Hart's War

A young American lieutenant captured during the Battle of the Bulge is imprisoned in a German POW camp where he becomes entangled in the murder trial of a Black fighter pilot facing racial prejudice from fellow prisoners. The camp's senior officer manipulates the trial for his own hidden purposes. The film examines racism and moral compromise within the confines of captivity.

American POW camps such as Stalag Luft III housed captured airmen and soldiers under Geneva Convention protections, though conditions varied and racial tensions among American prisoners reflected the segregated U.S. military of the era. The setting draws on the broader history of American POWs captured during the Ardennes offensive.

The plot and characters are fictional, and the courtroom drama elements are not based on a specific real case, though camp conditions are broadly representative.

Germany's last great offensive in the west aimed at Antwerp, struck a thinly held front in winter fog, and was halted short of the Meuse.

American units were overrun or encircled in the first days; the 101st Airborne and attached units held Bastogne until Third Army broke through from the south. Clearing weather returned Allied air power and the salient was eliminated by late January.

Directed by Gregory Hoblit

Cast: Bruce Willis, Colin Farrell, Terrence Howard, Marcel Iureș

Positioned at Winter 1944-1945 within the Winter 1944-1945 phase of the war, as part of the POW camps. This is entry 129 of 150 in the chronological archive.

• POW camp
• court-martial
• racism
• Stalag
• Battle of the Bulge

• 

  Battle of the Bulge

  December 16, 1944 - January 25, 1945

• 

  Saints and Soldiers

  December 1944 - January 1945

• 

  Battleground

  December 19-27, 1944

• 

  A Midnight Clear

  December 20-25, 1944

• 

  Stalag 17

  Winter 1943–44

• 

  King Rat

  1944–1945