Review of Hart's War (2002) by Max E — 06 Jun 2012

This deceptive film tries too hard to do too much, attempting to blend genres with a bad script and mediocre direction. It begins in style, with impressive visuals and effective story-telling, but things only perk up at the very end, despite being implausible and defeating the purpose of everything in between.

There is a tragic loss of logic on behalf of the script-writers, as well as (so I'm told) a lot of historical inaccuracy. It would have you think, initially, that it's a war film, perhaps an escape story, but it turns into a racism film (again?) - but no, it changes yet again for a rushed and feather-light courtroom drama. What I assume happened was they started with the twist and worked backwards.

As I said however, it is somewhat saved by its ending which conveniently makes the whole experience appear a little less pointless. While it did keep me quiet for a moment, it doesn't make-up for the rest of its flaws.