WARNING: THIS COMMENT INCLUDES SPOILERS, ALTHOUGH IT DOES NOT GIVE AWAY THE ENDING.
This is a powerful, excellent movie, made with intelligence and care, and full of very good performances. (Ethan Hawke's performance is probably his best.)
Beginning its story under the traditions of the World War II combat film genre, A MIDNIGHT CLEAR takes the usual group of soldiers out on patrol and places them in an abandoned mansion in the middle of the Ardennes Forest, France, near the end of the war. They are young and relatively inexperienced, picked for the platoon because of their high IQs. It's an intelligence mission, so their commander wants highly intelligent soldiers -- a purposefully absurd logic.
They discover a group of German soldiers nearby and after several surreal encounters (a snowball fight; singing Christmas carols together; etc) it becomes clear the Germans want to surrender, but only after a fake skirmish, so it will appear to the oncoming German army that they fought bravely. Another surreal situation -- and it fits into the world of this movie perfectly, for this is a world about the madness and absurdity of war and of the combat experience.
Eventually, the real horror, pain, and confusion of combat takes over, and the result is stunning. Throughout, the film is beautifully shot with crisp, color photography of the snowy forest, somewhat recalling the black-and-white BATTLEGROUND (1949).
This is a little gem of the movie.
This is a powerful, excellent movie, made with intelligence and care, and full of very good performances. (Ethan Hawke's performance is probably his best.)
Beginning its story under the traditions of the World War II combat film genre, A MIDNIGHT CLEAR takes the usual group of soldiers out on patrol and places them in an abandoned mansion in the middle of the Ardennes Forest, France, near the end of the war. They are young and relatively inexperienced, picked for the platoon because of their high IQs. It's an intelligence mission, so their commander wants highly intelligent soldiers -- a purposefully absurd logic.
They discover a group of German soldiers nearby and after several surreal encounters (a snowball fight; singing Christmas carols together; etc) it becomes clear the Germans want to surrender, but only after a fake skirmish, so it will appear to the oncoming German army that they fought bravely. Another surreal situation -- and it fits into the world of this movie perfectly, for this is a world about the madness and absurdity of war and of the combat experience.
Eventually, the real horror, pain, and confusion of combat takes over, and the result is stunning. Throughout, the film is beautifully shot with crisp, color photography of the snowy forest, somewhat recalling the black-and-white BATTLEGROUND (1949).
This is a little gem of the movie.