Spezialeinheit IQ

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.

There is the classic, or `Golden Age,' of WWII based movies, from the 50s, 60s and 70s; and then there is the age of ultra-realism: those movies about WWII (or any war for that matter), that because you can show more on film, be more graphic in war's depiction, and because cinema has changed so much, it allows us to see more of how war actual was, instead of the watered down versions we had been getting for years. Don't get me wrong. When most of us speak of such classics like `Sands of Iwo Jima,' `The Longest Day,' or `A Bridge Too Far' (and so many other great WWII movies), we are perfectly right to sing our praises of such timeless standards. Nevertheless, there is a good chance that we should be even more grateful for these modern WWII gems that have raised the bar to permit us a closer glimpse of how this war really felt to those who fought in it. I suppose all I can say at this point would be to watch `A Midnight Clear,' and perhaps you would understand why I would choose this movie to be ranked only behind the likes of `Band of Brothers' and `Saving Private Ryan.' Then watch some other modern ultra-real WWII flicks like `When Trumpets Fade,' `Das Boot' and maybe even `Cross of Iron;' and then gauge for yourself. `A Midnight Clear,' though not really smacking of anti-war themes, yet showing the futility and absurdity that only propels us to hold our breath; it is a perfect example of not only reality, but of how a WWII movie works with probably no more than 50 rounds fired throughout the whole film. Poetic (though not as much as `The Thin Red Line'), great dialog, and a premise that is built much on fact. Largely based upon a true story, and taken from the book by a WWII veteran that was actually there, this movie keeps great company among the new ultra-real films; and it simply moves me. I hope it moves you, as well. 9.4

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.

In the beginning stages of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944, a reconnaissance patrol is sent ahead in the Ardennes forest on the border of France and Germany where they encounter some German soldiers. Who will survive to celebrate Christmas?

"A Midnight Clear" (1992) is an obscure artistic WW2 movie focusing on a patrol in the wintery sylvan landscapes of the Battle of the Bulge. It's more realistic than the surreal "Castle Keep" (1969), but it reminds me a little of that arty flick.

While a couple of scenes could've been more convincingly executed and some elements of the story are unlikely or weird, it's almost an exact recounting of author William Wharton's actual experiences (he wrote the 1982 novel the script was based on). Director/scriptwriter Keith Gordon desperately wanted to plainly state "This is a true story" at the beginning, but the lawyers wouldn't allow it. As such, the supposed disclaimer during the end credits is vaguely worded for legal reasons.

Speaking of Keith, you may remember him as the protagonist in "Jaws 2" (1978) and, especially, "Christine" (1982).

In any case, I appreciated the wintery war ambiance in the woods with cast members from "Platoon" (Kevin Dillon and John C. McGinley), "Dead Poets Society" (Ethan Hawke) and "Forrest Gump" (Gary Sinise). I also liked the inventive approach, the music, and the depiction of this handful of young men united in a struggle of life and death. While the middle starts to get a little tedious and questionable there is a turning point and, from there, the film is quite compelling.

The film closes with a haunting rendition of "It Came upon a Midnight Clear" by Sam Phillips as the credits scroll. I felt moved and reflected.

The movie runs 1 hour, 48 minutes, and was shot in the Park City area of north-central Utah.

GRADE: B.

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