MIDNIGHT CLEAR, A 235
Peter Berg, Kevin Dillon, and Arye Gross. A low- budget in de pen dent feature, A Mid-
night Clear tells the story of an isolated American intelligence squad that encoun-
ters a German unit trying to surrender.
Background
William Wharton (real name: Albert William Du Aime, 1925–2008) was an Amer-
ican writer and expressionist painter who served in the U.S. Army in WWII. A
product of the Army’s Specialized Training Program (ASTP) for G.I.s with genius
IQs, Wharton was severely wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and many of his
ASTP comrades were killed. In the prologue to his war memoir, Shrapnel, Whar-
ton says he wrote his third novel, A Midnight Clear, because he thought the U.S.
under bellicose President Ronald Reagan was about “to re- establish the draft of
young men, to send them off to kill or be killed. I felt an obligation to tell some-
thing about war as I knew it, in all its absurdity... War for me, though brief, had
been a soul- shaking trauma. I was scared, miserable, and I lost confidence in human
beings, especially myself” (Wharton, 1982, p. ii). While Wharton’s anti- war novel
was still in galleys, A & M Film’s president Dale Pollock purchased the movie rights.
Initially, British playwright Trevor Griffiths (Reds) was hired to write an adapta-
tion and John Mackenzie (The Long Good Friday) was hired to direct but Pollock
remained unsatisfied. In 1987 he hired Patrick Sheane Duncan (84 Charlie MoPic)
to write another version of the script and Randa Haines ( Children of a Lesser God)
to replace Mackenzie as director, but the proj ect remained unworkable. After view-
ing Keith Gordon’s The Choco late War (1988), Pollock hired Gordon to bring the
proj ect to fruition.
Production
Originally planned to be filmed in Yugo slavia (present- day Slovenia) in 1990, a
lack of snow there necessitated a change of location and a year’s delay. Snowy ever-
green forests near Park City, Utah, substituted nicely for the Ardennes Forest near
the French- German border in the winter of 1944–1945. The exterior of the chateau
was actually a three- wall set, which was built in the secluded hills of Utah, and the
interiors of the chateau were built in the gymnasium of a local high school. The
attic set was constructed on the stage of the school’s theater. Shooting the outdoor
scenes, especially the night scenes, proved grueling as Utah experienced its cold-
est winter in 83 years.
Plot Summary
Just before the Battle of the Bulge in December 1944, U.S. Army Major Griffin
( John C. McGinley) sends a small I&R (Intelligence and Reconnaissance) squad to
inhabit an empty chateau near the German lines to keep an eye on enemy deploy-
ments. Losses from an earlier patrol have reduced the squad from 12 to 6 men:
Sgt. Will Knott (Ethan Hawke), Bud Miller (Peter Berg), Mel Avakian (Kevin
Dillon), Stan Shutzer (Arye Gross), Vance “ Mother” Wilkins (Gary Sinise), and
Paul “ Father” Mundy (Frank Whaley). On their way to the chateau in two jeeps,
they encounter an eerie, surreal sight on the road: the frozen corpses of a German