TRACKLISTING
1. Final Salute
2. Hart Captured and Interrogated
3. Scott's Macon, Georgia Story/Train Yard Strafing and Bombing
4. Visser Testifies
5. Visser Finds Tunnel
6. March to Stalag 6A
7. Archer Shot Dead
8. Scott Railroaded
9. “Everything Is OK, Tommy”
10. Blackened Face Testimony
11. Hart Finds Bedford's Stash
12. Hart Discovers Tunnel
13. McNamara Trades His Life
14. End Credits

ABOUT THE FILM
Fourth generation war hero Col. William McNamara (Bruce Willis) is imprisoned in a brutal German POW camp during World War II. Still, as the camp’s highest-ranking American officer, he commands his fellow inmates, keeping a sense of honour alive in a place where honour is easy to destroy, all under the dangerous, ever-watchful eye of SS Major Wilhelm Visser (Marcel Iures). Never giving up the fight to win the war, he is silently planning, waiting for his moment to strike back at the enemy.

A murder in the camp gives him the chance to set a risky plan in motion. With a court martial to keep Visser and the Germans distracted, McNamara orchestrates a cunning scheme to escape and destroy a nearby munitions plant, enlisting the help of young Lt. Tommy Hart (Colin Farrell). Together with his men, McNamara uses a hero’s resolve to carry out his mission, ultimately forced to weigh the value of his life against the good of his country. Hart’s War is an incredible example of the honour, courage and sacrifices made by soldiers at war in defending the American way of life.

Starring Bruce Willis (Bandits, The Sixth Sense) and Colin Farrell (American Outlaws). Based on the novel by John Katzenbach. Directed by Gregory Hoblit (Frequency).

Cast & Crew
Bruce Willis – Colonel William McNamara
Colin Farrell – Lieutenant Tommy Hart
Terrence Dashon Howard – Lieutenant Lincoln Scott
Vicellous Reon Shannon – Lamar Archer

Directed by Gregory Hoblit
Writing Credits: John Katzenbach (novel)
Billy Ray, Terry George (screenplay)
Original Music by Rachel Portman
Cinematography: Alar Kivilo


DIRECTOR'S NOTES
Hart’s War is not a war story. At least not in the long tradition of what constitutes a movie war story. It is not a WW2 prisoner of war escape movie either, in the tradition of that specific genre. And while there are moments of fighter planes, dog-fighting and strafing, bombs exploding, guns killing people, and the expected presence of German antagonists, Hart’s War is fundamentally about captured American soldiers finding grace, dignity and honour in the face of extremely difficult and deadly circumstances in a stark and hostile environment in 1944-45 Nazi Germany.

In keeping with what Hart’s War is not, it is also a movie one would not expect Rachel Portman to have scored, even if only passing familiar with her wondrous and rich, but very specific, work on movies such as Emma, The Cider House Rules, The Legend of Bagger Vance, Chocolat, to name a few. However, as Hart’s War often challenges and disturbs, Rachel’s movie scores often run deep and force introspection. Given her uncommon ability for understanding text and subtext, and her gift for melody, I trusted she would add levels of unexpected texture and mood and emotion to a decidedly masculine and edgy movie, while elevating it to a place unattainable without her intellectual and musical sensibilities. With her Hart's War score serving to perfectly unify the thematic and stylistic face of the movie, Rachel did just that.

It may simply be a matter of Rachel’s absolute preference for fully orchestral scoring and her love of strong thematic melody lines and figures, and her unique creative process and refreshing work habits, but the experience of working with her on developing the Hart’s War score promised the remarkable results that live in the picture. As with magic, which creating great movie music is to me, she was somehow able to convey the frozen, bleak and unforgiving reality of the POW camp in which Lt. Tommy Hart, Col. McNamara, Lt. Scott, Staff Sgt. Bedford, and Kommandant Visser find themselves, and at the same time move around and beneath the story and into the hearts and minds of those characters to reveal their truths above and beyond words and acting. I am grateful.

Gregory Hoblit



www.mgm.com/hartswar