Why are so many people confused by the possibility of this scenario

Rating: 9/10 (28 January 2016)

As a Disabled Combat War Veteran of The Iraq War it seems fitting that this is my first review. Esp as i am watching the movie as I type this. I won't waste any time or space on explaining the plot as that is easily found elsewhere.
I will say that i think this movie is an incredible depiction of an... Amazing story. A story about war, racism, education, hope, and I BELIEVE, most of all, a movie about the ideas & ideals of A United States Soldier. (Please keep this mind).
I am completely blown away by all of these reviews by people that think the story is so stupid because it would quote... Never happen! Unquote. I am also very disappointed in all of the subsequent reviews stating that the movie is stupid and boring on the premise of its plot alone.
If you want to watch a war movie full of guns and battle scenes then watch a different movie. This is a movie about a prisoner of war camp... There were a lot of gun fights. This is after the battles... In between the waring and the fighting.
And most of all I just want to point out that every review then even once includes the word concentration camp is a complete waste of time. This is not a concentration camp this is a P.O.W. camp. And furthermore it is a German P.O.W. camp not a Japanese. P.O.W. camp. There is a big difference.
So many reviews that implausibility of the movie because the Germans were so nice to them and they would never let this happen... first off, the second apex and inciting incident in the movie is the execution of an American prisoner without cause or conversation.
Also, One of the most poignant facts about this movie is that the German soldier in charge is a Yale educated German. Meaning he spent time in America & understood American ways. Some German officers even did follow the Geneva Convention. & some POWW camps were not strictly execution camps (as were so many P.O.W. camps in the pacific... Now while I have absolutely no citing that this actually ever occurred (the trial w/in the movie) the reason that this makes perfect sense is that this German DID allow it to happen... As so many other German soldiers allowed other random things to happen in other pow movies. Whether it is because he is amused by the entire situation or he is simply trying to pacify the masses and keep the Americans busy... It's simply happens
I think one of the best comparisons to accurately portray this movie would be to the Great escape. As were that movie actually was about the prisoners and their escape plan & what followed. This movie is more about the prisoners...&... Their actual human emotions DURING the plot to escape. Racism during World War Two was real & very serious. Gentrification and separatism were very much alive... Even in... & especially sometimes soldiers minds.
I was especially surprised by some of the professional reviews and how disappointed they were in the finale of the movie.
HUGE SPOILER ALERT!!! The movie is not ruined, the plot or any of its points are not discredited, by the idea of, or the subsequent execution of Bruce Willis's character. As I stated in the beginning, this movie is about the ideas and ideals of a soldier. Or perhaps even more so, the ideas and ideals of what the United States Army considers a perfect soldier. The rules in a p.o.w camp were simple... If you try to escape you would be executed.
In the Great Escape almost all of the near dozens of men who participated in the plotting & action of, escaping were rounded up & executed. Which is exactly what is about to happen at the end of this movie. Until Bruce Willis stops it by offering up his life, the life of an officer, for the lives of his men. He is, by the Army's actual manual, every aspect of a hero. Of a true hero. Yes he's racist, No he wasn't exactly open to the idea of lesser educated officers... but not only do both of those thoughts change slightly by the end of the movie... But by sacrificing himself for his men he is, in that single action, showing you, the contrast of Colin Farrell's character & his actions in the opening of the movie.
When Colin Farrell is captured & interrogated, he is only released into the p.o.w camp after he gives up the location of other men other units & equipment locations. One of Bruce Willis's character's biggest problems with Colin Farrell's character throughout the entire movie is that he knows that. He knows Colin Farrell gave up other soldiers, possibly even their lives, for his life to be spared. Now, as immediately as Bruce Willis hates Colin Farrell's character for that, he grows to understand that not all men are the perfect soldier, & that some quote lesser perfect soldiers unquote can sometimes be better men.
This is, VERY SIMPLY Hart's war. Who is worth it? How many men, how many lives, can equal to just one life?
When is sacrificing yourself, or perhaps in metaphor... Sacrificing your very ideas and ideals, your belief system, and therefore your life as it was... Worth it?
Bruce Willis is not just letting a German soldier of shoot him in the head so that he won't execute 50 other men instead. Bruce Willis Is allowing Colin Farrell and all of the men watching, the opportunity to realize that all men can change. And that that change is worth it... If its for the greater good.