25 Years Ago… A Midnight Clear

25 years ago, A Midnight Clear entered cinemas.  Well, almost, it still had a week to go but I’m posting this now since I’ll probably forget.

It was a small but good World War 2 movie, set during the Ardennes offensive in Christmas 1944.

Starring Ethan Hawke, John C. McGinley and Gary Sinise, it follows a recon squad sent forward to gauge what the Germans are up to, holding up in a recently abandoned mansion in the snowy woods.  Soon they are confronted with what they believe to be superior German forces, but it isn’t quite what they expect.

Even though it had a budget of coupons and dimes (around $1.5 million), it looks far more expensive than that and is a very pretty war movie.  Although there is some sentimental sap (probably its main problem), it is fraught with a foreboding, isolated atmosphere.  The first time you watch it, there’s a sense of tension as you feel the troops are about to get annihilated at any minute.

Directed by Keith Gordon, I’d call this a small and hidden gem.