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First, not to defend MGM, but the filmmakers are not cashing in on the war hero thing created by September 11th. I know this because MGM has had info about this movie on its web site for about a year. I think the filmmakers might be trying to cash in on the World War II movie binge that is going on in Hollywood lately (Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, Enemy at the Gates, U-571, Pearl Harbor, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, and coming soon-Windtalkers). But enough off my issues, and on with the show. The story to Hart’s War begins at the beginning of World War II’s so called Battle of the Bulge. This German counteroffensive was Hitler’s last major attempt at driving the Allies out of France following the D-Day invasion. The German counterattack took place in December of 1944 when Nazi forces rushed through the heavily wooded Ardennes region of NE France. The attempt might have been successful if the Germans had more fuel and an actual air force capable of putting up a little resistance to the large British and US air forces. Anyway, I’m off-track since most of this information is omitted from the film. As to the plot, Lieutenant Hart (Colin Farrell, The War Zone) is a rear area paper pusher in the Army who will never see combat duty thanks to his senator father. However, Hart ends up being captured by the Germans while driving a captain to the front lines during the very beginning of the German attack before Allied forces knew what was happening. Then after capture Lt. Hart is interrogated, eventually by methods prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, by the Germans in an attempt to get valuable information regarding fuel depots. He of course cracks, at which point he is sent to a POW camp in Germany where he meets the top US officer there, Colonel McNamara (Bruce Willis from Bandits & Unbreakable). McNamara does not like Hart for several reasons including that Hart lies to him about his interrogation and that Hart is not a combat officer like himself. Shortly after Hart’s arrival in camp two Black pilots are brought there after being shot down. You must remember that the US armed forces were not integrated during WWII, so many of the white soldiers did not want to share living quarters with the two new arrivals. Soon after this, a white soldier named Bedford (Cole Hauser, Pitch Black) sets up Lt. Archer (Vicellous Shannon, The Hurricane), whom is one of the Black pilots, by planting a weapon in his bunk and then telling the German guards. This gets Archer executed on the spot. I should also mention that Bedford is an extremely racist southern boy who is selling information to the Germans for material gain. Everybody knows that Bedford did what he did, so now the remaining pilot, Lt. Lincoln Scott (Terrence Dashon Howard, Angel Eyes), wants revenge upon Bedford. Then one day Bedford turns up murdered with Lincoln Scott as the prime suspect. But who really did it and why is the mystery that Lt. Hart is forced to discover when Col. McNamara assigns Hart to be Scott’s attorney for Scott’s court marshal. Hart’s War is adapted (with many changes) to the screen by Billy Ray from a novel by John Katzenbach. Gregory Hoblit directs the cast that includes Marcel Iures, Rick Ravanello, Rory Cochrane, Linus Roache, Sam Jaeger, David Barrass, and quite a few others. Hart’s War is an interesting story. However, I saw an interview with Bruce Willis in it and he said that the audience wouldn’t know until the end what the real objective is, which is frankly bullshit. It takes about ten seconds after arrival at the camp to figure out what the objective is. Now figuring out who is the murderer, that is a bit suspenseful. Colin Farrell does well in his performance as the naïve officer that was born with a silver spoon is his mouth. Overall, Hart’s War is a decent story that earns only seven couches though. This is mainly because you know all along that they want to escape, will escape, and what they will do once they escape. That’s all folks (RIP Chuck Jones).
Last updated: Thursday, March 20, 2008 02:48:11 AM Click Here to get back into frames.
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