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Actors: Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell
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| Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Hart's War |
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A young soldier is captured by the Nazis and brought to a concentration camp for P.O.W.'s. There complications arise when 2 African-American soldiers are sent there. Most of the American prisoners show racism and one even frames one of them and gets him executed. The man who framed him is later killed and the other black soldier is held responsible. The main soldier then tries to prove his innocence by taking the crime to court. Also, on the day of the verdict several soldiers plan a daring escape leaving this young soldier to learn everything there is about honor and courage.
--Jack Bauer, Resident Scholar
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Lt. Tommy Hart (Farrell, looking like an earnest cross between Treat Williams and Keanu Reeves) is a desk officer and former law student who gets captured by the Germans in the final winter of the war. He finds himself in a POW camp where the American prisoner Col. William McNamara (Willis) and worldly German commandant SS Major Wilhelm Visser (Marcel Iures) match wits as the war grinds toward its inevitable conclusion. The story turns out not to be about war or prison camp life or escape (although all these are part of the overall picture), so much as a murder mystery and criminal trial. A racist white prisoner appears to have been fatally stabbed by a black Air Force officer after the victim had taunted the accused and a colleague until the flyboy's buddy was casually executed by the Germans, and the camp commandant allows a trial for the amusement and entertainment of all. Hart is ordered to mount the defense. But all is of course not as it seems. Director Gregory Hoblit (Frequency, Primal Fear, TV's LA Law) and screenwriters Billy Ray and Terry George have made a clean, competent film of writer John Katzenbach's novel, but the results are almost too perfect. Despite fine acting all around -- particularly from Farrell, Iures, and Willis -- and a strong script, the story tries to cover too many bases and there are too many perfect plot twists. A much-better-than-average movie about war, honor, and courage, though.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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| Analysis of Hart's War |
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Composition of Movie
Actual chase scenes or violence - 20%
Planning/preparing, gather info, debate puzzles/motives - 60%
Feelings, relationships, character bio/development - 20%
Time/Era of Movie:
- 1930's-1950's
Legal/Political Thriller?
Yes
War Thriller
Yes
Armed Forces:
- Army
Specific to
- WW II
Legal Thriller Plotlets:
- finding out whether someone is really guilty
- military on trial
POW movie?
Yes
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- infantry soldier
- a lawyer creature
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Black)
Hair style
- short/standard straight (man)
Body type
- average (man)
Events of movie makes character more...
- tougher
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
How sensitive is this character?
- sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor
- Mostly serious with occasional humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
- Smarter than most other characters
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- bald
Hair style
- (man) bald
Body type
- muscular (man)
How much in movie?
- 60%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
Main Adversary
Identity:
- Male
- enemy army
Age:
- 20's-30's
Profession/status:
- infantry soldier
How much of work is main antagonist actually present in:
- 20%
- 90%-100%
Specific kind of enemies?
- captors
Hair color
- blonde
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- skinny (man)
Ethnicity/Nationality
- White (American)
- German
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Sense of humor
- Cynical sense of humor
How sensitive is this character?
- mean, arrogant
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Germany
Misc setting
- prison
- fort/military installation
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- moderately messy visuals of dead
Movie makes you feel...
- challenged
How many deaths in film?
- dozens
How much use of techno gadgets?
- 1 (None)
Kind of violence:
- air battles
- land battles
- mission to destroy something
- hand to hand
- guns
Unusual forms of death
- asphyxiation
- perforation--bullets
- perforation--swords/knives
Any profanity?
- Some foul language
- A lot of foul language
Lot of special effects?
Yes
Kinds of F/X
- exploding bombs
Is this movie based on a
- book
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Note: the views expressed here are only those of the reviewer(s). | |
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