BEFORE: Well this linking worked out better than most, I think. Frank Whaley carries over from "When Trumpets Fade" - but also the subject matter carries over, World War II and all that. And even though today's film was released in 1992 six years BEFORE "When Trumpets Fade", it's the logical successor because it's set in December 1944, right after the Battle of the Hurtgen forest in November that same year. This one takes place in the Ardennes Forest, which was the setting for what came to be called the Battle of the Bulge. I'll need to read up on the actual battle a bit more, but thematically I think I'm on point here, this film rightfully follows the previous film in all the right ways, it would be next on the World War II timeline, so a bit of luck with the scheduling. Or a happy accident, whichever.
THE PLOT: The Ardennes Forest, December 1944. A squad of six U.S. infantrymen is sent to occupy a house as an observation post as the German army is expected to advance through that area. However, the Germans seem oddly friendly.
AFTER: There's a similar point of view here as well, like "When Trumpets Fade" this film represents the new view of the futility of war, even World War II, in a post-Vietnam, post-"M*A*S*H", post-"Platoon" movie-scape. Again, at the time of World War II no filmmaker would have dreamed of making an anti-war film, and this reverence lasted throughout the 1950's and into the first part of the 60's, and then of course everything changed. So suddenly a World War II film could ALSO be an anti-war film, whatever that meant, and so then maybe people started to view it in a different way, I can't be sure. But yeah, realistically, it's war, and sometimes commanding officers make bad decisions and sometimes young men die because of that. And then there's the fact that even with good planning, not all military operations are successful, unforeseen things take place, things go wrong and results are not always achieved, and again, young men die.
There was another film I watched a few years back called "Joyeux Noel", about a Christmastime truce between the warring factions during World War I, and that film is kind of right in line with this one, even though they take place during different wars, and "A Midnight Clear" is set 30 years later, although this film was released 13 years before "Joyeux Noel" was, so, umm, who's copying who? This one might be the original after all.
Again we're presented with a squad of six men, most very young and inexperienced in the ways of warfare, and the squad leader has recently been promoted to sergeant not because of his deeds of great heroism, but basically because he's still alive. And he hasn't been able to get his stripes attached to his uniform because those symbols are in short supply and on back order - at the rate privates are getting promoted they'd probably be better just taking the stripes off a dead sergeant, or even just switching jackets with him. What good is the chain of command if nobody can get their uniforms updated to reflect their recent promotions?
This squad is sent to occupy a house in the forest, and keep an eye out for German patrols, reporting back whatever intelligence they can. But on the way there the road is blocked by two frozen corpses that have been placed in the road, locked in a grim embrace. Then once the squad settles in at the house and enjoys some sardines and wine, they go a few days without seeing any Germans, however, they can hear them at night, calling out to them - one of the U.S. soldiers speaks Yiddish, which is sort of based on German, and thinks the Germans are telling them to "sleep well", which they believe is some kind of taunt.
When they do encounter a German patrol during the day, the German soldiers do not shoot at them, although they had a clear shot and an opportunity to aim first, but then while the U.S. soldiers are freaking out, the mysterious Germans vanish. And when the Germans do attack one night, it's not with bullets but with snowballs. After the Germans light a Christmas tree and sing carols like "O Tannenbaum" and "Stille Nacht", it seems that they're proposing some kind of truce, and they exchange gifts, some wine from the house for some sausages from the Germans.
Meeting up the next day, the German squad is revealed to be comprised of some very old soldiers and fresh recruits young enough to be their grandsons, and the older soldiers are claiming to not be Nazis, just career soldiers doing their job. They want to surrender to the U.S. troops before the next German offensive, because they are afraid of getting killed when the hostilities resume. I guess it's possible that through attrition and five or six years of war all that was left of the German army were the very old and the very young - or at least that's who they were sending out on the advance patrols.
However, the Germans are afraid of reprisals if their superiors should investigate their capture and it looks like they surrendered without a struggle - so the German's propose that the Americans launch a fake offensive, both sides fire their guns into the air only, and then there will be enough bullet casings around the forest to look like a skirmish took place, and that way it will appear that this squad of soldiers fought back and did not get captured willingly. After some debate, the U.S. soldiers are on board with this deception, because what could POSSIBLY go wrong?
Their mistake was concealing the true nature of the gunfight from "Mother" Wilkins, a soldier who was mentally unstable after the last few battles and from learning of the death of his child back home. At the house "Mother" had taken to occupying the top floor by himself so he could reflect on some art stored there. Sure, because German art and poetry and music is all so uplifting and positive. JK, it really isn't. Wilkins mistakes the fake firefight between the sides for a real one, and then starts shooting to save his squad. Whoopsie. Well I guess then maybe staging a fake battle wasn't such a great idea after all.
Knowing that it would break "Mother" even more to tell him his actions led to the death of several Germans who were about to surrender, the squad decides to never tell him. In their version of the story, Mother arrived just in time as the Germans were about to kill the rest of the squad. So the dangerous soldier with mental health issues who acted irrationally gets a citation and is transferred off the front lines, while the squad members who were trying to do something different and save a few lives on the other side find themselves sent back to the front lines. It would seem so very irrational if it didn't seem more like the messed-up way that military operations really go down, and that is to say that nobody really knows how and why things happen, not even the commanding officers. And if one squad isn't operating well or reporting back the proper indication, like if they're more concerned with taking baths and sleeping in nice beds then maybe that squad needs to be pulled off the front lines and replaced, only it appears that the C.O.s aren't seeing the problem to be much of a problem. Anyway the Germans will be making another push in a few days, so most of these guys aren't expected to survive anyway?
Overall, though, I'm left wondering if the previous depictions of World War II might have been too jingoisitic and forgiving regarding the mistakes that soldiers make, and then of course the flipside of that is wondering if the post-80's depictions of war as a confusing, deadly and ultimately futile undertaking doesn't go too far in the other direction. Perhaps the truth lies somewhere in the middle?
I also have to call attention to the flashback story, where the members of the recently-formed squad all search for a prostitute to sleep with just before they ship out, and instead they find a woman who is willing to have sex with all of them, but only because her boyfriend had recently died in the war, and she was one step away from killing herself. The new recruits end up just spending the night with her talking and drinking and playing card games, and then at night she comes to each one of them and DOES have sex with all of them in turn, because damn it, that's the most patriotic thing a woman can do for her country, have sex with all of the soldiers just before they ship out. Yeah, that's not really a big step forward for feminism, not in 1992 or even back in 1944 for that matter.
The good news is that I've officially started watching Christmas-themed movies, this is the first of, umm, let's say four. Yesterday's film ended with Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas", because, well, it was November and that's probably what the soldiers were dreaming about, making it home by December 25 maybe. But the whole film wasn't Christmas-themed like this one kind of is. I don't think "Black Christmas" really counts as a Christmas film either, especially since I watched it during October. Or does it?
Also starring Ethan Hawke (last seen in "Great Expectations"), Peter Berg (last seen in "Fire in the Sky"), Kevin Dillon (last seen in "Poseidon"), Arye Gross (last seen in "Nostalgia"), Gary Sinise (last seen in "The Human Stain"), John C. McGinley (last seen in "Identity"), David Jensen (last seen in "Species"), Larry Joshua (last seen in "The X-Files"), Curt Lowens (last seen in "Torn Curtin"), Rachel Griffin, Timothy S. Shoemaker, Kelly Gately, Bill Osborn, Andre Lamal
RATING: 5 out of 10 grenades (hanging on the Christmas tree like ornaments)
No comments:
Post a Comment