A Midnight Clear in the Ardennes

In 1914, in various places along the Western Front, there came a Christmas truce. It wasn’t universal—for one, not everyone who fought in the war celebrated Christmas. The troops from India weren’t much interested. But in many places, at bare minimum the dead were buried. Pope Benedict XV had asked for a formal truce, which both sides refused, but in various places along the front, an unofficial truce reigned. Famously, there were even games, beyond the known prisoner exchanges and presents and so forth; at least one ball used remains today. It’s known as the Christmas Truce in English and der Weihnachtsfrieden in German.

World War I had no such truce. Thirty years later, there were soldiers fighting in the Ardennes Forest. The Germans had hoped to take advantage of the Allies’ logistical problems in order to force an end to the war in the Germans’ favour. Sergeant Will Knox (Ethan Hawke) is the leader of a squad sent on an intelligence mission. Their squad was intentionally made up of smarter men, and they are dying one by one in the way of war. They are sent to a manor further ahead of the lines, where they encounter a squad of Germans who know the German offensive is coming and want no part of it.

The plan should have worked, and I think that’s what will haunt Will for the rest of his life. He didn’t tell Mother (Gary Sinise in his first role), and he had excellent reasons for that choice. Mother is the oldest member of the group. His wife had given birth, and the baby was dead. He is deeply unwell, and even though he’s the person who should probably be the leader, the entire rest of the squad babies him as much as possible. It’s understandable. It just also turns out to have been the wrong choice.

This is one of those movies that has a cast that’s better than they could have realized it was going to be when they made the movie. Peter Berg is a Hey It’s That Guy to this day—only I care that his next movie was Aspen Extreme—and Kevin Dillon’s always going to be “Matt’s brother” to me even if his previous movie was The Doors. Arye Gross is another Hey It’s That Guy, and Frank Whaley is Brad from Pulp Fiction and Larry Joshua is the captain from Cop Rock. But Ethan Hawke, who admittedly already had a career, and Gary Sinise and John C. McGinley. It’s an interesting list, at least.

Is this a Christmas movie? Well, depends on your terms. It is set around Christmas; the last words spoken are “merry Christmas.” It is about life and death, which are very Christmas thoughts. And it is very much resonant of the Christmas Truce. Mother says he can’t take a war like that, and indeed that’s why the truces really stopped happening during World War I. It turns out it’s hard to shoot at people you sang carols with the night before. Peace on Earth starts with individuals.