Rory Cochrane as Sgt. Carl S. Webb and Michael Weston as Pfc. W. Roy Potts. I can see what the critics mean with Willis not being used enough, Farrell makes a reasonable lead with his not too bad American accent, and Iures gets his moments as the German Lt., it's not a brilliant war film, but you can try it if you want to. Worth watching, at least once!
