Customer Reviews

Hart's War [Region 2]

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(36)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(17)

 

 

This is another in a series of recent films that seem to be less interested in plot plausibility than with getting a great ensemble cast together to spin a decent yarn. For me the problems with the plot here really strain the credibility of everything else, and although I liked the performance of all concerned, I found myself impatient at points because it all seemed far too contrived. Having said this, the acting is uniformly good, and I found that to be the one redeeming feature of the film.

Colin Farrell is especially good here, and acting out the title role lends credibility and verve to the film. Likewise, Marcel Lures does a good job convincing us he is indeed an evil and manipulative Camp Commander. Bruce Willis is also terrific as the by-the-book West Point graduate and Prisoner Commander who must decide whether or not to intercede to save Hart from his existential situation. Given his willingness to let one man die for the good of many, the choice he must make is by no means a foregone conclusion.

The action sequences are extremely well choreographed and photographed, and while the plot reels from happenstance to happenstance all too conveniently to be believed, the film is entertaining and intriguing in bringing up social issues one does not ordinarily think about in terms of the Second World War. While this isn't intended as a serious drama, it is a good action flick that will keep you entertained if you don't allow the potboiler plot to get in the way. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed John Katzenbach's novel about a murder trial set in a German POW camp during World War II. The story moved well with good, three dimensional, characters. I was excited when it was announced that the rights for the movie were sold.

I was somewhat apprehensive when it was announced that Bruce Willis was starring in the movie. This is not to say that I don't like Willis, just that there wasn't any character appropriate for him in the book... When I saw the trailer for the movie I was totally turned off by all the explosions. It appeared that a tight courtroom thriller was turned into "Die Hard". The trailer turned me off and I never went to see the film in the theatre.

I finally saw the movie this past week and I discovered that my apprehensions and refusal to see the movie in the theatre was right.

"Hart's war" is not a terrible movie - it's not great with good visuals and a comparatively weak plot (probably three stars). The problem is that the movie states that it "is based on" a great book and virtually none of the story was passed from the book to the film. Somewhere in the adaptation, Hart's character is no longer a drafted law student, there is suddenly _two_ black airmen (the book only has one) and the movie's story is more about hurting the German war effort - not about finding a murderer. None of these changes help the story and, to be honest, the movie's plot really doesn't make a lot of sense.

I finally got around to watching this movie last night (after buying it for $4 on DVD a few weeks ago) and I can say I was very pleasantly surprised by it after reading so many negative reviews.

The Problem: This film was mareketed poorly - the trailers give an accurate idea of the content, but they give you the wrong impression as to the tone. Because Bruce Willis is in it, they chose to make it out to contain tons of action and heroic combat! They also chose to make it appear to be a Bruce Willis vehicle. Let me tell you, if you are renting or buying it for either of the above reasons, you will hate it! The "combat action" scenes are sparse (two scenes) and extremely short (though very exciting when they do occur. And Bruce Willis is really a supporting actor to Farrel - in fact, of the major characters, he probably has less screen time than anyone else, and is rarely seen outside of Farrel's perspective.

(Also, Americans seem to reject the idea that Nazis in an interrment camp could have had a shred of civility. Perhaps this film gave them a little too much credit - but I think that even as evil as they were, not all Nazis were inhuman brutes.)

The Good: So, the first thing you need to do is lay aside your expectation of a SAVING PRIVATE RYAN or GUNS OF NAVARONNE type movie. This is a drama! And it is a very good one. There are several layers to this story - one is that of Lt. Hart's (Colin Farrel) need for redemption after an early failure in the film. His assignment to defend the falsely accused marine gives him that chance. The main story is the trial of a marine who asserts he was framed for the murder of a fellow marine in the stockade. Farrel quickly learns that the cards are stacked against him as the presiding officer McNamara (Willis) seemse bent on a guilty verdict. This sets up some very tense confrontations between the two.

Adding a second layer to this drama is the apparently misunderstood character of the commanding Nazi officer Werner Visser. Visser represents an aging officer who has wound up in a remote post and seems to have accepted this lesser role. (Someone commented below that his "nice guy" attitude would not get him far in the German Army - ahem, well, I think that's the point - that's why he's watching over a camp rather than storming the frontlines!) He is a foil to Willis's McNamara, who wants nothing more than to get back to the war. The confusion as to why Visser suddenly wants to help Hart is that people perceive this as Visser suddenly becoming the nice Nazi. Well, anyone paying attention can see that Visser is ONLY motivated by getting back at McNamara. Hart is a convenient tool to do so - but there is not fondness for Hart from Visser, as you will see by the film's end.

The third layer is that of the racist motivation behind the original crime. Two of the confined officers are African-American, and they are portrayed in a very heroic light here - but the white enlisted men are very prejudiced to their presence (this is the 40s, remember). This gives ample opportunity to see racism as it truly is - these are fine outstanding officers, but their contributions are ignored by those who only see the color of their skin. Someone said below that the film portrayed the African-American soldiers as Spineless and hapless - I don't know what movie he saw, I think the film COMBATED this misconception!

Combining these three threads takes a skillful director, and Hoblit shows himself up to the task. The film never loses momentum, but switches nicely between the various threads. The writing is crisp, the cinematography is appropriately drab and dreary in its own beautiful way (love the light beams coming through the barrack windows) and the few actions scenes keep the excitement level high. All told, this is an excellent movie, and one I am proud to own - it's a shame more people will miss out on it because of the critics who didn't get it.

The Bad: That is not to say it is the perfect film. I did have a difficult time following alot of what was going on for the first hour, but near the end, when a plot twist was introduced, much of these scenes made more sense. Also, some of the dialogue was either poorly recorded, or poorly delivered. But, my main gripe was covered above about the misleading marketing of this film.

The Summation: Think of it as a combination of THE GREAT ESCAPE, A FEW GOOD MEN, and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD - with the final sum being just a few notches below each of these titles, and you'll get an idea of what you're in for . . . give it a chance!

It is hard to imagine a more contrived story than this WWII POW film. There are just so many unrealistic plot elements that the story loses all credibility. Director Gregory Hoblit, ("Frequency", "Primal Fear") has delivered good dramatic films in the past, but this one simply loses its grip on reality. While the production values are excellent, Hoblit doesn't seem to notice or care that plot and the behavior of his characters range from inconsistent to implausible.

Take Colonel Werner Visser (Marcel Iures). The workup on him shows him to be evil, intolerant, cruel and autocratic and those are his nicer qualities. Then suddenly, for no reason we can discern, he develops a soft spot for Lt. Hart (Colin Farrell). This is a conniving, manipulative, hard hearted creature and just because he went to the same college as Hart, he becomes his avuncular advisor and benefactor. Let's get real here.

Yes, and I am sure they are going to send a lieutenant assigned to headquarters and privileged to strategic information, who has never been in combat, to shuttle another officer to the front lines so he can get captured and spill his guts to the enemy. That detail would have been given to a non commissioned officer with no exposure to such intelligence.

The one bright spot in this film is the acting of Colin Farrell. Farrell combines rugged good looks and excellent dramatic skills to bring this film whatever shred of credibility it has. He manages to make his character believable, despite the unbelievable nature of everything that is going on around him. Bruce Willis gets top billing in this film, but doesn't log 20% of the screen time that Farrell commands. Willis plays the hard shelled West Point officer well, although his switch from heartless malevolence to heroic nobility is just a bit too abrupt to accept.

Everything about this film stretches credulity. By the end of the film, my eye sockets were sore from all the eye rolling. I rated it a 5/10. Despite some good performances and technical elements, this kind of drama needs realism to be effective and in this regard "Hart's War" fails spectacularly.

Ok the actors are good but I expected something else.In this movie, the German soldiers and officers are just too kind ! I don't think that finally the whole story is believable.Don't expect the usual War movie with this one,You will finish in a court room mostly ! It's full of moral,justice,pride,honour...seen in far better acts before To end,this movie could have lasted 1:30 instead of the 2 LOOOOOOONNNNNNGGGGGG hours : an eternity !

This movie has one of the best endings and definitely the most surprise one I've ever seen in any movie. This isn't an action war movie, it just happens to be set during WWII to make it work. It is a court case drama with a very unexpected and touching ending. It doesn't portray all Germans as animals as some movies do - it actually show some of them as humans who do care a little bit about justice.

Colin Farrel does a splendid job as the role of the lead actor. Bruce Willis does better but his role is not the lead one. He does an exceptional job of letting Colin Farrel take a lot of the camera time while at the same time making the movie. Without him it couldn't have happened. Bruce Willis is exceptional and both characters will surprise you at the end. If you don't buy it it is a must see unless you can't stand courtroom drama.

I read the novel and was thoroughly exited about the prospect of seeing it turned into a movie. How dissapointed I was. What was a harrowing tale about racism and a legal battle fought in a a trumped up court martial turned into another Bruce Willis action flic, and not a good one at that. The movie was not true to the book and while this happens a lot in movies (see Enemy at the Gates, nee War of the Rats)in this case it did not improve the story at all and in fact reduced the real story line so much that it was relegated to a delivery device for Bruce's glares and command prescence.

...if the writer stayed truer to the excellent novel. Lt. Scott is a strong character, yet the movie has less time for Scott than it does for developing Bruce Willis' character. They also wasted too much precious time re-inventing the beginning.

Listening to the commentary, one begins to wonder if the second screenwriter even read the novel (there is absolutely no mention of it).

Also, the Bruce Willis "commentary" is forged--they obviously took sound clips from an interview and attempted to splice them into the real commentary between the director and a writer. Nonsense.

My brother bought me this book a long time ago from a dollar-store. He bought it more for a lark than anything else. The other day I decided to read it. The book had me glued to my chair, and I read it cover to cover in just over a day. John Katzenbach's portrayal of life in Stalag Luft XIII is gripping, terrifying, exciting and heart-warming all at once. J.K's father was, himself, a POW at one of the many Stalag Luft camps during WW2.

But, the screen production of Hart's War is not Katzenbach's portrayal at all, but that of director Greqory Hoblit. The movie fails to bring to life the characters from the book, and some very important characters are missing too. The movie seems to be aimed at showing everyone the great American justice system... Hollywood style! There is no mention of the British and Canadian Officers who play such a vital role in the unfolding of the plot. Not only that, but the entire plot, how it unfolds and the proceedings thereafter is completely different. While there are a lot of good points to the movie like Farrell's performance for instance, it does this great book little or no justice.

If its just the movie you're interested in then crack on by all means, but if you crave attention to detail, and all the thrills of a good criminal investigation set amidst a POW camp then the book is for you. I would suggest you read the book instead, or at least before you see the movie. It only costs a couple of bucks and its available right here on Amazon!

The movie has a theme of racial prejudice revolving around it and is cleverly portrayed. This is a movie with only men, so if you are looking for romance there is none. This is set in a Stalig Camp, I guess this is a camp based in Germany for POW's. They get better amenities than the Jewish although there soup is filled with maggots. One fellow has a good way of looking at, at least its protein. The story has an underlying plot going on that is hidden from our eyes until the end. Only McNamara and several other men know whats happening. Our main character, Hart, is unaware like the audience. Hart had a conflict over the way he surrended to questioning when he was caught and was reliving this over at the Stalig Camp when he is asked to defend a black Lietenent POW, who has been accused of murdering a fellow white officer. This white officer had a hand in getting his friend who was also a black Lietenent POW in trouble with the Germans, which prompted a firing squad.
The movie again has surprises in it and is intelligent. I like the way the Nazi Captain was portrayed. Very different, a melodramatic man, with a kind of thoughtful demeanor. This was really not so much about the Nazi's as it was about how the irony was really appalling, here we are fighting to stop genocide and treating our own fellow Americans as if they were lesser than, in this movie it was the African Americans. It makes a good point, one that I really didn't realize. I had no idea that the blacks were treated as if they were just fill ins, and deserved no respect, even if they were officers. The hypocrisy is just so visible, its a wonder people stayed in denial.
The drawback is the movies ending, it was clever but it didn't let the movie stay true to form. The black officer should have walked away the hero, he didn't have a chance. Hart had an agenda, he wanted to take the slot, because of his internal conflict, mainly guilt. McNamara took it because he was supposed to he was the captain, therefore his que. But the Black Officer whose name I can't remember, should have been the hero, he should have been the one we mourned, let us feel our anger. The movie starts out letting us feel the anger but than as always whoever the star is, in this case Willis, he steps out of the smoke and grit and takes the hero slot. This is frustrating. That is why I did not give this movie as many stars as it could have achieved. Overall, worth viewing!

Lisa Nary