A Midnight Clear

A Midnight Clear (1992) is Keith Gordon's war drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. The Ardennes, winter 1944. Six young American intelligence scouts move into an empty house in the snowbound forest and stumble onto a German squad that clearly has no fight left in it.

The Germans are spent and looking for a way to give up without losing face in front of their own. For a couple of days both groups slip out of the war entirely — throwing snowballs, singing carols, keeping a quiet, unspoken truce. The young Americans, played by Ethan Hawke, Gary Sinise, Kevin Dillon, Peter Berg and Frank Whaley, believe they have taken prisoners without firing a shot. Then the surrender falls apart, and their trust in the enemy turns deadly.

Gordon adapted William Wharton's novel into a hushed, nearly silent anti-war piece where the real enemy is not the other side but the sheer pointlessness of it all. Hawke is barely out of his teens here, in one of his first roles to draw real attention. Stream A Midnight Clear (1992) online on iFILM.