A Midnight Clear (1992)

This is one of those films that when it finishes you can't find words for a while, to express the feelings it stimulates. I was one of the few who saw this in the theater, and I was stunned by the power of the acting, and surprisingly enough, the writing.

If after seeing this you can't see the futility of war, you've missed something. This is in the same class as All Quiet on the Western Front, Gallipoli, and Breaker Morant.

Fmovies: A Great war movie that doesn't get envolved with the killing and blood. It deals with the souls of a small german (not NAZI) squad and US special forces squad. Gets you in the head of young kids going to war and how the people on the other side aren't all that different.

I saw the film when it was in theatres nearly 20 years ago. As for scary films set in a snow-bound mansion, I found this to be ten times as creepy as The Shining. This is not a horror film, but certain images in the first half of the film are as horrifying as anything I've seen in film since then. I don't mean gore or grue. I mean ghost-story horror.

A war movie/horror film? Has anything ever been done like that? I think this film is in a genre all its own. I guess this is an anti-war film. If you wish to view it as such. It certainly does not make the viewer want to rush out and fight a war. In the cast are John McGinley and Kevin Dillon, both from the cast of "Platoon," but here in significantly different roles.

I regret to say I've not been able to totally analyze and deconstruct this film. I can't tell you what it's all about, or what you should think or feel as you watch it. There is so much going on in this film. I saw it in the theatre nearly twenty years ago, and then again on cable when I taped it, about 16 years ago. I watched it again tonight. It was just as spooky and just as impressive as it was two decades ago.

I totally loved this film. My father fought in the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest, very close in time and proximity to this story. His battalion, from Pennsylvania, trained at Camp Shelby (in Mississippi), just as the soldiers in this film. Some horrifying things he saw in the forties, he was only able to begin to describe a few years ago.

This is such a terrific film. For so many different reasons.

A Midnight Clear fmovies. I had to order this movie in from the US because you can't get it in Britain. But it was worth all the hassle of tracking it down because it is an amazing movie. Ethan Hawke is great as the young Sergent who must lead a group of frightened young soldiers to the German front. Gary Sinise is amazing as the emotionally damaged "Mother" Wilkins, and the supporting cast is great too! When the group discovers a Nazi camp of soldiers who have lost the will to fight, an uneasy truce is formed, which will ultimately and in tragedy as the American Platoon try to protect "Mother." The movie is brilliantly acted and with a emotionally powerful ending. (I was very nearly crying at the end!!!!) Defiantely worth hunting down!!!!

First off, If you haven't yet seen this film, I recommend you do so ASAP. But, considering A Midnight Clear is underrated and relatively unknown, anyone reading this message has most likely already seen the film. Not only is the acting brilliant and emotionally charged, the premise is excellent as well. Set in 1944, this small intelligence group is forced to report on any pending, incoming German attacks, something that turns to mystery and evidently reveals the true horrors of war. Combined with an innovative director and a wonderfully tragic score, I must say A Midnight Clear is one of my favorite war movies, second only to Glory in my opinion. Others on my list would include Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Braveheart, Black Hawk Down, The Bridge Over the River Kwai and Schindler's List (if that can be considered a war film). To say that this movie tops all those others is an incredible testament to its greatness.

This movie was on Bravo last night but was terribly edited so I stopped watching and stuck my video taped copy into the VCR. This movie truly grew on me over time. I had planned to see it in the theater in, I think 1993, when it was released but it was in theaters for such a brief time that I lost my opportunity. I'm very happy to see that other posters here were also profoundly affected by this movie. The first time I'd seen it I was dumbstruck and truly didn't know what to make of it. Like many, I'd been fed a steady diet of WW2 movies with John Wayne, William Holden, Richard Widmark, and the like. They were all of a jingostic testosterone bent and featured stirring musical scores, minimal blood, and happy endings, as in all the Germans/Japanese die. This was the first WW2 movie I'd ever seen that dispensed with all that crap and gave you a sense of how war makes victims of everybody, sparing no one it's violent assault on our sanity. For this Keith Gordon/William Wharton, Mike Nichols/Joseph Heller, Kurt Vonnegaut, James Jones, Norman Mailer, John Hersey should all be praised for their courage to discard ideological dogma and poignantly lament our violated humanity. They may have, dare I say, stepped upon an enlightend plain where even Steven Spielberg has yet to trod. His movies are remarkable presentations of events, but do not explore any issues that might touch upon this theme of the individual, powerless, human suffering in war time. They are far more traditional morality plays. In short this movie makes you truly feel sorrow for these dead, good intentioned German (Nazi) Soldiers who wanted nothing more than to end their misery as fodder in der Fuherer's army. I was struck By the scene in which Will Knott stares into the eyes of the German officer who's face betrays a million nightmarish images of the Russian front and perhaps some horrible deeds for which he has paid a dear price in guilt worthy of Macbeth. This was one of many scenes which conveyed so much with out a single line of script. Just the faces of the experience guiding the viewer. Mark Ishams fantastic musical score helped quite a bit to. For those who hated this movie, I'm not sure what to say. If your looking for a very heavy-handed war movie this is not for you. If, however, you appreciate the deft and delicate hand in conveying a powerful message and making a powerful statement, than you will be richly rewarded by a movie you will never forget.