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Hart's War
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
FILM:
MPAA RATING: R for some strong war violence and language
Starring
Bruce Willis,
Colin Farrell,
Terrence Dashon Howard,
Vicellous Reon Shannon,
Cole Hauser,
Rory Cochrane,
Rick Ravanello,
and
Marcel Iures
Set in a Nazi prisoner of war camp, Lt. Tommy Hart (Farrell), a Harvard law student before enlisting, is assigned by top ranking Colonel William McNamara (Willis) to defend an African-American airman (Howard) accused of murder in a camp trial held by his fellow American prisoners.
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Billy Ray
Terry George
John Katzenbach (novel)
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Gregory Hoblit
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
DVD: July 9, 2002
Video: July 9, 2002
Theatrical: February 15, 2002
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
125 minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
75
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.
75
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.
75
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.
75
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
The lack of attacks lets us concentrate on emotions rather than explosions.
75
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.
75
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
The movie worked for me right up to the final scene, and then it caved in.
70
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.
67
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.
63
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."
63
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.
63
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Could have been a contender, but it lacks the courage of its own ambivalence.
60
Chicago Reader
Lisa Alspector
A mildly psychological suspense thriller with military trappings.
60
LA Weekly
Ella Taylor
A decent thriller trying to overcome a rather preposterous premise.
60
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.
60
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.
50
Washington Post
Desson Thomson
Follows all these rules, which is why you'll get the enjoyable basic minimum. But not a whit more.
50
San Francisco Chronicle
Carla Meyer
Takes some admirable risks.
50
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.
50
Film Threat
Chris Barsanti
Confused and dramatically overwrought.
50
TV Guide
Maitland McDonagh
Despite its admirable sobriety for most of its running time, the film's climax is a parade of ludicrous clichés.
50
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.
50
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.
50
New York Daily News
Jami Bernard
Hart's War has its priorities clear, but delivers them with insulting simplicity.
50
Washington Post
Stephen Hunter
It more or less self-destructs in a ridiculous last few minutes when it becomes a noble sacrifice-o-rama.
40
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.
40
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.
40
Village Voice
Justine Elias
Seriously off balance.
40
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.
40
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Inoffensive and sporadically engrossing.
30
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
If glum were good and bleak were best, Hart's War would be a standout.
30
Salon.com
Charles Taylor
Put Bruce Willis and this bewildering World War II movie in front of the firing line.
30
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.
 The average user rating for this movie is 7.8 (out of 10) based on 10 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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