An expensively ambitious war epic that avoided the battlefield altogether and wound up as an all-time bomb gets court-martialed on streaming

Not to state the obvious, but one of the main reasons why the wartime epic is among the most perennially popular genres on streaming is down in large part to the visceral depictions of conflict and grandstanding battle sequences, something Hart’s War doesn’t really dabble in.

Instead, the ambitious spin on the standard formula opts to draw its inspirations from the legal thriller instead, focusing on a court case taking place inside a prisoner of war camp. It might not have been what audiences were expecting, but seeing as FlixPatrol has outed it as one of the top-viewed movies on iTunes, it’s clearly one they’re gravitating towards regardless.

The same couldn’t be said when director Gregory Hoblit’s underrated blockbuster first hit theaters over 20 years ago, when it lost over $60 million for MGM. Relative to its $70 million budget and $34 million tally from multiplexes, Hart’s War ended up securing an unwanted place in the history books as one of the biggest flops of the 21st Century.

It arguably deserved better, with Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell making for an engaging central pairing, but not even the riveting mystery of uncovering the truth behind a murder at the height of history’s bloodiest conflict was enough to prevent Hart’s War from being plunged perilously into the red first time around.

A substantially better film than its reputation would suggest, the production values are top-notch and the performances equally watchable, something it’s taken over two decades for a sizeable crowd to discover for themselves.