A Midnight Clear (1992)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Keith Gordon

Writers (WGA):

William Wharton (novel)
Keith Gordon (screenplay)

Release Date:

24 April 1992 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Plot:

Set in 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive...

Plot Keywords:

Group | Christmas | Germany | Dereliction Of Duty | Combat

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Peter Berg	...	Bud Miller
Kevin Dillon	...	Mel Avakian
Arye Gross	...	Stan Shutzer
Ethan Hawke	...	Will Knott
Gary Sinise	...	Vance 'Mother' Wilkins
Frank Whaley	...	Paul 'Father' Mundy
John C. McGinley	...	Major Griffin
Larry Joshua	...	Lieutenant Ware
David Jensen	...	Sergeant Hunt
Curt Lowens	...	Older German Soldier
Rachel Griffin	...	Janice
Timothy S. Shoemaker	...	Eddie (as Tim Shoemaker)
Kelly Gately	...	Young German Soldier
Bill Osborn	...	American Sentry
Andre Lamal	...	German Soldier

Runtime:

107 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Spain:13 | UK:15 | Iceland:16 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Utah, USA

Company:

A&M Films

Trivia:

Film debut of Gary Sinise.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Miller checks the frozen corpses of the German and American soldiers with his bayonet, he uses his left arm. In some shots, though, he is using his right arm.

Quotes:

Will Knott: It's thanks to Griffin and his military mortuary skills that I've made my recent headlong leap to three stripes. We lost half our squad, attempting one of his map-inspired, ill-conceived recon patrols. When I say 'lost', I mean 'killed'. Nobody in the army ever admits that someone on our side is killed. They're either lost, like Christopher Robin... hit, as in a batter hit by a pitched ball... or they get 'it' like in hide-and-go-seek. Or maybe they 'get it', as with an ambiguous joke.

Soundtrack:

The Jersey Bounce

A very great and engaging movie!

This movie is a beautiful drama about a few American soldiers in a World War II unit "somewhere in France, Switzerland, Holland or Germany", as they say themselves. It is 1944, a snowy European winter, and World War II is almost over. Hitler has lost many men in Russia and the Americans are each day coming closer and closer to Berlin.

Now, one day the unit are sent out by their commanding officer to check out a house deep in the woods and look for "gerries". They arrives, takes a good look around, gets stationed in the house, digs a hole in the snow outside and puts up a guarding post. Everything seems calm and OK. For about a day... Suddenly some strange things starts to happen: They hear voices from the woods that soon disappears and strange sounds, and one day, two men from the unit gets surprised by some armed "gerries". The Americans belive the end is near. But guess what happens? The "gerries" lets them run free. And THAT is strange.

But not as strange as what happens to the two men on the guarding post outside the house. Suddenly, when they least expect it, they are hit by something that comes flying out from the woods. They take cover from what they think is a hand grenade. But there's no explosion. They look up and see - a snowball lying beside them! And there is more of them to come. A war starts - a snowball war - between the two men on post and the invisible "gerries" in the woods...

What is going on? Are the "gerries" nuts? Or are they just playing games with them before they are going to kill them? The Americans don't know what to think. And it doesn't help there thinking when the "gerries" suddenly want to meet with them and later invite the Americans to celebrate Christmas together with them...

This is a wonderful story with an important hidden meaning about the human anti-war spirit. At the same time it is funny, engaging - and sad.

A great script and great acting.

See it!!