The Worst Film Ever

One of my all time favorites.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I didn't know how to take this film, when I first saw it. But it has made me think, all these years.Strange things do happen during war ... and before war: Janice. And "local armistices" sometimes do occur, at great mutual risk.Gary Sinise has just been nominated to receive West Point's Sylvanus Thayer Award for 2015, in recognition of his support of American servicepeople, with performances of his Lt. Dan Band - the name from his character in Forrest Gump - among many other things. His portrayal of Mother in Midnight Clear is as compassionate, moving, and thought-provoking as any in cinema.The action seems are sufficiently realistic, as is the portrayal of the GI perspective - writing now as a Jan67-Jan69 GI/veteran (thankfully of West Germany not Viet Nam).It is superior to Saving Private Ryan, let alone Fury.Everyone should see this film and think about it.

Recap: A band of five young American men, all that is left of a platoon hit hard during the Ardenne offensive during the WWII get the assignment as a forward outpost and to look for enemy activity. They're in really bad condition, both physically and mentally, and think they have struck gold when their outpost is in an abandoned but once plush mansion full with food. But after a while there is some enemy activity, and it is very odd. Not hostile, but odd. It seems like there is a German squad out there, in equally bad condition, that want nothing more than to surrender.Comments: Based on a novel and my guess that the novel is much better but the story doesn't seem to translate very well to the big screen. Indeed it is a different war movie, much more about the mental pressure during wartimes than fighting and battles. But I can almost feel that scenes that must have been full of suspense, full of uncertainties and unknown elements, just fall flat in the movie. It is not suspenseful, just different and in many ways absurd. Many times people just act insane, and the reasons are unclear or at best hinted at.So when this mental pressure fails to come through, the main building piece of the entire story, I thought the story fell through. It wasn't good, it wasn't interesting, it didn't keep me on the edge and it didn't really send a message. Actually it did nothing.The cast is interesting, many young actors that then turned into stars in beginning of their careers. The acting is good, but not stellar, and a few characters also fell through into the absurd zone. Much of that too I feel is due to that this story, these characters need the time, space and pace given in a novel, that they can't be given here. And going halfway definitely isn't good enough.4/10

I had to order this movie in from the US because you can't get it in Britain. But it was worth all the hassle of tracking it down because it is an amazing movie. Ethan Hawke is great as the young Sergent who must lead a group of frightened young soldiers to the German front. Gary Sinise is amazing as the emotionally damaged "Mother" Wilkins, and the supporting cast is great too! When the group discovers a Nazi camp of soldiers who have lost the will to fight, an uneasy truce is formed, which will ultimately and in tragedy as the American Platoon try to protect "Mother." The movie is brilliantly acted and with a emotionally powerful ending. (I was very nearly crying at the end!!!!) Defiantely worth hunting down!!!!

There were three scenes in this movie which ultimately turned me off. 1) The de-virginization gang bang with the soldiers and one women. I found this scene just plain wrong. 2) The washing of the dead soldier. 3) The squeezing of the blood from the dead soldier.I don't know if anyone else found these scenes off-putting at all, but they ruined the movie for me. I would have liked the movie if it were not for these three scenes. I've watched many perverse and disturbing movies, "Bad Lieutenant" and "Seven" to name a couple off the top of my head. However, I was unable to properly digest the scenes in "A Midnight Clear" and found they destroyed the movie for me.