neumu [ cinematronic ]




	Hart's War
	Gregory Hoblit Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Marcel Iures 2002		It's not quite bait-and-switch, but the trailers for this thoughtful, well-made World War II drama imply that it's a bevy of battle scenes, dogfights and blazin' machine guns with Bruce Willis in the lead, heroically defeating the Nazi menace. In fact, it's more like "Stalag JAG," with an impromptu murder trial held in a German POW camp. Willis, one of an ensemble cast, isn't even the titular Hart. He plays hard-ass Col. William McNamara, highest-ranking U.S. officer in the camp, while Irish actor Colin Farrell has the crucial Yank role of Lt. Tom Hart. An upper-class law student assigned to Army HQ in France, Hart is captured in an ambush while driving a field officer to the front lines. Sent to a prison camp in Germany, Hart is looked upon with suspicion by McNamara, manipulated by the Nazi commandant and faced with his fellow soldiers' racism when two African-American airmen are incarcerated with them. Director Gregory Hoblit ("Frequency") never dumbs things down. Yay!