Hart's War: Movie Review, DVD Review (2002)
9/21/2007 Posted by Admin
The lucrative business of recreating war
(Originally published 2002)
Directed by Gregory Hoblit, written by Billy Ray and Terry George, 125 minutes, rated R.
Gregory Hoblit's World War II drama, "Hart's War," continues the recent rush of war movies marching out of Hollywood, a list that includes "Black Hawk Down," "No Man's Land," "Charlotte Gray" and "Behind Enemy Lines," and which continues next month with the March 1 release of the new Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," and later on June 14 with John Woo's "Windtalkers.”
With the exception of "Windtalkers," which MGM has delayed for months, nearly all of the aforementioned movies were originally slated for later release dates. But considering the current mood of the country, Hollywood shrewdly stepped up its production schedules and entrenched itself deep into the lucrative business of recreating war.
Where "Hart's War" is concerned, that turns out to be a reasonably good thing, especially if you’re prepared before going in to the film that it won’t be the movie MGM is selling in its television ads.
Instead of delivering the non-stop action of “Black Hawk Down,” which is how “Hart’s War” is being marketed, it’s more often a leisurely paced, well-acted drama reminiscent of “Stalag 17” and “The Great Escape” crossed with “A Few Good Men” and “A Soldier’s Story.”
The film, from a script Billy Ray and Terry George adapted from John Katzenbach's novel, takes place in December 1944, just months before the Germans surrendered and American troops were sent home.
Colin Farrell (“Tigerland,” “American Outlaws”) is Lt. Tommy Hart, a Yale law student and senator’s son who, in the film’s spectacular opening sequence, falls victim to a bloody German trap that leads to his imprisonment in a crowded Belgium POW camp called Stalag VI.
There, Hart meets Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis), the highest-ranking American at Stalag VI; the Nazi commandant Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures), a fellow Yalie who runs the camp; and a black airman named Lt. Scott (Terrence Howard) whose skin color becomes key in a murder rap that culminates with Hart defending him in an extended court trial that isn’t what it seems.
The standout here is Farrell, whose star should only rise this summer when he appears opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” but Willis and Iures also are solid.
Still, “Hart’s War” is more than its performances. In spite of its occasionally plodding midsection, what gives the film an enormous lift are its twists and turns, all of which are surprising enough to make “Hart’s War” a war movie worth seeing.
Grade: B
Directed by Gregory Hoblit, written by Billy Ray and Terry George, 125 minutes, rated R.
Gregory Hoblit's World War II drama, "Hart's War," continues the recent rush of war movies marching out of Hollywood, a list that includes "Black Hawk Down," "No Man's Land," "Charlotte Gray" and "Behind Enemy Lines," and which continues next month with the March 1 release of the new Mel Gibson movie, "We Were Soldiers," and later on June 14 with John Woo's "Windtalkers.”
With the exception of "Windtalkers," which MGM has delayed for months, nearly all of the aforementioned movies were originally slated for later release dates. But considering the current mood of the country, Hollywood shrewdly stepped up its production schedules and entrenched itself deep into the lucrative business of recreating war.
Where "Hart's War" is concerned, that turns out to be a reasonably good thing, especially if you’re prepared before going in to the film that it won’t be the movie MGM is selling in its television ads.
Instead of delivering the non-stop action of “Black Hawk Down,” which is how “Hart’s War” is being marketed, it’s more often a leisurely paced, well-acted drama reminiscent of “Stalag 17” and “The Great Escape” crossed with “A Few Good Men” and “A Soldier’s Story.”
The film, from a script Billy Ray and Terry George adapted from John Katzenbach's novel, takes place in December 1944, just months before the Germans surrendered and American troops were sent home.
Colin Farrell (“Tigerland,” “American Outlaws”) is Lt. Tommy Hart, a Yale law student and senator’s son who, in the film’s spectacular opening sequence, falls victim to a bloody German trap that leads to his imprisonment in a crowded Belgium POW camp called Stalag VI.
There, Hart meets Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis), the highest-ranking American at Stalag VI; the Nazi commandant Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures), a fellow Yalie who runs the camp; and a black airman named Lt. Scott (Terrence Howard) whose skin color becomes key in a murder rap that culminates with Hart defending him in an extended court trial that isn’t what it seems.
The standout here is Farrell, whose star should only rise this summer when he appears opposite Tom Cruise in Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” but Willis and Iures also are solid.
Still, “Hart’s War” is more than its performances. In spite of its occasionally plodding midsection, what gives the film an enormous lift are its twists and turns, all of which are surprising enough to make “Hart’s War” a war movie worth seeing.
Grade: B
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