Hart's War

Hart’s War is only Gregory Hoblit’s fourth stab at directing a feature film. Probably his best known movie prior to this was Frequency, which was released in 2000. However he did work on some episodes of LA Law and NYPD Blue. Not terribly impressive credentials really, and even though I am a fan of war films, I wasn’t expecting much from this. In some respects I was right; Hart’s War is a passable war film, but it is by no means up near the best of them.

The story is set in 1945, near the end of the Second World War. At the beginning of the film, Lt. Thomas Hart (Colin Farrell) is captured by German soldiers and is sent to an interrogation centre. He is threatened and tortured until he reveals the location of a fuel station to the enemy, and is then sent to a POW camp in Belgium. The leading Allied officer in the camp is Col. William A. McNamara (Bruce Willis).

Lt. Hart is questioned by Col McNamara, but McNamara believes Hart is lying and he is sent to quarters with the enlisted men. Soon after this two African American pilots, Lt. Lamar Archer (Vicellous Shannon) and Lt. Lincoln Scott (Terrence Howard) are sent to bunk in the same lodgings as Lt. Hart. Though not the ranking officer in the building, a very racist man named Vic Bedford is really in control of the quarters. He plants a tent peg that could be considered a weapon under Archer’s bed mattress, and when the weapon is discovered Archer is summarily executed by the Germans.

"Your colonel is throwing you to the wolves."

Lt. Scott was good friends with Lt. Archer, and it comes as little surprise when Vic Bedford is found dead with Lt. Scott standing over his body. Lt Hart believes that this is another set up, and demands that a trial be conducted for the crime. The commandant of the POW camp, Col. Werner Visser (Marcel Iures), allows this to go ahead, and Col. McNamara assigns Lt. Hart to defend Lt. Scott. The prosecution is lead by a soldier who was a lawyer as a civilian, whereas Lt. Hart was only in his second year of law school when he was sent to serve in the war.

It is obvious that the whole camp is against Hart and Scott, and it is only through Col. Visser lending Hart a court martial handbook that he is able to have a fighting chance. There are a few twists in the plot to keep the viewer entertained, but the film moves at quite a slow pace. A good chunk of the film is devoted to courtroom drama, and if this is your thing then it will prove quite interesting. Racial tones are strong in Hart’s War, and it is almost possible to say that racism is the main theme of the film with the war simply as a backdrop.

Colin Farrell is becoming real hot property in Hollywood. His recent performances in Minority Report and Tigerland have been brilliant, and his effort in Hart’s War is also top notch. It will be very interesting to see how his career develops over the next five to ten years. Bruce Willis gives his usual high standard of performance as Col. William McNamara. It isn’t one of the best roles of his career, but it is solid and very convincing. Terrence Howard is a definite highlight. He brings a lot of emotion to his role as Lt. Lincoln Scott. I hadn’t seen him in anything before, and he was a very pleasant surprise. Another that deserves mention is Marcel Iures, who plays Col. Werner Visser; he gives a very credible performance as the conspiring leader of the POW camp.

The video transfer is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and is 16x9 enhanced. The picture for the most part is extremely good. Sharpness is top notch, and the detail generated by this is very nice indeed. Shadow detail is brilliant, which is a good thing because much of the film is in subdued lighting and gloom.

Due to a design choice, the colours in the film are very washed out and unsaturated. The effect works well, giving a depressing feel throughout. Flesh tones and hues are accurate. There are virtually no film artefacts present; the video transfer is clean as a whistle. The black levels are nice and rich and there are no MPEG artefacts present.

The disc is single sided and dual layered. The layer change occurs at 65:52, and though it is in a good spot it seems to pause a little longer than most. There are plenty of subtitles available, and the English ones seem to be very accurate for the most part. The only problem with the English subtitles noticed was while at one stage Bruce Willis’ character says ‘good night’, the subtitles come up with the word ‘here.’

There is one audio track available on the disc; an English Dolby Digital 5.1 surround presentation. Even though this film is classified as a war film, the action sequences are few and far between and thus the sound system is not really given a consistent chance to impress. Hart’s War is at its core a dialogue driven movie.

The few action sequences that are present, though they are very short, do come across very nicely indeed. The surrounds are used aggressively during these scenes and the subwoofer comes to life and rattles the windows. Probably the best action scene involves a dogfight between Allied and German planes. With plenty of surround use and good use of the subwoofer showing that the sound crew definitely came to the party when it was required.

The dialogue mixing is very good, which is a blessing because as mentioned earlier, this film is more in the genre of drama than war. Everything that is said is very easy to understand. There are no apparent problems with regards to audio synch.

A fair set of extras are present on the disc:

Audio Commentary - The first of two feature length scene specific audio commentaries, this one is delivered by director Gregory Hoblit, writer Billy Ray and Bruce Willis. This is probably the more interesting of the two commentaries (mostly due to the fact that there is more than one person talking), and Hoblit provides quite a few facts that are worthy of note. As to be expected, Ray’s information mostly concerns the writing process of the film. Willis only really makes a few comments, nothing really of note.

Audio Commentary - The second of the commentaries is from the producer David Foster, whose past credits include McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Short Circuit and The Mask of Zorro. Foster talks mostly about the behind the scenes work done on the film and gives an overview of the production. One small problem with this commentary is that there are some prolonged periods of silence where no information is given, but this can be forgiven since it is a solo commentary.

Deleted Scenes - There are ten separate deleted scenes, and they are available with or without commentary from Gregory Hoblit and Billy Ray. They are presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, and feature Dolby Digital 2.0 sound.

Theatrical Trailer - The original theatrical trailer, this is presented in 2.35:1 and Dolby Digital 2.0.

Photo Gallery - Four photo galleries; behind the scenes, the film, the set, and the poster shoot. There are 53 photos to peruse in total.

Hart’s War is a rewarding film for those who appreciate more of a ‘thinking’ war film rather than an ‘action’ war film. It is at its core a drama concerning racial bigotry in the mid 20th century. It could have just as easily been set back in the United States as the war is really just one of many settings that could be used for such a theme.

ll the performances are well acted, particularly those from Colin Farrell and Terrence Howard. The quality of both the image and the audio transfers are top notch and have no real faults. It's probably best to rent this film first before buying it, as it is not a movie for everyone.