Hart's War (2007, Blu-ray Disc)

A great, promising screenwriter once declared the only things that matter are the beginning and the very last scene. Everything in between is just coming down, or leading up from those two things. I argued with him for a good hour, saying, okay then, if I wrote a terrific introduction and a terrific denouement, then that s all I need? Nothing else? It could be f king boring for the whole other hour, hour and a half? His contention was yes and his main example was Jacob s Ladder, a film he proclaimed as a chaotic mess, yet still holds your attention and leaves you talking afterwards simply based on the intro and the outro. Um, I still disagree, and there needs to be more to a movie than just that.

I wish I could tell him to go see Hart s War. Here s a film with a stellar first twenty minutes, then quickly dissolves into a standard courtroom drama a la A Few Good Men. The film has good intentions, but the foundation is built on compounding clich after clich until I was bored, done with it, and ready for lunch. Although the recreation of a POW camp is terrific, it still manages to falter while going off on some sort of not-so-hidden agenda. Me? I went off to get a refill on my Coke.

Gregory Hobbit must ve been sitting in front of a blender staring at his milkshake when wa-la! What if I threw in this film with this film and add a pinch of that film, perhaps the end product would come out original and I could make millions! Easier said than done, my friend. Here s a guy who either gets it right ( Primal Fear, Frequency ) or gets it completely wrong ( Fallen ). Hart s War belongs in the latter category, for it succeeds at nothing then raising expectations only to watch them crumble like dust.

Colin Farrell (a zero if there ever was one) plays Tom Hart, a soldier who managed to forestall the battlefield thanks to his senator father. When he volunteers to give a Captain a ride, he is deceived by some Germans disguised as American soldiers, is cross-examined, and then is forced to tell them the exact locations of certain U.S. fuel pumps.

In charge of the troops on the home front is Colonel William McNamara (Bruce Willis, please cease starring in crap), who welcomes Hart and gives him ranking officer privilege when he sticks him in enrolled quarters. As a defense lawyer, Hart becomes witness to this bizarre prisoner-run POW camp trial in the final weeks of the war. McNamara stands by America by saying that we don t make blatant classifications about others the way that Nazis have shown. Then the arrival of two black fighter pilots (Terrence Howard & Vicellous Shannon) stirs controversy. Also placed in the barracks of the lower rank and file, they are subject to a brutal string of racist remarks from the mouths of the soldiers, particularly Bedford (played by Good Will Hunting s Cole Hauser). So now we re off to the racist issues, and then, surprise, a murder happens. One of the new fighter pilots is accused, and well, it all goes downhill from there. After a dozen implausible twists, we re stuck in what could ve been, instead of what is happening.

Willis looks as bored as we are in watching the film go from bad to worse. And Collin Firth has absolutely no acting ability whatsoever. He seems unconfident about the material, and whenever he speaks, it s not the least bit genuine. Just carve this guy s acting career a tombstone already, for I am now officially dreading his carrying of this fall s Phone Booth experiment.

Hobbit certainly knows how to direct well, but it s his choice in scripts that remain derivative. Sometimes, they work and the milkshake tastes pretty good, Hart s War is just too damn thick to really sink in and stick with you walking out of the theater. It s really sad when a movie can start up so good, only to have its engine blown halfway. It seems like a socially conscience action-war film, only to succumb to the typical conventions you come to expect. But what can I expect? Hollywood will do anything to make a buck, and if it means taking a slice of reality pie and feeding it to the masses, then they don t care. Any war film is now up for grabs, because it shows our true colors and patriotism in such a confusing time. Sorry, but if it s solace I seek in the confusion, I ll go elsewhere. I don t care what s justified and what isn t, war is simply not an answer and I can stand by it. But there will be a lot of films that wear their true feelings on its sleeve. We Were Soldiers is bound to exercise the same preachy muscles about how we should fight, do this, defend, blah, blah As much rage as I feel, no war film is going to make me come to some sort of grand epiphany that war is the answer. Guess I don t care for their methods.

A lot of this would go against, or contradict my liking for a film like Collateral Damage, but a movie like that has no moral or ethical agenda. It s just, Arnold, things blowing up, fun, cool, let s go home, but Hart s War, and I fear We Were Soldiers are up against the toughest box office devil: real life. I for one enjoy a great thought-provoking movie as long as it doesn t force the issues down my throat. Why can t I make up my own mind, instead of having the characters say: This is what s right, and you should think so too! Now, go be noble! Bow down! The very final act is overwrought with preachy patriotism or about mistreating a human being that makes me wonder about if there was a recent re-write.

Sorry for the tangent, but it seems that we are about to be inundated with these kinds of movies that manipulate our feelings, and forcefully tug at the heartstrings because we ll pay to play. Movies often allow us to vicariously live off the actions portrayed on screen, without the consequences or repercussions that would invade us in real life. Anti-war movies are a damn a dozen, and if you look back at the time of John Wayne, they sure made war look, gulp, fun! But then the harsh reality of Platoon or even the preceding Apocalypse Now, when we caught an actual glimpse of what it s really like. Hart s War is just another movie passing as pesudo-entertainment, but failing miserably because of its hokey script and disappointing end results. In a time when we are plagued with real life tragedy, do we need ANY type of war movie to serve as an entertaining fix in such a perplexing time? Personally, I d rather sit through Super Troopers.


GRADE: C-

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