Hart's War

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Works uncommonly well because of the effective manner in which it blends together its various elements: the WW2 prison camp setting, the courtroom aspects, and the issues of honor, racism, and redemption.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Reminds us that the human dynamic can do a lot that explosions can't, even when the film flirts with formula.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A solid piece of storytelling that doesn't pander, skips the usual POW stereotypes and allows the film to work reasonably well as an epic of war, a survival story, a prison thriller, a murder mystery and a courtroom drama.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

The lack of attacks lets us concentrate on emotions rather than explosions.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

The plot is canny, but it would be little more than an ingenious springloaded device were it not for the performances by Howard and Iures.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

The movie worked for me right up to the final scene, and then it caved in.

Newsweek David Ansen

Gets too earnest for its own good. But Billy Ray and Terry George’s screenplay, taken from a John Katzenbach novel, is expertly plotted.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

It may seem harmless, to some, that our movies have never entirely abandoned the land of Poitier-ville, but as Hart's War demonstrates, it's an insult that they haven't.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

Quickly morphs into a messy double message movie with motifs and clichés lifted from military courtroom films like "A Soldier's Story" and "A Few Good Men."

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

Just because a movie was inspired by real life and has good intentions doesn't mean it can't wind up as phony as a three-dollar bill.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

Could have been a contender, but it lacks the courage of its own ambivalence.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

A mildly psychological suspense thriller with military trappings.

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

A decent thriller trying to overcome a rather preposterous premise.

Variety Todd McCarthy

Absorbing in a low-key way but more dramatic where its secondary characters are concerned than its leads, and capped by climactic incidents that are less than entirely convincing.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

In its amalgam of classic Hollywood war movies and courtroom dramas, Hart's War takes the audience to a place that never existed in order to teach it a lesson it already knows.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Follows all these rules, which is why you'll get the enjoyable basic minimum. But not a whit more.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Takes some admirable risks.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Ultimately, Hart's War can't decide what it is: treatise on racism, escape (and escapist) thriller or murder mystery. So it sits there -- and we sit there with it, waiting and waiting. And waiting.

Film Threat Chris Barsanti

Confused and dramatically overwrought.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Despite its admirable sobriety for most of its running time, the film's climax is a parade of ludicrous clichés.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Having seen the TV series "Hogan's Heroes," we already know that a German prisoner of war camp can be cartooned; Hart's War goes further as a cartoon that takes itself seriously.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

The movie's exploration of prejudice within the military is certainly on target, but it's presented with all the finesse of a classroom civics lesson.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

Hart's War has its priorities clear, but delivers them with insulting simplicity.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It more or less self-destructs in a ridiculous last few minutes when it becomes a noble sacrifice-o-rama.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Director Gregory Hoblit ("Primal Fear") is merely arranging cliches in new patterns until the surprise ending blows enough pro-military fervor up the audience's ass to make Colin Powell call a halt.

New York Magazine Peter Rainer

A movie like Hart's War, for all its realistic trappings, is essentially escapism. And yet it inadvertently pushes the 9/11 button. The real world is going to intrude a lot this year at the movies. Better get used to it.

Village Voice Justine Elias

Seriously off balance.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

Less fascinating and finally unsatisfying is the awfully familiar racism angle, a subplot that, though unusual in a POW movie, turns regrettably earnest and preachy almost immediately.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

Inoffensive and sporadically engrossing.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

If glum were good and bleak were best, Hart's War would be a standout.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Put Bruce Willis and this bewildering World War II movie in front of the firing line.

The New York Times A.O. Scott

Wants to be everything and adds up to nothing. "War" is a film that tries to excel on several levels and falls flat on all of them.