Mother Night (1996)

User Rating:

7.1/10   

Director:

Keith Gordon

Writers (WGA):

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (novel)
Robert B. Weide (screenplay)

Release Date:

1 November 1996 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance | War

Tagline:

Howard W. Campbell, Jr., is the most patriotic American in the Third Reich.

Plot:

An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.

Plot Keywords:

American | Spy | Germany | Nazi | WWII

Cast

Nick Nolte	...	Howard Campbell
Sheryl Lee	...	Helga Noth / Resi Noth
Alan Arkin	...	George Kraft
Bernard Behrens	...	Reverend Dr. Lionel Jones
Anna Berger	...	Epstein's Mother
Arye Gross	...	Dr. Abraham Epstein
Norman Rodway	...	Werner Noth
Frankie Faison	...	Robert Sterling Wilson
Gerard Parkes	...	Father Patrick Keeley
Vlasta Vrana	...	August Krapptauer
Zach Grenier	...	Joseph Goebbels
Kirsten Dunst	...	Young Resi Noth
Anthony J. Robinow	...	Prison Warden
Michael McGill	...	Prison Official
Shimon Aviel	...	Guard Bernard Liebman

MPAA:

Rated R for a scene of sexuality.

Runtime:

114 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German | Yiddish

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Finland:K-14 | Portugal:M/12 (video premiere) | Spain:18 | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Fine Line Features

Trivia:

Lieutenant Bernard O'Hare, when he captures Campbell, is not wearing the regulation M1 helmet of WW2 vintage, nor are the two U.S. soldiers who drive Campbell away from the concentration camp. Rather, they appear to be wearing the British paratrooper type-3 helmet, which, interestingly, was adopted by the Israeli Defense Forces in the late 1940's and '50's.

Quotes:

Resi Noth: You no longer... you no longer believe that love is the only thing to live for?
Howard W. Campbell Jr.: No.
Resi Noth: [starting to cry] Then tell me what to live for. Tell me anything. It does not have to be love. Anything at all! I will live for that chair! Or that -- that picture on the wall! Or that crack on the... over there! Just tell me. Tell me what you live for and I will live for that too!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Be Kind Rewind (2008)

Soundtrack:

Andante Con Variazioni

Wartime Allied undercover operative suffers the consequences of his deception, in the process discovering something about himself and about justice.

It's so rare to find a literary work adequately translated to the screen that I may have rated this film higher than it deserves, but not by much. As a long-time student of Vonnegut's works, I have no hesitation in recommending the film to his readers, at least to those that love him as I do. The casting is inspired: Nolte is understated in triumph, bewildered in defeat, decisive in judgment. Sheryl Lee is luscious throughout, but her handling of the treacherous Resi and her tragic crescendo almost makes you forget her beauty. Alan Arkin delivers a totally lovable, but equally treacherous, Soviet spy.

Do not feel you have to read Mother Night to appreciate the film; though, if you haven't read Mother Night, you will probably want to after viewing the film.

Notice the shifts from color to black-and-white and back again, and don't miss the final symbolism of Campbell's noose. Watch, also, for Kurt Vonnegut's cameo near the end of the film.

Bing Crosby's "White Christmas" will never sound the same (I write in mid-December, when the song is getting heavy radio play, and it's driving me nuts).