NEW YORK — As Nicholas Katzenbach walked onto the film set of "Hart's War," the memories of his prisoner-of-war days during World War II were brought back full force.
"It was as realistic, as accurate as it could be," says Katzenbach, 80, whose son John wrote the novel on which the MGM film, which opens today, is based. "It gave me a chill."
John, 51, recalls his father stepping out of a taxi in Milovice, the small Czech town where much of the film was shot and seeing the replica of the guard tower. "He said to me, 'I never thought I'd see that again,' said John, who doesn't remember his father, Nicholas--attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson--talking much about his 27 months as a POW in Germany.
There weren't many stories about his being shot down in the Mediterranean in February 1943 on his 20th bombing mission, about being plucked out of the ocean by the Italians, being given starvation rations or being jammed into boxcars so full only half the men could sit at a time. But John Katzenbach is a former journalist and a mystery writer, and ultimately his father's history became fodder for a novel.
In a recent interview, both father and son stressed that the book is a novel and only loosely based on Nicholas' experiences. And as is almost always the case, the film itself is one step removed from the book. For example, in the book, Tommy, like young Nicholas Katzenbach, is a navigator who is shot down. Like Nicholas, he is a young Ivy Leaguer. Like Nicholas, he was shoeless upon capture. But the similarity pretty much ends there.
"We departed quite a bit from the novel and at times John wasn't quite sure, but at the end of the day, we didn't depart from the integrity," says the film's producer, David Ladd.
John Katzenbach agrees. "A lot of novelists sit around and whine about what Hollywood does to their books, but movies are not books. I wanted them to find the core of what was in the book and turn it into a terrific movie--to create something that would stand on its own two feet."
Despite the fact that the movie is being marketed as a Bruce Willis action shoot-'em-up--to the dismay of director Gregory Hoblit, who calls it a "disservice" to the real POWs--the crux of the film is about two black aviators who are shot down and join the all-white POW camp. The fliers--Lt. Lincoln Scott (Terrence Howard) and Lt. Lamar Archer (Vicellous Shannon)--ignite seething racism in some of the enlisted men, leading to a murder and a court-martial within the POW camp. Colin Farrell, the young Irish actor known best for his work in the Vietnam-era movie "Tigerland", plays Tommy Hart, a fresh-faced lieutenant who represents defendant Scott, while Willis stars as tough and embittered Col. William McNamara, the highest-ranking American officer in the camp.
