Fresh
A Midnight Clear doesn't do as much as it might with its characters. But as a parable of human folly and fragile hope, it has considerable impact.
Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times
A Midnight Clear
At the frontlines of life, near the end of innocence, came the beginning of manhood.
1992 · 1h 48m · R
Drama, History, War
Directed by
Keith Gordon
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A Midnight Clear
Overview
In 1944 France, an American Intelligence Squad locates a German Platoon wishing to surrender rather than die in Germany's final war offensive. The two groups of men, isolated from the war at present, put aside their differences and spend Christmas together before the surrender plan turns bad and both sides are forced to fight the other.
Director and cast
- Keith Gordon Director
- Peter Berg as Bud Miller
- Kevin Dillon as Mel Avakian
- Arye Gross as Stan Shutzer
- Ethan Hawke as Will Knott
- Gary Sinise as Vance 'Mother' Wilkins
- Frank Whaley as Paul 'Father' Mundy
- John C. McGinley as Major Griffin
- Larry Joshua as Lieutenant Ware
- David Jensen as Sergeant Hunt
- Curt Lowens as Older German Soldier
Critics on Rotten Tomatoes
Top critics, in their words
88%
Tomatometer
Fresh
[Gordon] clearly relishes the story's many ironies, and he's often successful at sharing his enjoyment of them with us.
Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel
Rotten
It's so determined to be haunting that it gives up the ghost.
Michael Sragow, New Yorker
Fresh
A Midnight Clear -- not quite a great war movie but certainly a sensitive, bright and supremely moral one -- shows how courage itself can be a kind of insanity.
Michael Wilmington, Los Angeles Times
Fresh
Despite such peculiarities, or perhaps because of them, A Midnight Clear has a quirky, haunting quality, delivering good performances all around, but especially from Sinise, Hawke and Frank Whaley.
Johanna Steinmetz, Chicago Tribune
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