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ARYE GROSS

ETHAN HAWKE

GARY SINISE

FRANK WHALEY

JOHN C. MCGINLEY

LARRY JOSHUA

CURT LOWENS

At this point it may seem as though we’ve seen as many films with antiwar messages as war movies themselves. Even so, A Midnight Clear stands out from the crowd.

When William Wharton’s novel was published in 1996 it earned accolades from many critics, one of whom said it belonged on the same shelf as Stephen Crane’s The Red Badge of Courage. But unlike Crane, when Wharton wrote about men in war he did so from firsthand experience. He was still a teenager when he volunteered for active duty, served in the U.S. Infantry during World War II, and suffered serious wounds during the Battle of the Bulge. He later said that he based A Midnight Clear on actual events, and it’s not difficult to imagine that his protagonist, Will Knott, is Wharton himself.

In adapting this book for the screen, actor-turned-filmmaker Keith Gordon was determined not only to capture the almost-surreal tone of the book and cast it with young actors, but also to drive home Wharton’s observation of a war peopled with soldiers who were barely out of adolescence.

The time is December 1944; the setting is the Ardennes Forest in the dead of winter, where the snow creates an eerie light, and enemy soldiers can seemingly materialize from out of nowhere—and disappear in the blink of an eye. The film focuses on a U.S. intelligence squadron made up of exceptionally bright—but emotionally raw—young men whose assignment is to flush out Germans nearby. Ethan Hawke plays Will, who narrates the film. When a fellow soldier, nicknamed Mother (and played by Gary Sinise, in his feature-film debut) goes mad and runs toward the forest, tearing off his clothes, it’s Will who goes after him and brings him back.

The other members of the unit (played by talented actors Frank Whaley, Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, and Arye Gross, all at the outset of their careers) have no way of knowing that the Germans who hover nearby are just as young and just as scared as they are. In fact, they’d like nothing better than to surrender and bring their suffering to an end—especially as Christmas nears.

A Midnight Clear is a riveting, meticulously crafted drama that was a labor of love for Gordon and his cast, as is evidenced by the stories related by the director and Ethan Hawke on the commentary track of its tenth anniversary DVD release. It had real meaning for them, which helps explain why it resonates so strongly with us in the audience.

88. THE MIGHTY

(1998)

Directed by Peter Chelsom

Screenplay by Charles Leavitt

Based on the novel Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick

Actors:

KIERAN CULKIN

ELDEN HENSON

SHARON STONE

GENA ROWLANDS

HARRY DEAN STANTON

GILLIAN ANDERSON

JAMES GANDOLFINI

MEAT LOAF

JENIFER LEWIS

I don’t get cited in movie ad campaigns very often because I don’t write good, pithy, enthusiastic quotes. However, I did conduct a one-man promotional campaign for The Mighty when it came out in 1998 because I fell in love with the film. I only wish I’d convinced more people to see it.

Charles Leavitt’s screenplay is based on a popular juvenile novel by Rodman Philbrick called Freak the Mighty. The main characters are a pair of seventh-grade students who are social outcasts, each for a different reason. Kevin (beautifully played by Kieran Culkin) is smart as a whip, but has a degenerative physical disability known as Morquio’s syndrome. He can’t participate in sports, and most of the kids at school make fun of him. Kevin tends to disappear into a world of his own imagination. Max (Elden Henson), who narrates the story, is an overgrown hulk who’s failed seventh grade before and is an object of ridicule for most of his classmates.

One day a teacher assigns Kevin the task of helping Max learn to read. Using his ingenuity, and love of books—and refusing to coddle his reluctant pupil—the smaller boy introduces Max to the legend of King Arthur, inspiring him with tales of the knights of old. In time, they team up to emulate those knights, combining Kevin’s brains and Max’s