Hearts of War (2007) User Reviews

Mediocre

[foh_sho · 4/10 · 31 December 2007]

I am being generous by giving this movie a 4 out of 10. Please don't be fooled by the "9.3" score it currently has. You can thank the cast and crew of the movie which are obviously rating their movie on IMDb. The only reason this movie gets a 4, is because of that cute girl that came out in that horrible movie "My daughter's secret."

I am being generous by giving this movie a 4 out of 10. Please don't be fooled by the "9.3" score it currently has. You can thank the cast and crew of the movie which are obviously rating their movie on IMDb. The only reason this movie gets a 4, is because of that cute girl that came out in that horrible movie "My daughter's secret."

Horrible! Don't waste your time! Don't watch!!!!!!!

[yadid_rh · 1/10 · 18 February 2009]

This movie is not just bad, it is horrible! I can't believe someone actually thought it might work! Everything about this movie ain't working!

the script is so absurd, the dialogs seem to be like they were written by an immature! Most of the actors come from the TV world, so the entire movie looks like an exaggerated chapter of a bad show! All the movie is based on the conception that holocaust movies bring audience so they simply try to go on the most absurd stereotypes ever! They push into the episodes so many things of different times and places just in order to increase the WWII stuff so they can hide the many mistakes made on the movie! The love story it self is so idiotic, totally ignore the problematic state the movie is taking place in!

Simply awful! Don't watch!!!!!!

An average film

[Q-factor · 2/10 · 19 May 2008]

I watched this film after giving the good review on IMDb the benefit of the doubt. I have always been a fan of war films, but I have to say this particular one was a big disappointment.

The acting is mostly hammy (especially that of the poet himself; who is a rather overtly sentimental German soldier) and small blunders (Like the boom mike dangling at the top of many frames) don't help.

The story is very predictable and makes one wonder whether the whole WWII genre has been done to death.

If you've read previous reviews and synopses, you would have already gathered that the main hook in the film is the union between the German soldier and the Rabbi's daughter. It barely gets beyond that. Watch only if you've got nothing better to watch.

Hearts of War

[leiser18 · 2/10 · 28 May 2009]

I found this movie on DVD at Blockbuster under the above title. I was very disappointed. It was unrealistic and the plot full of holes. The German accents were almost annoying and even hard to understand. The only redeeming quality of this movie was Roy Scheider as the rabbi. At least he seemed believable. Whoever came up with the script should have watched a good Holocaust movie like Schindler's List first before subjecting the public to this mediocre stuff. Darryl Hannah talents were wasted in this film, plus she didn't seem old enough to have a grown (twenty-something) son. Forget about watching The Poet, aka Hearts of War!!!

awful screenplay

[zghivelder-1 · 14 July 2009]

Films about WWII are countless and specially those who focus on brutality and murder of Jews. (Anyway it will always be difficult to match "Schindler's List").But, including all of them, this is the worst that I've ever seen. The screenplay is just awful and the whole story is not to be believed. The main characters engage in a romance that is not love at first sight but at an eye blink. If this would not be enough, the romantic pair is played by amateur actors. I wonder what Roy Scheider is doing in a film like this, although he shows a good performance in a small part, almost a cameo. The same applies to Darryl Hannah. There is a cabaret scene in the film that is simply disrespectful to those Jews who endured persecution and mass assassination.

In despite of some flaws a good cinema film.

[adrian_c10 · 7/10 · 12 May 2009]

I liked the storytelling in this film. Also the plot twists were pleasant and although the end was predictable the storyline is captivating. The romance was realistic, but sometimes a little exaggerated. Rachel's story should be more developed.

The actors were good, the decor was brilliant and the cinematography also.

The flaws I've seen so far: Time errors? No way you can get a baby that fast. Factual error? In this movie some scenes go by too quickly without a good transition of time. Revealing mistakes: Crew equipment and mike visible in at least 3 shots.

In despite of some flaws a good cinema film.

Interesting setting, terrible plot.

[JPDellova · 3/10 · 5 April 2011]

I thought I'd seen WWII done in just about every possible way, but this is the first time I've seen a movie involving German soldiers traipsing through the Polish/Russian countryside gathering information on partisan cells. If only it were done better, and without the ridiculous plot, I'd have been very interested, but it went wrong almost from the start. Terrible screenplay, horrible weird accents, silly love triangle plot etc & etc. While watching it I didn't realize the small part of the rabbi was played by Roy Scheider, who I thought had died before this movie was made, and it amazed me that the actor was so much like that great actor, and at how well the part was being played in such an otherwise poorly acted movie. I caught Scheider's name on the closing credits. A pity such a fine performance was wasted in such a poor movie. Saw this under the DVD title 'Hearts of War.' Thankfully I bought it for a dollar.

Despite the horrid reviews.

[RatedVforVinny · 7/10 · 4 November 2018]

This one is a worthy entry, to the 'WW2 Drama' genre. I found the story very interesting and some really good play by the cast of actors. I'm not sure it had a very high budget but it's certainly better than most that do. I can only say see and judge for yourself. For me a pleasant surprise.

Third rate movie

[tds-26 · 1/10 · 11 August 2008]

The Poet is a surprisingly poor to mediochre movie, trying hard to jerk a tear. 'Schmalz' describes it well - a sort of 'Fiddler on the Roof' without the charm. It looks thoroughly naive and unsubtle, as if written by a 19-year-old. It even shows the technological innovation of a 'left-handed' bolt action on a rifle. The lisping pseudo-German English dialogue was pointless and distracting to the point of trying hard to send up "Allo, allo!". Even Roy Scheider played a stereotyped rabbi - I expected "Oy, vey!!" at any moment. The battle scenes give paintballing a bad name, with more than a hint of Star Wars special effects. A waste of a good budget. The idea of lovers from opposite political poles might have worked in a re-setting of Romeo & Juliet on the eastern front, but Shakespeare this wasn't.

A Great WW2 Film

[hectorious506 · 9/10 · 14 November 2007]

I saw this movie at the Staten Island Film Festival. There were about 500 people in the audience. The filmmakers stayed after to answer questions which was cool.

It is a compelling love story about a Jewish girl who falls in love with a German soldier in World War 2. The film also has plenty of action. Good battle scenes.

Rachel and Oscar fall in love after he saves her life during a terrible snow storm. He saves her life again when Germans are attacking her Polish village and she and a Jewish boy are at gunpoint.

Oscar sends the two off, instructing them to try to escape to Russia. Rachel travels to the Russian front line but is hunted by German soldiers at each and every turn. Oscar ultimately regrets his decision to send Rachel away and his mother, played by Daryl Hannah, convinces him to go find her. It culminates in an unpredictable and explosive ending.

The film looks great. Roy Scheider, Colm Feore and Kim Coates round out a cast which includes good up and comers in Nina Dobrev, Jonathan Scarfe and Zachary Bennett. The leader of the Russian partisans, played by Lara Daans, is also a standout and arrives on the scene just when you think there's no more plot twists to be had.

Overall, this is a very strong film that paces well, is beautifully shot, has interesting characters and should appeal to everybody.

unfortunately let down by a very poor script & narrative.

[danuneek · 3/10 · 8 January 2010]

After reading some of the bad feedback from other reviews, I decided to watch it anyway. Unfortunately, they were all spot on. Its rather a shame too, as the it 'looked' quite authentic with some decent effort made towards costume and setting. Even the cinematography was at a decent standard.

However, everything else was pretty bad, terrible even. The main thing that let it down was the bad script which led to some appalling dialogue and acting at times. Some scenes are laughable its that bad. The funniest scene been at 43 minutes when a boom mic appears in shot for about 10 seconds.

I've given it a 3 simply for the mise en scene.

I t could've been better

[Muhsin80 · 1/10 · 23 May 2008]

Well this movie is one of those movies that exaggerate everything about the holocaust. I know me writing this would make some people angry but how they show Germans in this movie is just unacceptable. I see in this movie no real love story, just a political statement...Also the part of the German officers mother that pushes her son to go after the girl and put his life in danger is not realistic. The way the Jews react at certain situation, is also something thats not OK. Well it was for me hard to watch but I managed until the end I hope that this would be enough to save you some money... just maybe because of this I should give it more than one, but than again......no

Plot hole factory

[JGAS · 3/10 · 4 July 2009]

If people in Poland during WWII are offered asylum by transport to Canada instead of Sweden or Switzerland, you know you're in for trouble. The plot had gigantic holes in it. Manslaughter gets no penalty, People make social visits to soldiers at the front unannounced, a bloody face becomes perfect in the next scene. Nine months pass and there is no change in season, yet the day after a blizzard, there is no snow on the ground.

The leading female character was written either so unrealistically or just as a tramp, it was really unbelievable. Giving examples would be spoilers.

I think Darryl Hannah and Roy Scheider may not have been doing great movies, but even they had to be embarrassed to be in this one. It's a good thing I saw it for free.

Bad movie, don't watch

[agger-1 · 30 August 2009]

Everything about this movie is bad. I rented it on DVD because I like WWII movies, and the poster suggested something like "Schindler's List" with a love angle ...

But it just doesn't fly. The "Poet" is actually a young German soldier who spends most of the film moping and feeling sorry for himself. Herein consists, far as I can tell, his "poetic demeanor". We are also supposed to sympathize with his troubled conscience over his part in the war. But this is hard, as he is (wait for it!) a spy infiltrating the countryside to report on partisan movements and pave the way for the German invasion of first Poland, then Russia.

When the Jewish couple escapes the massacre of their village, their midwife suggests they get a job on - of all places - a large German base ready for the invasion of Russia. While such employment is obviously treason on the part of Polish civilians and would be severely punished after the war, we are also asked to believe that German soldiers would knowingly accept Jewish non-prisoners as employees while the SS was killing all over the countryside.

We are supposed to be awed by the female lead's love for her "poet", yet she prostitutes herself to German officers at the camp as if a matter of course. Which it would hardly have been for a Jewish village girl in 1941.

The cutting is awful, and almost every scene is theatrically conceited and wholly unbelievable. There's really nothing to like about this movie - avoid at all costs.

Poetry and humanity transcending the cruelties and inhumanities of war

[clanciai · 9/10 · 8 October 2021]

Is the subject exhausted or inexhaustible? It doesn't matter, because there will always be made new films on it anyway, as new stories of experience never cease to turn up. The matter is both exhausted to a point of being overrun to over-exertion, while at the same time it remains hopelessly inexhaustible.

The main thing to observe here is the character of the film, as the main character is a poet, a German general's son, who not only has great doubts about the war but who downright hates it, and who finds some poetry in a situation at the beginning of the war when the Germans find themselves struggling with partisans close to the Russian frontier, where ha finds a Jewish girl with whom he falls in love which happens to be mutual, and they make love for real in the middle of the war. Not until after their passion spent they learn who they are, she being the daughter of a Jewish rabbi and he being the son of a German general.

The interesting thing is the many personal conflicts which result from their finding each other, leading to the phenomenon that the personal conflicts appear to grow greater than the war conflict. He is posted in the forest area of the frontier to spy out the partisans and find out their number and strategy, which is a very dangerous mission, being a German soldier and having to pose as a Polish partisan himself. She finds herself in a similar necessitated double role play, really loving her German soldier but at the same time already being betrothed to a Jewish fellow Bernard, who really loves her. They have a difficult time surviving in constantly having to get through German lines, the necessity of survival even compelling her to act as a show girl in a cabaret for the Germans, and this is just the beginning of all the intrigues, gradually amounting to an overwhelming tragedy with many casualties. Roy Scheider makes a brief appearance as a rabbi marrying her and Bernard, accentuating the Jewish part of the drama; and thus the many and complicated human ingredients serve to elevate this drama far beyond being just a war film. The poet's mother plays a significant part also, taking the part of her son against his father the general, accepting his Jewish love without hesitation. Poetry and humanity transcending the cruelties and inhumanities of war - this film could be viewed as a parallel story to Polanski's "The Pianist",l while at the same time there is some Douglas Sirk mood over the whole thing.

Fell in Love the Second Time Around

[bella_volerbene · 8/10 · 13 August 2012]

I admit, when I first viewed this movie (Under the American title "Hearts of War")I didn't think much of it. While I love forbidden romances and find the happenings of WWII fascinating, I thought the plot moved too quickly for my liking. For instance, I would've liked for Oskar and Rachel's relationship to blossom a bit; it just all felt very rushed. But I recently watched it again and came to appreciate it and even classify it as one of my favorites. The wilds of Ontario is convincing as Polish countryside and I appreciate that the actors use real accents as opposed to American/Canadian ones (see "Valkyrie"). That bugs me; the films always lose something without the proper accents. All in all, Oskar and Rachel's love set against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion of Poland kept me riveted. I was surprise the baby was killed; children usually survive movies like this. The only real complaint I have is the ending. What happened?! Did they get out? And how?