Hart's War (2002)

A law student becomes a lieutenant during World War II, is captured and asked to defend a black prisoner of war falsely accused of murder.

Director:

Gregory Hoblit

Writers:

John Katzenbach (novel), Billy Ray (screenplay)

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Willis	...	Col. William A. McNamara
Colin Farrell	...	Lt. Thomas W. Hart
Terrence Howard	...	Lt. Lincoln A. Scott
Cole Hauser	...	Staff Sgt. Vic W. Bedford
Marcel Iures	...	Col. Werner Visser
Linus Roache	...	Capt. Peter A. Ross
Vicellous Shannon	...	Lt. Lamar T. Archer
Maury Sterling	...	Pfc. Dennis A. Gerber
Sam Jaeger	...	Capt. R.G. Sisk
Scott Michael Campbell	...	Cpl. Joe S. Cromin
Rory Cochrane	...	Sgt. Carl S. Webb
Sebastian Tillinger	...	Pvt. Bert D. 'Moose' Codman
Rick Ravanello	...	Maj. Joe Clary
Adrian Grenier	...	Pvt. Daniel E. Abrams
Michael Weston	...	Pfc. W. Roy Potts

Storyline

Fourth-generation Army Col. William McNamara is imprisoned in a brutal German POW camp. Still, as the senior-ranking American officer, he commands his fellow inmates, keeping a sense of honor alive in a place where honor is easy to destroy, all under the dangerous eye of the Luftwaffe veteran Col. Wilhelm Visser. Never giving up the fight to win the war, McNamara is silently planning, waiting for his moment to strike back at the enemy. A murder in the camp gives him the chance to set a risky plan in motion. With a court martial to keep Visser and the Germans distracted, McNamara orchestrates a cunning scheme to escape and destroy a nearby munitions plant, enlisting the unwitting help of young Lt. Tommy Hart. Together with his men, McNamara uses a hero's resolve to carry out his mission, ultimately forced to weigh the value of his life against the good of his country.

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Plot Keywords:

n word | f word | honor | pilot | lieutenant | 

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Taglines:

Germany 1944. For some the war has ended. For colonel William McNamara, it has not ended. For Lieutenant Thomas Hart... It has just begun.

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Genres:

Drama | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for some strong war violence and language

Details

Official Sites:

Hart's War Official WebSite

Country:

USA

Language:

English German

Release Date:

15 February 2002 (USA)

Also Known As:

Hart's War

Filming Locations:

Barrandov Studios, Prague, Czech Republic

Box Office

Budget:

$70,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$7,771,753, 17 February 2002

Gross USA:

$19,077,641

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$32,287,044

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cheyenne Enterprises, David Foster Productions, David Ladd Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

DTS Dolby Digital SDDS

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

One of the movie's credited writers, Billy Ray, reports that he never read the novel, "Hart's War," which is the basis for the movie. In The Dialogue: An Interview with Screenwriter Billy Ray (2007), he calls this revelation a "painful admission." But, he explains, by the time he came on the project, the screenplay had been through so many drafts that what was in the book itself did not matter much for his job of getting the screenplay to work. Ray says that one of the movie's producers, David Foster "constantly" sent him excerpts from the novel, advising him to include those particular things in the movie. But he implies that he felt no need to include something simply because it came from the novel. He then makes a point of saying he "admires" the novel's author, John Katzenbach and his father, Nicholas Katzenbach, whose time as a World War II prisoner of war was the basis of the novel. Ray explains further that he worked from the existing drafts and from the large amount of World War II research he did for the project, especially relying on the writing of Stephen Ambrose.

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Goofs

The level of the alcohol in the glass jar in the Colonel's office changes between shots. At one point it rises and later lowers again without being poured.

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Quotes

Lt. Lincoln A. Scott: You know how hard they tried to wash us out in flight school? the colored flyers, it was test after test, anything they can come up to turn us into the cooks, the drivers, the shit shovelers, but I refused to wash out, so did Archer, come hell or high water, we hit the books, we were determined not to spend the war being some niggers, with all due respect, sir I'd like to exercise my right to address this court, I've been sitting down ever since I got here and I should've said when you ...

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Connections

Referenced in At the Movies: We Were Soldiers/40 Days and 40 Nights/Queen of the Damned (2002)

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Soundtracks

Die Fahne hoch!
Performed by The Musikkorps Liebstandarte-SS 'Adolf Hitler'
Courtesy of the Tomahawk Films WW-II German Archive

User Reviews

Good if not great

I don't know what y'all are complaining about: this is a good movie! It has fallen pray to mismarketing like so many good films before. Farrell is good (he'll be BIG soon, mark my words), Marcel Iures fills the screen with his presence and performance. Willis however, I must admit, play Willis. But hey; I like him for what he is.

The plot is well thought out, intelligently blending the lines between the war- and the courtroom genre. Don't tell me you anticipated every twist in the plot.

For all it's worth; the movie was very different in a great way from all war movies in last couple of years. Different in quite a smart way, too.

8/10