Too phony

Rating: 3/10 (29 September 2002)

Hart's War is the kind of war movie you constantly think "Yeah, I could do that. I could've been a hero fighting those Nazis" instead of realizing the horrors of war. I thought that trend ended in the 70's. In this film, the German captors are so liberal in their dealings with the POWs that it looks as if the American soldiers would've been better off in the Nazi POW camps living in the comforts of comfy beds, hot food and slacking off in their compounds rather fighting in the forests of Ardenne watching their toes falling off from frostbite. We all know that Nazi Germany was losing the war by late 1944 and they were in extreme shortage of supplies. In the winter of 1944/45, many of their troops even died of starvation. But according to this film, the POW camps must've been among Nazi Germany's top priority... Seeing that the our heroes are getting by so easily under the "tyranny" of the Nazis, you never feel for the main characters. Rather, you even sympathize with the Germans not being able to control their own prisoners. The American POWs are always complaining to their captors "under the Geneva convention, we have rights for this,.. for that....", etc..

Putting aside the incredible misrepresentation of history, this film also has very slow pace in developing the story that in the end proves to be a lost effort. The great cast and commendable acting by both Bruce Willis and Colin Ferril are the only bright spot for this film.