Stars: Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Dashon Howard, Jonathan Brandis, Vicellous Reon Shannon, Scott Michael Campbell, Rory Cochrane, Linus Roache, Cole Hauser, Michael Landes, Sam Worthington, Marcel Iures, Michael Weston

Director: Gregory Hoblit

Summary: Based on the novel by John Katzenbach, this is the story of Lt. Tommy Hart who is taken prisoner by the German during World War II. Whilst a POW, Hart is required to defend a fellow prisoner accused of murder...

Director Gregory Hoblit's debut feature was the tricky courtroom drama PRIMAL FEAR. With his fourth feature, HART'S WAR, Hoblit is back with another. This time the court is inside a WWII prisoner-of-war camp. The defendant is Lieutenant Lincoln Scott (Terrence Howard), a black officer accused of killing a racist sergeant (Cole Hauser). Scott lawyer is Lieutenant Tommy Hart (Colin Farrell), a second-year law student at Yale. A U.S. senator's son, Hart was having a relatively easy war until he was captured, interrogated, and sent to Stalag VI. The camp commandant is the urbane, charming, and ruthless SS Major Visser (compellingly played by Rumanian actor Marcel Iures). The ranking American officer at the camp is Colonel William McNamara (Bruce Willis), and Hart is soon in conflict with him. When Scott is accused of murder, McNamara insists that the prisoners should hold a court martial, and he appoints Hart counsel for the defense. At the court martial, Hart finds his client is being railroaded, although he gets help from unexpected quarters. Intricately plotted by scriptwriters Billy Ray and Terry George, and filmed by Hoblit with his accustomed attention to detail, HART'S WAR is a devious and absorbing courtroom/POW drama.

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Hart's Waris a serious, well-intentioned Second World War drama. It's finally unconvincing, but it will go down in the history books as marking future superstar Colin Farrell's first leading role in a major studio picture. It's late 1944 and Lieutenant Hart (Farrell) ends up in a POW camp where the senior American officer, Colonel McNamara (Bruce Willis), takes an instant dislike to him. When a black American officer, Lt Scott (Terrence Howard), is accused of murder, the commandant allows McNamara to conduct a politically motivated trial. Hart is made the defence attorney, but may be no more than a pawn to further McNamara's own agenda.

In a film that chooses the ironic setting of a Nazi prison camp to examine racism in the American military, none of the characters are black or white, and in the tradition of The Shawshank Redemptionthere is more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye. Unfortunately, while Hart's Waris extremely well made, various small plot holes and contrivances mean that ultimately it fails to ring true--a problem exacerbated by an over-earnest tendency to preach in key scenes. Nevertheless, Willis gives one of his best, most understated performances and Farrell, who went straight from this to Minority Report, delivers a truly star-making turn.

On the DVD:Hart's Warcomes to DVD with a Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack that's fine for a dialogue-driven film, while the anamorphically enhanced 2.35:1 transfer is virtually flawless. Ten deleted scenes are presented with the same excellent picture quality and optional commentary by director Gregory Hoblit. There is a four-part photo gallery, the deceptive theatrical trailer and two commentaries. Producer David Foster offers some interesting information, but also a lot of generalities and silence. Bruce Willis contributes virtually nothing, but Hoblit and writer Billy Ray engage in a frank discussion of many of the flaws in the film and the problems they never solved. The wartime history they recount and the cuts they made suggest that a better film was sacrificed to tell a commercial story in two hours. --Gary S. Dalkin

Aspect Ratio:	2.35 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Audio Commentary With Bruce Willis And Director Gregory Hoblit And Writer Billy Ray, Audio Commentary With Producer David Foster, Deleted Scenes With Directors Commentary, Photo Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Czech, Danish, English, Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish
Year:	2002
Release Date:	October 14, 2002
Runtime:	120 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	22944 D V D
Keywords:	War, English, Hart's
Genre:	War