DVD Mother Night

Now we switch to color and we see Nolte's story. He's an American living in Germany in the 1930s. He's a successful playwright and is married to a famous German actress who he loves dearly. When John Goodman, an American agent asks him to spy for the Americans, Nolte accepts the challenge. It's a very unique challenge too. Nolte is to write anti-Semitic [news articles] and broadcast them over public radio, in English, to be heard around the world. However, every time he coughs or pauses or clears his throat, it's really a coded message to the Americans. The Germans love him and he holds a high status. At the end of the war, there is nothing but devastation for him.

At this point John Goodman returns and tells him the Americans will never acknowledge his work but they will bring him to America to get lost in the crowd. He now moves to Greenwich Village, and this is where the story goes a little out of control. Alan Arkin is cast as his neighbor. And his role is a mystery. There's also a neo-Nazi organization, which is so comical that I had to laugh out loud. And a silly story whereby a beautiful woman who might or might not be his former wife, comes into his life.

The story was interesting and moved quickly. But it was clearly just fiction, and sometimes taken to such extremes as to be silly. Nolte is one of the finest actors around and his acting is terrific. The role calls for him to not be really patriotic towards either of the regimes. He chose to do what he did because of a personal adventure. And therefore is not a sympathetic character. It's a film designed to be clever rather than one that pulls at your heartstrings in spite of the interesting theme. And it's done well.

The DVD has an interview with Nolte and Vonnegut during the filming. It didn't add much to my appreciation of the film, but its nice to see the work in progress. "Mother Night" is clearly a showcase for Vonnegut's talent and a good role for Nolte. I do recommend it but don't expect to be moved or enlightened.

In a film adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel of the same title, Howard Campbell is an American playwright who grows to manhood in Germany before World War II. He marries Helga, a German actress. During the war, he elects to broadcast anti-Semitic speeches for the Reich Propaganda Ministry. Unknown to his Nazi bosses, he was recruited as an agent by the U.S. Defense Department shortly before the outbreak of the conflict, and Howard's radio sermons pass along coded messages to the Allies. Only three other Americans know of his role: his mysterious recruiter Frank (John Goodman), FDR, and the head of the OSS. Frank tells Campbell that the American government will eternally disavow his heroic actions as the Soviets would twist the story into some sort of anticommunist German-American plot.

By the war's end, Helga is dead. (Or is she?) Campbell is captured by the U.S. Third Army, but then released, apparently on the intercession of Frank, who also manages to spirit him to New York to restart his life. After 15 years living there unnoticed, Howard's role as Hitler's tame American is revealed to the public by an admiring neo-Nazi organization. Both the Israelis and Soviets clamor for his repatriation to stand trial.

MOTHER NIGHT plays more like a live stage production. It begins with Campbell being escorted to an Israeli prison to the song of Bing Crosby's "White Christmas". The film is a series of long flashbacks. At one point, Howard observes in a voice-over to the viewer that one must be careful what one pretends to be for that is what one truly becomes. Although MOTHER NIGHT has been criticized for its lack of a message, I rather believe that it's that an individual must in the end take responsibility for his/her actions in life regardless of the role, real or pretend, that's been played. For Campbell, realization of the consequences to humanity of his wartime persona comes at three widely separated points. The first, as the Red Army drives on Berlin's outskirts, Howard's father-in-law, the Chief of Police, tells Campbell that even though he (the Chief) suspected his son-in-law of being a spy, he now realizes that Howard served the Reich more than he might have ever served the enemy. Why? Because Campbell, with his broadcasts, made the Chief (and presumably other Germans) better Nazis. The second point comes in New York as Campbell views archival footage of one of his more rabid diatribes. And the last, in the Israeli prison, when Howard has a stunning insight during a conversation with Adolf Eichmann regarding the amount of self-credit the latter takes (or not) for the annihilation of 6 million Jews.

I can't give MOTHER NIGHT five stars for the simple reason that the neo-Nazis that Campbell eventually meets in New York are rendered as almost comic characters whose racist views don't come across as menacing as they truly are. Had they been portrayed with more seriousness, the overall impact of the film would have been, I think, greatly enhanced. Nevertheless, MOTHER NIGHT is well worth viewing.