For politicians, war is the health of the state, as Randolph Bourne said. For the young draftees who must wage it, war is hell, a waste of precious life and future love, a dreadful reason to die. While the great anti-war films never fail to deliver this message, the way Keith Gordon delivers it in A Midnight Clear (1992) is unique among the films I have seen. Gordon, a young actor directing his second film, adapted the screenplay from William Wharton's semi-autobiographical novel. The time is December 1944; the place is the Ardennes Forest near the French-German border. The film … Continue reading The Great Anti-War Films A Midnight Clear