Hart's War (2002)
7/10
Competently made, as good as some of the '60s classics
6 April 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Fundamentally, Hart's War (2002) is an action drama, and not a WW2 action flick; the adventurous element is almost absent. So it resembles the aforementioned legendary '60s WW2 action classics by its shape more than by the content. As shape, it could of been made in the '60s; as content, it couldn't (as it is a politically correct sermon).Hart's War (2002) is a movie for boys, nicely shot, well scored ,thrilling, gripping (surprisingly so for a very conventional action drama), promoting virile values. It addresses primarily, I believe, an adolescent audience. The final frame, in the POW camp, after Iureş' justice was done, and with the touching music, is impressing. It also speaks the language of the loftiest thing, and so it is also more refreshingly that it does so in an action drama—it remembers that class of acts that humans presumably hold most dear—the act that is predicated of St. Joan of Arc, of the medieval bourgeois (from Callais) that were much later sculpted by Rodin, of St. MM Kolbe also, of Vulcãnescu .This kind of fills the heart, warms it as well. A brave person offers his life for those of the others. A scriptwriter remembered that this is sometimes the salutary resort. The movie deserves the status of a lesser classic.

I've seen Hart's War (2002) firstly in a phase when I was eager to see as many Willis films as were available. I remember enjoying a lot this one. Yet Willis' role isn't one of his defining ones. Not the best introduction to his acting abilities (which are primarily comical). I thought Iureş very good too (probably much better than Willis). The actors were better than the script they got, i.e. the parts were better performed than written.

Hart's War (2002) was directed by Gregory Hoblit,also author of Fallen (1998) and Frequency (2000) .Hart's War (2002) is the adaptation of a John Katzenbach novel.
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