A Midnight Clear (1992)
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A whole generation of American film, packed into one small 1992 movie not enough people saw. The director was Keith Gordon, who played the bullied nerd with the murderous car in John Carpenter's Christine.
Ethan Hawke leads and narrates, three years before Before Sunrise. Gary Sinise makes his debut, two years before Forrest Gump. Peter Berg is in it, before he directed Friday Night Lights.
A MIDNIGHT CLEAR (1992) sends a six-man American intelligence squad, chosen for their high IQs and already gutted by losses, into the snowbound Ardennes in December 1944. They find a small German unit that doesn't want to fight.
The Germans want to surrender, but they need to stage a fake battle first, so it looks to their own army like they went down bravely. The two sides build snowmen, sing a carol across the snow, and set up the ruse. Then one tragic error sends things spiraling.
William Wharton wrote the novel it comes from, and he had lived it, wounded in that same battle before becoming a street painter in Paris who published his first book past fifty.
It was filmed far from Europe, in White Pine Canyon outside Park City, Utah, during the coldest winter in 83 years. Still, there was almost no snow, so the production had to truck it in from the mountains and shovel it onto the set by hand, wiping away every footprint between takes.
That frozen canyon location is now The Colony, a gated enclave of multimillion-dollar ski homes.
About the Film
At the frontlines of life, near the end of innocence, came the beginning of manhood.
- Directed By
- Keith Gordon
- Runtime
- 108 minutes
- Released
- April 24, 1992
- Certification
- 16
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, Arye Gross, Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise
More Credits
- Genres
- Drama, War, History
- Language
- German, English
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- Beacon Communications, A&M Films, Interstar
- Written By
- William Wharton, Keith Gordon
- Produced By
- Bill Borden, Dale Pollock, Armyan Bernstein, Marc Abraham, Tom Rosenberg
- Cinematography
- Tom Richmond
- Music
- Mark Isham
- Also Starring
- Frank Whaley, John C. McGinley, Larry Joshua, David Jensen, Curt Lowens
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Rewatched this just recently. 👍🏼
This is an excellent film. And I also highly recommend the novel upon which it was based.
Great flick, amazing cast
Great film – Gordon has directed some excellent tv episodes on some of the best shows as well.
Great movie.
A slow burn mindf*ck war movie. I watch it every Christmas.
Not a big cast, good script you can feel the cold of winter
Great film
It may have been Sinise’s first starring role in a feature film, but he wasn’t exactly new, been in many TV movies and shows AND in 1988 directed his feature debut Miles From Home
Nigel Skelton True, it would be more accurate to say “feature film debut” (as an actor).
One of the most brutal gut punches of an ending I’ve ever experienced. Absolutely fantastic, but I’ll likely never watch it again because of that ending.
Great movie and vastly underrated. The scene where the GI’s are on patrol and look over to see the Germans pointing their rifles at them is fantastic. The way they react is amazing, exactly how such a moment would go down. And the ending is gut wrenching. Such a great film.
Among other things, this film is spot-on in its portrayal of how smart people are treated in the military.
I watched it this afternoon based on this write up, interesting and entertaining film. Great seeing the early performances of those actors.
Outstanding war film, and I’ll echo that the novel is good
I remember watching this movie when it came out
Love this movie. Glad to see it getting some recognition.
Great movie!!
LOVED this movie and it is truly an underappreciated gem. Remember – this was YEARS before Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, Black Hawk Down, etc.
John Deppenwas on Bravo a lot in the Bravo movie days
I wish they’d have killed there commanding officer
One of the finest war films out there. Criminally under-viewed and known. Excellent film.
The author of the novel, William Wharton was in the same WWII outfit as my father, the 87th Infantry Division.
I can’t speak to the book, but the film? Possibly one of the worst movies, war or otherwise, I’ve ever seen. Sledgehammer subtle metaphors, preposterous situations…just silly.
I do applaud its antiwar sentiment, but holy smokes what a ham handed presentation of that noble idea.
This was such an underrated movie with an amazing cast. Absolutely loved it.
The movie has it’s moments and its pretty damn sad how the situation went from good to bad real quick.
Tricia Mariano
That was a good movie. Very tragic ending.
Different but a great film.
One of the best opening scenes in war film history. Hawke and Sinise give truly excellent performances because they’re so genuine and believable. Also has lots of great movie quotes like ‘are you out of your tiny minds?’
My favorite war film! Recommended
In my top ten of Most Criminally Underrated Films. It’s an absolute gem
Well the scenery looked more like the Battle of the Bulge than the movie Battle of the Bulge
Really good movie
Excellent anti-war war film. Beautifully made. One of my favorite movies.
GREAT movie!!!
Devastating film.