★ 7 / 10
I think owning 26 copies of Bing Crosby's
DanTheMan 2
I think owning 26 copies of Bing Crosby's White Christmas might be a few too many. Finding a peculiar line of humour in narcissism, self-hatred and genocide…
I think owning 26 copies of Bing Crosby's White Christmas might be a few too many. Finding a peculiar line of humour in narcissism, self-hatred and genocide, Mother Night is a richly complex character study that suffocates in its contradiction of a man who was both a Nazi propagandist and a covert American spy during World War II. It's particularly commendable because the task in this case is made even more challenging by the story's tendency to extract amusement from the horrors of Nazism. It is partly effective due to a willingness to let the hateful things Campbell says linger, a complicated, richly human character that is at times sympathetic and at other times beyond contemptible, even to himself. This all stems from a truly fabulous performance by Nick Nolte and some rather wonderful direction by Keith Gordon. Mother Night is a handsome, well-acted historical drama that works well for its philosophical themes, dry, ironic, and laced with existential dread.
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★ 8 / 10
Mother Night worked for me. I know it
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Mother Night worked for me. I know it did not for everyone. Roger Ebert, whom I've always respected as one of the greatest critics of all time, and one who I…
Mother Night worked for me. I know it did not for everyone. Roger Ebert, whom I've always respected as one of the greatest critics of all time, and one who I almost always agree with, didn't like it much.
Nick Nolte plays the central character. A man with no political agenda, an American expatriate living in Germany before World War II, happily living out his life as a playwrite and married to a beautiful woman he adores. Circumstance, and some choice, lead him to act as a propagandist for the Nazi Party, but in secret, he is a spy transmitting intelligence to the U.S. He becomes so effective in he speeches, that he finds he inspired the hatred of the Nazis better than anyone, so much so that when the war is over, he is in hiding, but has a fanbase of Neo-Nazi admirers in the U.S., and the U.S. intelligence community will not come out and clear his name. There are plenty of other details, but that's the gist.
What gets me is that a lot of viewers and critics alike seem to falter on what the message of the film is. This puzzles me, because to me the message of the film is pretty obvious. It even states it clearly in the beginning, taken directly from Vonnegut: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
If you watch the rest of the film with that line clearly in mind, then the message of the film is pretty obvious. Even the ending makes it pretty clear that the central character, having realized that no vindication from the government, saying he is really a hero for what he did, can erase the evil that he spread in the world. It's so mind-numbingly simple that I don't get the confusion. Maybe the abundance of style in the film made it so some viewers felt it had to be more complicated than that.
The film does not always work, but it is probably the best adaptation of an author as difficult to film as Vonnegut as you're likely to get. For that alone, the film deserves the four stars I'm giving it, but not five because of it's imperfections. The absurdity of Vonnegut is captured without becoming slapstick nonsense. It veers into pretension at times, but saves itself with solid performances. And, in the end, the message should be pretty damn crystal clear. I don't quite get the confusion of the critics.
Anyway, if you appreciate Vonnegut, I think you'll appreciate the film. Even if you don't, just remember the quote, and you'll do fine.
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