A MIDNIGHT CLEAR Movie Review

1992 Keith Gordon

As an actor, Keith Gordon is probably best known as the young protagonist in Brian DePalma's Dressed to Kill. He makes an impressive debut behind the camera with a passionate, intelligent adaptation of William Wharton's novel. Though his 1990s’ approach could be called revisionism, Gordon's interpretation of an isolated action within the Battle of the Bulge is legitimate. The setting is mid-December 1944, the Ardennes Forest, in France, Luxembourg, or maybe Belgium, no one's really sure which. The six surviving members of an intelligence and reconnaissance patrol know only that they've been sent to a house in the forest to see if there's anything to the rumors of a German counterattack.

Maj. Griffin (John C. McGinley), a martinet operating under the dubious assumption that military intelligence has something to do with human intelligence, has assigned the smartest young men under his command to the patrol. There used to be 12 of them, but, as our narrator, Will Knott (Ethan Hawke) says, intelligence doesn't count for much in war. Recently promoted to sergeant but refusing to wear his stripes, Knott is the nominal leader of the group. But Avakian (Kevin Dillon) really knows more about soldiering. The oldest of the group, Mother (Gary Sinese) is more than half mad. Only Stan (Arye Gross), who's Jewish, is really gungho to fight. Miller (Peter Berg) is ready for the war to be over, and Father (Frank Whaley) refuses to admit that the unit is part of the army. To underline their separateness, these six try not to curse. When they arrive at the house in the middle of the snow-covered woods, they find that the Germans are indeed in the area. But these Germans aren't the enemy they're used to fighting.

The characters and the premise make the film sound like any number of formula WWII unit pictures, but just the opposite is true. This is not the story of a group of kids from different parts of the country who are tested in battle and become a cohesive force. It's about frightened young men who have virtually no understanding of what they're doing, and only the vaguest idea about why.

The film's anti-authoritarian political slant is similar to Catch-22, (the novel, not the movie), and the references to King of Hearts are hard to miss. Gordon keeps the unusual narrative moving while giving the large ensemble cast room to work with their characters. Then, in the last third of the film, when the story becomes much more intense and unpredictable, he adds a strong religious element. Throughout, the film has an eerie, cold, dreamlike quality that creates an effective mood until it's broken by a jolting return to the realities of 1944 in the final minutes.

Viewers looking for lots of firepower and heroic action will be disappointed. Gordon uses graphic violence to shock and horrify, not to titillate. Perhaps that explains this fine film's lack of success in theatrical release and relative anonymity. It also makes A Midnight Clear one of the most impressive sleepers in the video store.

Cast: Peter Berg (Bud Miller), Kevin Dillon (Mel Avakian), Arye Gross (Stan Shutzer), Ethan Hawke (Will Knott), Gary Sinise (“Mother” Wilkins), Frank Whaley (“Father” Mundy), John C. McGinley (Maj. Griffin), Larry Joshua (Lt. Ware), Curt Lowens (German soldier), David Jensen (Sgt. Hunt), Rachel Griffin (Janice), Tim Shoemaker (Eddie); Written by: Keith Gordon; Cinematography by: Tom Richmond; Music by: Mark Isham. Producer: Interstar Productions, Bill Borden, Dale Pollock, Marc Abraham, Armyan Bernstein, Tom Rosenberg. Boxoffice: 1.526M. MPAA Rating: PG. Running Time: 107 minutes. Format: VHS, LV, Closed Caption.