Conference bookie::movies

951.0. "A Midnight Clear" by TECWT2::BOUDREAU () Fri Oct 06 1995 16:29

There are a lot of critically acclaimed movies that are just that: movies that all the
critics liked. Most drop by the wayside forever, some get dredged up years later for
any number of reasons. I guess you could call them sleepers.

"A Midnight Clear" is such a movie.

This movie came out around mid-1993, maybe May or June.  It's one
of those movies that was released, got excellent reviews, and went
away in about two months.  There were two "known" actors, Gary Sinese,
who had yet to hit the REAL big time by way of Gump, and Kevin Dillon,
who's been in a lot of movies, the most famous of which is probably "Platoon."

The story is set in December, 1944 in the Ardennes Forest.  One of the main
characters narrates throughout the movie.  His name is William Knott.
He gives the chronology of how, by the time he ends up in the Army, everyone 
calls him Won't, and he hates that.  He also explains how he became a sergeant, "I 
stayed alive." 

Knott ends up as platoon leader of 6 Army Intellegence Reconnaisance (IR) men.  There
were 12 IR men just before the story picks up, but 6 of them are killed in a
firefight.  

That's the background. I saw it at a theater after I read a review, and I've since
rented it twice from Blockbuster.  

From what very little my father told me about WWII, I'd have to guess that this
is probably the most realistic movie ever made on the topic.  Of course, it's
a lot more than just a war movie, or it wouldn't create such a good story.

Fear is the common and binding emotion between these 6 men, who are sent on a
reconnaisance mission in an abandon mansion, somewhere in the Ardennes.  The sense of
fear is one of many things that make the movie so believable. There is fear in the
enemy as well, with which the 6 have constant, sometimes humorous, contact. 

The story is drawn up so beautifully that I could have seen it right after
"Schindler's List" and I think I'd still feel deeply sorry for the German
combat troops and the fate they met.  No John Wayne, blood-and-guts. It's really a
good movie.

-Steve

    It's one of those movies that stays with you.  I still remember
    it "fondly" a year or more after seeing it.

    Ethan Hawke and Kevin Whaley are two other "knowns" in the film.
    
    And, yes, it was good.