A Midnight Clear | |
---|---|
Directed by | Keith Gordon |
Screenplay by | Keith Gordon |
Based on | A Midnight Clear by William Wharton |
Produced by | Bill Borden Dale Pollock Armyan Bernstein Tom Rosenberg Marc Abraham |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Tom Richmond |
Edited by | Don Brochu |
Music by | Mark Isham |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | InterStar Releasing (United States) Sovereign Pictures (International) |
Release date | April 24, 1992 |
Running time | 108 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $5 million |
Box office | $1,526,697 |
A Midnight Clear is a 1992 American war drama film written and directed by Keith Gordon and starring an ensemble cast that features Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon and Arye Gross. It is based on the eponymous novel by William Wharton. Set toward the end of World War II, the film tells the story of an American intelligence unit that finds a German platoon that wishes to surrender.
In the early phase of the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, a small US Army intelligence and reconnaissance squad (selected for their high IQs) is sent to occupy a deserted chateau near the German lines to gather information on the enemy's movements. Losses from an earlier patrol has reduced the squad to just six men: Sgt. Knott, Miller, Avakian, Shutzer, Wilkins and Mundy. On their way to the chateau, the men discover the frozen corpses of a German and an American in a standing embrace, seemingly arranged by the Germans as a grim joke.
Settling into their temporary home, they soon discover they are not alone. A group of German soldiers has occupied a position nearby. While out on patrol, Knott, Miller and Shutzer see a trio of German soldiers aiming their weapons at them, but the Germans then vanish without shooting. The Germans, clearly more skilled and experienced than the young GIs, soon leave calling cards, start a snowball fight one evening and offer a Christmas truce. At first, the Americans think the Germans are taunting them, but it eventually becomes clear that the Germans wish to talk to them. Shutzer's Yiddish is enough to communicate with them, and they are revealed to be a small group of teenage soldiers led by an aging officer. Having survived the Eastern Front and sensing that the end of the war is imminent, the Germans say that they wish to surrender. However, they ask that the Americans pretend that the Germans were captured in combat in order to protect their families from possible retribution for their desertion. The Americans agree, but keep the plan from Wilkins, who has been mentally unstable since learning of the death of his child back home.
The two groups meet and proceed to fire their weapons into the air as planned. However, Wilkins hears the shooting and thinks that the engagement is real. Arriving at the scene, Wilkins opens fire at the Germans who, thinking they have been tricked, immediately shoot back. The situation immediately goes out of control and Knott's squad shoots all the Germans, but Mundy is fatally wounded and Shutzer is shot but survives. Mundy's final words are to beg the others not to tell Wilkins that the skirmish was intended to be fake. The squad's superior officer arrives, reprimanding them for their conduct, before taking Shutzer back for treatment (they later receive word that he died in the hospital). Left alone again, the four remaining soldiers quietly reflect as they try to celebrate Christmas and clean Mundy's body in a bathtub. Knott makes a $100 bet with the despondent Wilkins that he will survive the war. The squad is soon forced to flee as the Germans attack the area in strength. Carrying Mundy's corpse, the men disguise themselves as medics and escape back to American lines. When there, Knott is informed that Wilkins has been recommended for the Bronze Star and transferred to the motor pool, while the rest of the squad will be sent into the front lines to fight as regular infantry.
An epilogue screen tells that after the war, Avakian had married, Miller disappeared and Wilkins sent Knott $10 with a blank Christmas card each year for ten years to pay Knott for having lost their bet.
Parts of the film were shot in Park City, Utah. [1]
The film received mostly positive reviews, with an 88% favorable rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes based on 40 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted, A Midnight Clear is a holiday war film in search of a wider audience." [2] Hal Hinson, a reviewer from the Washington Post lauded it as "a war film completely unlike any other, a compelling accomplishment that's more soul than blood and bullets." [3] Vincent Canby of the New York Times praised the film's solid construction, concluding that "In A Midnight Clear, just about everything works." [4] Writing in the Los Angeles Times , reviewer Michael Wilmington characterized the film as "...not quite a great war movie but certainly a sensitive, bright and supremely moral one" and added that "At its best, it's a barely muted cry against war's stupidity and injustice. With a clear eye, the movie shows us midnight." [5]
Reviewing the film's 2012 DVD release in the Observer, Philip French described the film as "an ironic, at times surreal fable.....and the plot's twists are matched by the sharpness of its moral insights." [6]
The film was nominated for a 1993 Independent Spirit Award – Best Screenplay for Keith Gordon.
Ethan Green Hawke is an American actor and film director. He has been nominated for numerous accolades including four Academy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards and a Tony Award. Hawke has directed three feature films, three off-Broadway plays, and a documentary. He has also written three novels and one graphic novel. He made his film debut in Explorers (1985), before making a breakthrough performance in Dead Poets Society (1989). Hawke starred alongside Julie Delpy in Richard Linklater's Before trilogy: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013). Hawke has received four Academy Award nominations, two for Best Supporting Actor for Training Day (2001) and Boyhood (2014) and the other two for Best Adapted Screenplay for co-writing Before Sunset and Before Midnight with Linklater and Delpy.
The Big Red One is a 1980 American epic war film written and directed by Samuel Fuller, and starring Lee Marvin alongside an ensemble supporting cast, including Mark Hamill, Robert Carradine, Siegfried Rauch, Bobby Di Cicco, and Kelly Ward.
Of Mice and Men is a 1992 American period drama western film based on John Steinbeck's 1937 novella of the same name. Directed and produced by Gary Sinise, the film features Sinise as George Milton, alongside John Malkovich as Lennie Small, with Casey Siemaszko as Curley, John Terry as Slim, Ray Walston as Candy, Joe Morton as Crooks, and Sherilyn Fenn as Curley's wife.
Melvin and Howard (stylized as Melvin (and Howard)) is a 1980 American comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Demme. The screenplay by Bo Goldman was inspired by real-life Utah service station owner Melvin Dummar, who was listed as the beneficiary of $156 million in a will allegedly handwritten by Howard Hughes that was discovered in the headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City. A novelization of Goldman's script later was written by George Gipe. The film starred Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, and, in an Academy Award-winning performance, Mary Steenburgen.
Revolution is a 1985 British historical drama film directed by Hugh Hudson, written by Robert Dillon, and starring Al Pacino, Donald Sutherland, and Nastassja Kinski. The film stars Pacino as a fur trapper in the Province of New York who involuntarily gets enrolled in the Revolutionary forces during the American Revolutionary War.
Joyeux Noël is a 2005 war drama film based on the Christmas truce of December 1914, depicted through the eyes of French, British, and German soldiers. It was written and directed by Christian Carion, and screened out of competition at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.
The Inglorious Bastards is a 1978 Italian Euro War film directed by Enzo G. Castellari and starring Bo Svenson, Peter Hooten, Fred Williamson, Jackie Basehart, and Ian Bannen. The film, which concerns a group of prisoners who are drafted into a special war mission in 1944, is a loose (unauthorized) remake of the 1967 American film The Dirty Dozen.
Wind is a 1992 film directed by Carroll Ballard and starring Matthew Modine, Jennifer Grey and Cliff Robertson.
Coup de Grâce is a 1976 West German film directed by Volker Schlöndorff. Adapted from the novel Coup de Grâce by the French author Marguerite Yourcenar, the war film explores passion amid underlying political tones. The title comes from the French expression, meaning "finishing blow". An opening title dedicates the film to Jean-Pierre Melville, for whom Schlöndorff had worked as an assistant director.
Mediterraneo is a 1991 Italian war comedy-drama film directed by Gabriele Salvatores and written by Enzo Monteleone. The film is set during World War II and concerns a group of Italian soldiers who become stranded on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea, and are left behind by the war. It won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1992.
The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again is a 1979 American comedy-Western film directed by Vincent McEveety. Produced by Walt Disney Productions, it is a sequel to The Apple Dumpling Gang (1975), starring the comedy duo of Tim Conway and Don Knotts reprising their respective roles as Amos and Theodore. The film also stars Tim Matheson, Harry Morgan, and Kenneth Mars.
That Championship Season is a 1982 American sports drama film based on the play of the same name. It stars Robert Mitchum, Martin Sheen, Bruce Dern, Stacy Keach and Paul Sorvino, who had also appeared in the play and was the only cast member who appeared in the play.
Stop-Loss is a 2008 American war drama film directed by Kimberly Peirce and starring Ryan Phillippe, Channing Tatum, Abbie Cornish and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as young soldiers whose experience in the Iraq War leaves them psychologically shattered. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures and produced by MTV Films. The film received mixed reviews, and earned less than half of its $25 million production budget at the box office. The title refers to the U.S. government's controversial stop-loss policy, which allows the government to extend the term of duty of soldiers who have already served their contracted number of years of service.
The Human Stain is a 2003 drama film directed by Robert Benton. Its screenplay, by Nicholas Meyer, is based on the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. The film stars Anthony Hopkins, Nicole Kidman, Gary Sinise, and Ed Harris.
Chato's Land is a 1972 Western Technicolor film directed by Michael Winner, starring Charles Bronson and Jack Palance.
Before Midnight is a 2013 American romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater, who co-wrote the screenplay with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. The sequel to Before Sunrise (1995) and Before Sunset (2004), it is the third installment in the Before trilogy. The film follows Jesse (Hawke) and Céline (Delpy), now a couple, as they spend a summer vacation in Greece with their children.
Frankenstein's Army is a 2013 found footage horror film directed by Richard Raaphorst, written by Chris W. Mitchell and Miguel Tejada-Flores, and starring Karel Roden, Joshua Sasse, Luke Newberry, Alexander Mercury, Robert Gwilym, Andrei Zayats, Mark Stevenson and Hon Ping Tang. An international co-production of the United States, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands, the film is set on the Eastern Front of World War II, as seen from the point of view of a Red Army team. In the film, Soviet troops invading Germany encounter undead mechanical soldiers created by a mad scientist descended from Victor Frankenstein.
The Before trilogy consists of three American romance films directed by Richard Linklater. Beginning with Before Sunrise (1995), and continuing with two sequels, Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). The first film was co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The second film was written by Linklater, Krizan, Ethan Hawke, and Julie Delpy while the third film was co-written by Linklater, Hawke and Delpy. Hawke and Delpy also star in the trilogy.
Six Minutes to Midnight is a 2020 British war drama film directed by Andy Goddard from a screenplay loosely based on a true story by Goddard, Celyn Jones and Eddie Izzard, starring Izzard, Judi Dench, Carla Juri, James D'Arcy and Jim Broadbent.
A Midnight Clear is the third novel by the American novelist William Wharton. Based on Wharton's own experiences, it was published in 1982 following Birdy (1978) and Dad (1981). The novels deals with six American soldiers who get a mission to have an eye on a German outpost at the heart of the Ardennes Forest, but the mission turns out to be much more difficult than expected. Wharton notes that he wrote this novel "thinking of the massacre of My Lai in Vietnam, to show how easy it was for a massacre to take place. And he did know how easy".