Brief Takes: Mystic River and Hart's War

I got to see a couple in the past few days, rentals of course. One was Mystic River, the first half of which - as the father of girls near in age to the movie's murder victim - I found hard to watch. Toward the end, I found the morally deracinated behavior of certain characters unbelievable. But then I should have had no reason to believe that Clint Eastwood (in the director's chair) would know what to do with the burden of sin.

The other was Hart's War, starring Bruce Willis and Colin Farrell, though the show is largely stolen by the German commandant played by (I think) Marcel Ioures. It's a story about what's at the heart of war (pun intended, as the film's title may well have been by its creators): sacrifice. With The Explosion being the centerpiece of so many films today, this is one in which the sound of a single pistol report elicits more pathos, and more shell-shock for the soul, than a B-52's entire payload. A must-see if you missed it.