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The relationships among prisoners at a German POW camp are the focus of Hart's War.
By PHILIP BOOTH, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times, published February 14, 2002
It's that time of the decade: Combat movies are back in vogue. Hart's War, set during World War II, is the fifth volley of late, if the terrorist-related Collateral Damage is included alongside Black Hawk Down,Behind Enemy Lines and No Man's Land.
This week's entry, a plus for those immune to the pleasures of fiery explosions and blown-off appendages, turns out not to be what the trailers would lead audiences to believe. Hart's War is more of a character study than a traditional war picture, a courtroom drama crossed with Stalag 17, with a touch of The Great Escape thrown in near the end. It makes for a satisfying mix.
The film, smartly paced by director Gregory Hoblit (Frequency, Primal Fear), benefits from solid source material. The screenplay, by Billy Ray (Volcano) and Terry George (In the Name of the Father), was adapted from the book of the same name by John Katzenbach, who wrote the novels that inspired the movies The Mean Season and Just Cause. Katzenbach, a former Miami Herald crime reporter, based his book on an incident related by his father, a prisoner of war.
Cinematographer Alar Kivilo, too, the lensman for A Simple Plan and Frequency, has captured a dreary, affecting blue-green look for the movie, mostly set at Stalag VI, a POW camp in Germany, and shot in Prague.
But it's the performances -- particularly those of Colin Farrell (Tigerland) as the title character, Bruce Willis and the Romanian-born Marcel Iures -- that transform a curious historical footnote into a compelling big-screen drama.
Farrell strikes the right blend of reckless bravado and silent suffering over a personal failing as Hart, a young lieutenant captured by the Nazis, tortured and then transported to Stalag VI. Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis), a West Point graduate, fourth generation military, is the senior officer among a large contingent of American soldiers.
Ruling the camp with an iron fist is cruel German Col. Visser (Iures), ready and willing to execute his prisoners on a moment's notice, for any reason. He supervises the hanging of three Russian soldiers and personally shoots others. Credit Iures with bringing a touch of humanity to his character. Visser, who has a Yale Law School education in common with Hart, has an abiding interest in arts and culture, yet remains morally unenlightened.
McNamara, puffed up and apparently relishing his limited power, and Hart cross swords from the beginning, although it's not clear until much later why the senior officer is so standoffish toward his younger colleague.
Relations between the two become dicey when Hart is called on to defend a white prisoner accused of killing a black soldier, a Tuskegee airman, and McNamara presides over the court-martial.
Does the trial itself, carefully observed by Visser, represent a legitimate search for the truth, or is it a sham? Is Hart above reproach? Hoblit effectively leads us on several detours before capping his movie with an exhilarating conclusion, a little bit of military rah-rah in a war film surprisingly devoid of the stuff.
Grade: B
Director: Gregory Hoblit
Cast: Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard, Cole Hauser, Marcel Iures, Linus Roache, Vicellous Shannon
Screenplay: Billy Ray, Terry George, based on the novel by John Katzenbach
Rating: R; violence
Running time: 125 minutes