A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Hart's War

Theatrical release: 2002

Details:

Bruce Willis

Colin Farrell

Terrence Dashon Howard

Cole Hauser

Marcel Iures

Vicellous Reon Shannon

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Score: +

The Review: Very good drama and character study situated (mostly) in a German POW camp near Augsburg in the final year of WW-II. It starts in December 1944, with the capture of a senator's son (Hart, played by Farrell as a young Yale law student), his questioning and march to the camp. The tension, of joining a camp which continues to fill with newly arriving Allied prisoners, is combined with his insertion into already established and suspicious cliques, the possibility of turncoats, and comes to culmination with a court-martial for murder. A lot of sub-plots and twists along the way.

Above average, very interesting and quite complex characters, not least the camp commander (Iures), and (opposing him) the American colonel (Willis) who is ranking officer for the prisoners, a 4th-generation professional soldier. Throw in a bit of the Tuskegee airmen (Shannon) and pre-enlightenment bigotry, and you've got something worth watching.

Point of note: the DVD is very well-constructed and programmed: you load the disk, and the movie starts -- no trailers, no FBI or Interpol warnings, no menus -- it just starts. This is an excellent idea that I wish other DVD programmers would emulate. I have no interest in wasting time at the beginning, or hassling with the remote control, and certainly don't want to be told (via the "forbidden" icon) that I am not permitted to skip over the useless introductory crap.

(28-Jul-02)

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