Hart's War

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Hart's War

Hart's War Promotional Movie Poster
Directed by Gregory Hoblit
Produced by David Foster
Gregory Hoblit
David Ladd
Arnold Rifkin
Written by John Katzenbach (novel)
Billy Ray (screenplay)
Terry George (screenplay)
Starring Bruce Willis
Colin Farrell
Terrence Howard
Cole Hauser
Marcel Iureş
Music by Rachel Portman
Cinematography Alar Kivilo
Editing by David Rosenbloom
Distributed by MGM
Release date(s) February 15, 2002
Running time 125 min.
Language English
Budget $70,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Hart's War is a 2002 film about a fictional World War II prisoner of war based on the novel by John Katzenbach starring Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell and Terrence Howard. The film, directed by Gregory Hoblit, was shot at Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic and released on 15 February 2002.

[edit] Plot

During the Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Army intelligence officer First Lieutenant Thomas Hart (Farrell) is captured by German forces. While interrogating Hart, the Germans coerce him to divulge intelligence by taking away his boots, causing his feet to become frostbitten and badly injured, and leaving him, naked, in a very cold cell. He is then transferred by train to a prisoner of war camp. While enroute, a P-51 Mustang attacks (the letters POW were painted on the top of the train, but got covered by thick snow). To save themselves, the POWs leave the train spell P-O-W with their bodies and prevent further strafing.

After arriving, Lt. Hart is interviewed by the ranking American officer, Colonel, William McNamara (Willis). When McNamara asks if he cooperated with the Germans after he was captured, Hart denies it. McNamara knows this to be a lie because of the number of days Hart endured interrogration, which Hart reveals to be three. McNamara does not reveal this to Hart, but sends him to bunk in a barracks for enlisted men, rather than allow him to bunk with the other officers.

Two black pilots are brought to the camp. They are the only blacks among the white POWs, and their situation is compounded by their status as officers. Staff Sgt. Vic W. Bedford (Hauser) is their primary antagonist. One of the pilots is executed when accused of keeping a weapon that Bedford had planted in his bunk. When Bedford himself subsequently turns up dead, the surviving pilot, Lt. Lincoln A. Scott (Howard) is accused of killing Bedford in retaliation. A law student before the war, Hart is appointed by McNamara to defend the accused pilot at his court-martial, a trial to which the camp commandant, Oberst Werner Visser (Iureş) agrees. Only much later does McNamara reveal to Hart that the "defense," like the trial itself, is to be a sham, an elaborate distraction to hide a planned attack on a nearby ammunition plant (the army mistakenly believed to be a shoe factory) by McNamara and his men. He also reveals that he arranged for the murders of both the pilot and Bedford, who was a traitor, to create the incident. Hart is shocked that McNamara as a senior officer would sacrifice fellow Americans to perpetuate this.

McNamara's ploy nearly succeeds, with the escaped soldiers destroying a nearby ammunition plant. However, McNamara overhears Hart's decision to confess to the murder, in order to save Lt. Scott. McNamara has a change of heart and voluntarily returns to the camp to accept responsibility. Visser holds McNamara accountable and personally executes him on the spot, but spares the remaining prisoners. Three months later, the German army surrenders to the Allies. The prison camp is liberated and all of the surviving prisoners, including Hart, are sent home. Hart's final comments are that he learned about honor, duty and sacrifice.

[edit] Cast

[edit] External links