Spezialeinheit IQ

"A Midnight Clear" is a film that reminds me of the wonderful French film, "Joyeaux Noel". However, instead of being set during WWI, this American film is set just before the Battle of the Bulge in WWII. Both occur at Christmas time...and both involve a strange sort of cessation of hostilities.

The story is about a tiny reconnaissance group of American soldiers. They have the thankless task of scouting ahead of the rest of the army...and not surprisingly many in their small unit have already been killed. There are two main plots that result. First, they are discovered by a group of German soldiers who do not attack but instead wish to surrender. But, in order to prevent the SS back home from taking retribution against them for not fighting, they propose to make it look like they surrendered only after a horrible fire fight. Sadly, it does NOT go down as they'd planned. Second, after this, when the Major meets up with them, this commanding officer mostly screams at them and threatens them...and leaves them back at their forward base. When the German offensive begins, they're soon stuck behind enemy lines and they have to work hard to find their way back to the Allied lines.

Despite some similarities to "Joyeaux Noel", it is different enough and somber enough to be a different film viewing experience. For the most part, it's just the story of a few men trying to survive...and the thankless tasks they've been given. Well made and worth seeing.

T's a story about a squad of foot soldiers caught in the Battle of the Bulge. They are youngsters, thrown into the battle, trapped behind enemy lines in the freezing Ardennes, trying to survive. Some of them will.

It's a good place, I think to tell my family story about the Bulge. My uncle was a foot soldier in the battle. He was stuck in a fox hole with an Italian POW who agreed to fight with the American forces. A shell landed right on them, blowing my uncle out of the foxhole, ripping off all his clothes. When a jeep showed up, the driver wanted to leave my uncle's body, but the man he was in insisted he not be left behind. My uncle's corpse was strapped to the front of the jeep like a shot deer, taken back to field headquarters, and dumped in the tent with the other dead soldiers, and soon my grandparents get their 'deeply regret' telegram. Some time later, a doctor, walking through the tent, thought he saw my uncle breathing, and revived him from the hypothermia he was in. He spent a few years in a wheelchair, and eventually made a full recovery. He died about fifteen year ago.

Maybe it's that connection that makes this talky drama, shot in a freezing Utah winter, speak to me. Maybe it's the cast, including Peter Berg, Arye Gross, Kevin Dillon, Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise (in his screen debut), and Frank Whaley. Maybe it's the sere, white cinematography of Tom Richmond. Whatever it is, it's a very worthwhile movie to watch on Memorial Day.

It's a war film, but an atypical and sober one at that. Probably war drama fits better. As there's a whole lot more to it than just action. On that count it has its moments, but really it's about the characters (if something of a coming of age) and the realisation that their enemy is just as reluctant and afraid as them. The script is meditatively thoughtful and the performances by a capable cast (Ethan Hawke, Kevin Dillon, Peter Berg, Gary Sinise, Frank Whaley, Arye Gross and John C. McGinley's pig-headed Major Griffin) are genuinely layered. This helps draw you in, feeling the joy but also the tragic nature that waits. It absorbingly paints the foolishness of war, where in a serenely ironic manner it all pans out. It follows a small young American reconnaissance platoon nearing the end of WW2 in Eastern Europe, which was put together due to them having the highest I.Q. in the army. Thinking that they would get better results, however on their mission they come across a patrol of German soldiers hiding from their inevitable fate and a special, if strange bond is formed between the two parties. Written and directed by Keith Gordon (who I'll always remember him as Arnie Cunningham from John Carpenter's 80s horror flick "Christine"), he does an effective job tailoring the welcoming humanity and the painstaking horrors of war through the visuals, dialogues, atmospheric surroundings and performances. The narrative moves back and forth early on dealing with past events that brought these American soldiers together, before settling on the straight-and-narrow. The material is rather offbeat and mellow, especially when it came to the interactions between the two groups. What seems unfathomable, becomes reality and then even playful (snowball fights?!). There's something simply haunting and forlorn about this presentation and you could probably attributed it to the beautifully moody, if glassy music score. It just stays with you. Like the final shot of the film, where the camera pans onto Hawke's face of despair and this is one powerfully heartfelt moment. "A Midnight Clear" is quite low-key and unpredictable in all, but hard to forget.

"I'm through playing soldier."

Once upon a time in northern France on late summer night in 1944, there was a sergeant in his mid-twenties, an armorer who normally fixed the big guns when they broke down or cleared hangfires from them. ("Lonely goddamn work, I'll have you know.")

When his turn in the rotation came up every few nights, he would man the forward-observer post duty for the artillery battalion in which he served. He and a private went forward with binoculars and a field telephone to call in fire missions if they saw anything moving. And that particular night they did: Like silent spectres out of the darkness came a handful of German infantryman who, even in the poor light and from hundreds of yards away, were staggering with exhaustion, hungry, dirty. A mess wagon came forward and set up to feed them what must have been their first hot meal in days or even weeks. Patton's advance had been pressing them eastward across France without letup.

"Sarge? Aren't you gonna call this in?"

"No. Not yet. Let's let those poor sons of bitches finish their chow first."

When the Germans had finally eaten their fill, a couple had lit cigarettes, and the mess wagon was turning around to leave, Dad finally called the battery plotter with the coordinates. He made the German soldiers and the mess wagon disappear in a rain of 155-mm howitzer shells.

At the time the movie finally made it to cable, Dad had only a few months to live. When I saw this movie, I couldn't get that story of his out of my head. Knowing how bitter and disgusted he felt about the war -- "I was a political prisoner of Franklin Delano Roosevelt" was how he put it -- I realized that this movie was too powerful for him to see.

I realize this is more a personal anecdote than a remark about the movie per se, but it says something about the tone and impact of Gordon and Wharton's story that I was finally able to understand, just a little bit, why I saw Dad sitting alone at the breakfast table in the middle of the night, chain-smoking in the darkness, for all those decades. And the horrific glimpse this film gave me sobers me to this day.

In memoriam: Amzi R. McClain (1920-1999), T/Sgt, Batt A 721st FA Btn 66th Inf Div 1943-1945

It is worth noting that Keith Gordon (director) met with William Wharton (book author and war veteran) on several occasions and was left with the impression that the 'story' Wharton told is true. Neither author or director could use the 'based on a true story' epitaph simply because the events are completely unverifiable; but reading the book -- and watching the film to a certain degree -- does give a sense that these events did occur.

Knowing that the film is a reasonably accurate portrayal of real events -- William Wharton was said to be impressed by the final cut -- makes the events portrayed in the film even more moving. It also explains why the director chose to focus on certain scenes to keep the story flowing, it was as if he wanted to commit the 'story' to film before it was forgotten.

Having said that, there are touches of directorial brilliance and subtlety in this bleak and wintry tale. For example, the panning shot of the squad of soldiers walking through the forest which finishes with the still picture of a frozen hand -- if you even notice it -- is unforgettable.

These were true events according to the author; it is worth keeping that in mind when you watch the film.