Based on the novel by John Katzenbach, author of Just Cause (1995), this prison camp drama combines elements of
A Soldier's Story (1984) and the classic
Stalag 17 (1953).
Colin Farrell stars as Lt. Tommy Hart, a second-year Harvard Law School student who enlists to fight in World War II but ends up being taken prisoner by the Germans. When a murder at the Nazi-run Stalag Luft 13 leaves a black Tuskegee airman named Lt. Lincoln Scott (
Terrence Dashon Howard) accused of the crime, high-ranking prisoner (and fourth-generation war hero) Col. William McNamara (
Bruce Willis) persuades camp commandant Col. Werner Visser (
Marcel Iures) to allow the prisoners to hold their own trial. Hart is recruited to defend his fellow officer, but as he reluctantly investigates, he discovers that not all of his fellow allied soldiers are fighting the same war and that his "client" may well have been framed. In the meantime, it becomes apparent that McNamara is using events to mask his true intent, a mission to destroy a nearby munitions plant that he still intends to carry out despite his incarceration. Hart's War (2002) co-stars Vicellous Shannon,
Cole Hauser,
Rory Cochrane, and
Jonathan Brandis. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide