Notorious satirists and “South Park” co-creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone like to end each episode with a close-up of a character prattling off some pseudo-moral platitude about what the boys have learned from their experience. It’s usually accompanied by a low-key piano melody that sounds like it was lifted from an afternoon soap opera.
While the technique may be wearing a bit thin, its main idea is driven home all the more by movies like “Hart’s War,” an otherwise effectively acted and directed WWII/courtroom drama that too frequently feels the need to bludgeon the audience over the head with innocuous racial themes and flag-waving maxims about honor and loyalty — all that’s missing is the score from “Days of our Lives.”
The film gets off to a promising start when the conveniently named Lt. Tommy Hart (Colin Farrell, “American Outlaws”) is ambushed by German soldiers while on a routine mission. The privileged son of a senator and naíve greenhorn to the harsh realities of war, Hart finds himself in interrogation sessions and then shipped off to a Bavarian POW camp.
There he meets the squinty-eyed, crotchety Col. McNamara (Bruce Willis, “Bandits”), who suspects Hart gave away information to the interrogators and relegates him to bunking with the enlisted men. The barrack is thrown into upheaval, however, after black fighter pilot Lt. Scott (Terrence Howard, “Glitter”) is court-martialed for allegedly giving the camp racist his comeuppance.
McNamara assigns Hart, a Yale law student, to the daunting and symbolism-laden task of defending Scott in the hearing. But after Hart discovers McNamara’s true intent for the court-martial, he gives one of the films many intelligence-insulting monologues urging his compatriots to do the honorable thing.
The film loses much of its steam after the action moves from the grime-and-grit of the barracks to the sterility of the mock courtroom. There, characters are literally allowed to get up on a soapbox to bellow out whatever hifalutin proclamation the scene calls for.
Thankfully, “Hart’s War” is made much more palatable by the strong performances of Willis and star-to-be Farrell. Each puts on a convincing façade of machismo and fearlessness, but they are ultimately at the mercy of a story that knows no gray areas in the battle between right and wrong.
Director Gregory Hoblit introduced the world to Edward Norton in “Primal Fear,” and he has another find in Colin Farrell. Hoblit, however, would’ve been wise to allow him to develop Hart more through his brooding demeanor and impulsively well-intentioned actions than with long-winded speeches.
The preachy script goes to great lengths to condemn the evils of racism and Nazism, but it stays at a safe enough distance from them so as not to incite any controversy for which it doesn’t have a ready-made solution. With the issues presented so black-and-white to an audience that’s had plenty of time to reflect on the atrocities of WWII and racial injustice, “Hart’s War” comes off like the cinematic equivalent of a Manhattanite who doesn’t approve of terrorist bombings.
Grade: BC
