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When Kurt Vonnegut , then in the U.S. Army, was being held in a German prison camp, he was asked by his guards why he was not fighting for the Germans--since he had a German name. Vonnegut later confessed in his introduction to his novel, Mother Night, “If I'd been born in Germany, I suppose I would have been a Nazi.” It is easy to lose sight of the fact that almost all of us take the side of that country where we are born or that tribe we are born into; for every person who takes sides for ethical reasons, a thousand or more take sides because of accidents of geography or birth.

“Mother Night,” a difficult movie made from Vonnegut's 1961 novel, is about a man whose life illustrates that reality. His name is Howard W. Campbell Jr., ( Nick Nolte ) and he is born in the United States but moves with his family to Berlin in 1919. He grows up, becomes a successful playwright, marries an actress, and by then the war clouds are gathering. Should he stay in Germany or return to America? An American agent ( John Goodman ) makes it easy for him, by asking him to stay and deliver anti-Semitic and anti-American diatribes on Nazi radio. Through a subtly coded system of pauses and coughs, the broadcasts will also carry secret information of great use to the Allies.

I have no doubt that such systems were in fact used, but for the purposes of “Mother Night” this scheme is ideal: It puts Campbell on both sides of the same fence. As his German father-in-law tells him, “Even if you were a spy, you served Germany more than the enemy.” Did he? The experience at the time indicates that none of the propaganda broadcasts (by Tokyo Rose, Lord Haw Haw, Ezra Pound, etc.) had much of an effect, since they were seen as exactly what they were.

Campbell's secret handler tells him that the American government will never claim him or come to his rescue. After the war is over, and he sees with his own eyes the horror of the death camps, Campbell is able to make his way to New York City, where he lives for almost 15 years under his own name; no one can believe he is the same person as the notorious traitor.

If the movie had been played out in this tone, I might have felt it worked better. That tone would not, however, have been Vonnegut's, which is more daring but harder to film. He adopts a wry angle toward his material, hinting at the madness and evil which lurk just below the surface of civilization, and the movie follows its story into Vonnegut land. A neo-Nazi newspaper publishes his address, and Campbell finds himself consorting with American Nazis and assorted other fauna, including “the black fuehrer of Harlem” and the nice old man across the hall ( Alan Arkin ), who is a Nazi--or then again, perhaps he isn't. Helga, his German wife, thought dead in a Russian attack, turns up again--or then again, perhaps she doesn't.

This unwelcome publicity causes Campbell a dilemma: Which side was he on? Was he an American who inadvertently helped the Nazis? An American not reluctant to help the Nazis? A Nazi posing as an American? His old handler (Goodman) turns up again, but cannot help him, and eventually he finds himself standing stock still in the street one day, because he has no reason to move in any direction.

His paralysis is broken by the Israelis, who arrest him and take him to Israel for trial as a war criminal. He is given a typewriter and three weeks to write his memoir (the cell scenes are the movie's framing device), and he can talk with, but not see, one of his fellow prisoners, Adolf Eichmann. His story concludes, I suppose, in the only way it should. It is a tribute to Nolte's performance that while we are confused about the meaning of the story, we never doubt the presentation of his character.

Walking out of “Mother Night,” I asked myself what statement, exactly, the movie had made. I could not answer. Campbell is a man without a country, without core beliefs. It is impossible to say for sure which side he was on, and which side he harmed more. He was a man prepared to take the most convenient course, and for him the ability to stay in Germany and become a famous propagandist (wined and dined by top Nazis) was very convenient, especially if he could pass along secret messages for the Americans, which was convenient, too.

The convenience for Campbell ended when the Nazis lost the war. Since the Americans were never going to claim him, it would have been more convenient if Germany had won. I assume in that case that Campbell would have stayed in Germany, would have been celebrated as a hero, and eventually would have been given a plum job. The dilemma Vonnegut sets him is that he cannot jump off the ship it was convenient for him to sail through the war on.

Vonnegut wants to show us a man very much like most of us, no smarter, no braver, who does what he does because it will contribute to his comfort and perhaps to his survival. There but for the grace of God go we, drifting through life having benefitted from chance and convenience, hoping the day will not come when we have to risk everything by declaring ourselves. It takes an extraordinary man to stand outside his tribe and try to see what is objectively good and right. Campbell was not within miles of being that man.

Does the film work? Not really. It loses itself in comic caricatures of the loonies that Campbell meets in New York; and its melodramatic double-reverses, by making the plot seem arbitrary, rob it of importance. Nor does the film, within itself, make clear what it thinks. We can think about it afterwards, and that is instructive, but “Mother Night” is like notes for a lecture that is not completed.

Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert was the film critic of the Chicago Sun-Times from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism.

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Film credits.

Mother Night (1996)

Rated R For A Scene Of Sexuality

113 minutes

Alan Arkin as George Kraft

Sheryl Lee as Helga Noth

Kirsten Dunst as Resi Noth

Nick Nolte as Howard Campbell

John Goodman as Frank Wirtanen

Directed by

• Keith Gordon
• Robert B. Weide

Based On The Novel by

• Kurt Vonnegut

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Movie Review: 'Mother Night'

Kurt Vonnegut wasn’t the first novelist to have fun with World War II (so did Joseph Heller), but he was the first to turn the very darkness of the Holocaust into a hook, a kind of cosmic conceit for readers. No wonder the counterculture kids loved him: He made the defining event of their parents’ generation — and the moral seriousness that accompanied it — seem hip.

In Mother Night , Keith Gordon’s adaptation of the 1961 novel that some Vonnegut cultists consider his best, Howard W. Campbell (Nick Nolte), an American writer living in Germany during the 1930s, is recruited as a spy for U.S. intelligence, which orders him to carry out an assignment of singular perversity. Posing as a Nazi sympathizer, he delivers a weekly radio address brimming with anti-Semitic bile; his spy reports are encoded in the broadcasts. The ”irony” is that even as Campbell is aiding the U.S. cause, he becomes a hero of the Third Reich, a reverent voice of Nazi propaganda who signs off each broadcast as ”the last free American.” After the war, U.S. officials refuse to acknowledge his patriotic role (it would tip their hand on future espionage strategies), and Campbell, having lost his beautiful German wife (Sheryl Lee), stumbles from one slapstick tragedy to the next, finally ending up an anonymous wretch in New York City, his bizarre role in history all but forgotten. That is, until he carelessly begins to use his real name, thus revealing his identity to the Auschwitz survivors downstairs and to a zany crew of white supremacists.

Twirling its hero through the time machine of history, Mother Night , like Vonnegut’s later Slaughterhouse Five , creates a picaresque narrative that could almost be the prototype for Forrest Gump (the line ”Life is like a box of chocolates … ” sounds like a vintage Vonnegut aphorism). Gordon, the young actor-turned-filmmaker, does a dogged job of reproducing the author’s absurdist odyssey, and Nolte, eyes glittering with rue, brings off the not inconsiderable feat of making Campbell weary with regret yet never letting him become a hangdog pain. As Campbell confronts his activities during the war, he arrives at the paralyzing revelation that he’s guilty after all; though he spied for the Good Guys, his radio rants spewed evil. In the ’60s, this may have seemed a moral twist of total heaviosity. No longer. In Mother Night , Kurt Vonnegut ties himself — and history — in knots to demonstrate that if you behave like a Nazi, you really are a Nazi. The movie leaves you wondering why anyone would need to work this hard to arrive at that conclusion. B-

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Mother Night

At least three styles of filmmaking clash incongruously in Keith Gordon's "Mother Night," an extremely ambitious but not entirely successful adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's ironic satire of an American citizen in Hitler's Germany whose shifting politics and arbitrary allegiances ultimately cost him his life.

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At least three styles of filmmaking clash incongruously in Keith Gordon’s “Mother Night,” an extremely ambitious but not entirely successful adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s ironic satire of an American citizen in Hitler’s Germany whose shifting politics and arbitrary allegiances ultimately cost him his life. A strong central performance by Nick Nolte and a brilliant supporting turn from Alan Arkin help considerably a story that, while always intriguing narratively, seldom finds the right tone in conveying its black humor. Uneven direction of basically cerebral material and lack of conventional payoff will make this idiosyncratic film a hard placement commercially, though Nolte’s star power and novelist’s name should find favor with non-mainstream auds.

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In his third outing, actor-director Gordon demonstrates again his attraction to highly complex narratives dealing with the subtle ironies inherent in extreme political situations, from power struggles in a Catholic boys’ school (“The Chocolate War”) to ethical dilemmas of young soldiers in war (“A Midnight Clear”) and, here, matters of political survival and identity in Nazi Germany.

Popular on Variety

Vonnegut’s modern classic, transferred to the screen by Robert B. Weide , presents a particularly tough challenge because it takes a nonjudgmental, often playful approach to moral issues of the utmost importance: loyalty and trust, national politics and personal identity. Notions that a person’s allegiances are arbitrary, and that good and evil can change with one’s point of view, inform the film’s cynical, postmodernist perspective. The material calls for delicate shifts in mood, easily achieved by Vonnegut in his writing but missing from Gordon’s helming, which irritatingly rambles from one form of stylization to another.

Story begins in 1961, in a black-and-white sequence that shows Howard Campbell (Nolte), a middle-aged American, brought to an Israeli prison, with the soundtrack playing Bing Crosby’s “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas” against an image of Israel’s flag. Furnished with an old typewriter, he’s given three weeks to record his memoirs before standing trial as a war criminal. Tale then flashes back to Campbell’s childhood in New York, his family’s move to Berlin in l919, his marriage to a German woman and successful career there as a playwright.

Shifting back and forth in time, first half is mostly set in Germany, where Campbell is seduced into service by the U.S. government on a top secret assignment that calls for him to assume the role of a Nazi sympathizer. Gaining national celebrity through his popular radio show, he soon becomes a prominent spokesman for the Nazis’ anti-Semitic (and anti-American) propaganda.

Pic’s second half switches to 1950s New York, with Campbell living in poverty in Greenwich Village until he’s recognized as the infamous Nazi personality. Tale becomes a wonderfully intriguing black comedy, with Campbell simultaneously persecuted by his Holocaust survivor neighbors, pursued by the American authorities as a traitor and courted by neo-Nazis and white supremacists wishing to revive the “good old days.”

Combining elements of a political thriller, romance and black comedy, intricate, multi-nuanced yarn calls for a subtle, highly modulated direction. But with the exception of a few scenes, Gordon’s helming stumbles, failing to convey the variegated moods of individual scenes and, more important, lacking smooth transitions among the twisting plot’s numerous sequences.

As a good deal of the story is narrated by Nolte, Gordon goes out of his way to decorate the material with various stylistic flourishes to uneven results. For instance, the introduction of Campbell’s loving wife, Helga (Sheryl Lee), in a bath of golden light is jarringly silly, and their sex scenes are preposterously shot. It is telling that the less explicit the presentation, the more effective its impact hence, the exchanges between Campbell and fellow prisoner Adolph Eichmann, who’s heard but never seen, are deliciously wicked.

In top form after a couple of disappointing films, Nolte is superb in conveying the nightmarish (mis)adventures of a man who claims, “I’m an American by birth, Nazi by reputation,” but ultimately comes to believe that he is what he’s pretended to be to the point of willingly surrendering himself as a Nazi criminal.

“Mother Night” would have benefited if the leading lady were as strong as Nolte. But with a thick accent that can most charitably be called distracting, Lee is excessively mannered in a dual part, as Campbell’s wife and as the mature Resi, Campbell’s sister-in-law (Resi as a young girl is played by Kirsten Dunst).

If the women seem less than ideally cast, all the secondary roles come to vivid life, adding immeasurable color to the film’s emotional impact. Eye-catching supporting turns are delivered by Arkin as Campbell’s N.Y. neighbor-painter, John Goodman as the American government agent, Bernard Behrens as the racist Dr. Jones, Frankie Faison as the Black Fuhrer of Harlem and, last but not least, Henry Gibson, who provides Eichmann’s ironically amusing voice.

Tech credits are impressive, though pic’s eclectic visual style reflects the director’s lack of unified vision. Still, Tom Richmond’s alert camera often captures the shifting mood of its central character, as in a strikingly poignant high-angle shot that depicts Campbell standing frozen on the street all day because, as he says, “I absolutely had no reason to move in any direction.”

• Production: A Fine Line Features release of a Whyaduck production. Produced by Keith Gordon, Robert B. Weide. Executive producers, Ruth Vitale, Mark Ordesky, Linda Reisman. Directed by Keith Gordon. Screenplay, Weide, based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut.
• Crew: Camera (Foto-Kem, B&W/color), Tom Richmond; editor, Jay Rabinowitz; music, Michael Convertino; production design, Francois Seguin; costume design, Renee April; sound (Dolby), Claude Hazanavicius; casting, Valerie McCaffrey. Reviewed at the New Line screening room, L.A. (In Montreal World Film Festival competing), Aug. 14, 1996. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 110 MIN.
• With: Howard Campbell - Nick Nolte Helga Noth - Sheryl Lee George Kraft - Alan Arkin Frank Wirtanen - John Goodman Resi Noth - Kirsten Dunst Abraham Epstein - Arye Gross Black Fuhrer of Harlem - Frankie Faison Bernard B. O'Hare - David Straithairn Dr. Lionel Jones - Bernard Behrens Adolph Eichmann's Voice - Henry Gibson

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Mother Night Reviews

A fine, melancholy adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 novel, with Nick Nolte in peak, vulnerable form.

Full Review | Original Score: B | Sep 1, 2022

Frankie Faison comes the closest to Vonnegut's spirit in his bold caricature of the Black Fuehrer of Harlem.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 25, 2018

Director Keith Gordon emphasizes the speeches more than other issues, and his otherwise thoughtful movie needlessly romanticizes hate.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 23, 2017

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Sep 7, 2011

Nick Nolte is excellent in Keith Gordon's ambitious but flawed adaptation of Vonnegut's fascinating novel.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Apr 28, 2011

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 6, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 1/5 | Sep 25, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 8, 2005

Surprisingly good Vonnegut adaptation

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 14, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 16, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 4, 2005

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Dec 22, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 27, 2004

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | May 20, 2003

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 8, 2002

Helps us to see that there is no escaping the burdens of living in a political world.

Full Review | Aug 28, 2002

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 77/100 | Jan 1, 2000

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 1, 2000

Mother Night (1996)

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Mother Night Review

14 Mar 1997

114 minutes

Mother Night

Normally films this good are trumpeted to the heavens. But then Mother Night is by no means a typical movie. It mixes complex ideological discourse with career-best performances, and the saddened irony of Kurt Vonnegut with the terrifying reality of Hitler's Germany. In other words, it's a hard sell, but a hell of a rewarding movie. Vonnegut himself - upon whose novel it's based - puts in a blink-and-you-miss-it appearance, offering a stamp of approval for what is an extremely successful attempt at taking a notably difficult novel to the screen.

Nolte is electrifying as Howard Campbell, an American journalist living in Germany, who finds himself caught up in a web of deception and loss of identity. The mysterious G-man recruits him to help spy against the Nazis - Campbell delivers coded pro-Nazi broadcasts that help the Allies by advocating Hitler. Somewhere along the way, the lines become blurred, a hero becomes a villain and a man loses his life.

Gordon, whose previous effort A Midnight Clear was as marginalised as this is almost bound to be, is obviously a filmmaker of considerable talent. Here he not only elicits sterling work from the likes of Arkin, Kirsten Dunst and Lee (doing another Laura Palmeresque double-up), but drags a career-best performance out of Nolte, who is mesmeric, devastating and ultimately devastated as a man caught between unacknowledged heroism and a life destroyed.

Mother Night

Where to Watch

Nick Nolte (Howard Campbell) Sheryl Lee (Helga & Resi Noth) Tony Robinow (Prison Warden) Michael McGill (Prison Official) Shimon Aviel (Guard Bernard Liebman) Bill Corday (Campbell's Father) Bronwen Mantel (Campbell's Mother) Brawley Nolte (Young Howard Campbell) John Goodman (Major Frank Wirtanen) Louis Strauss (Old Jewish Man)

Keith Gordon

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.

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Mother Night

Time out says, release details.

• Duration: 114 mins

Cast and crew

• Director: Keith Gordon
• Screenwriter: Robert B Weide
• John Goodman
• Kirsten Dunst
• David Strathairn
• Norman Rodway
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Mother night.

Directed by Keith Gordon

The truth is more shocking than the uniform he wears... HE WAS AN AMERICAN SPY.

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.

Nick Nolte Sheryl Lee Alan Arkin Bernard Behrens Anna Berger Arye Gross Norman Rodway Frankie Faison Gerard Parkes Vlasta Vrana Zach Grenier Kirsten Dunst Tony Robinow Michael McGill Shimon Aviel Bill Corday Bronwen Mantel Brawley Nolte John Goodman Louis Strauss Richard Zeman Thomas Hauff Jeff Pufah David Strathairn Henry Gibson Michael P. Moran Bill Haughland Joel Miller Kurt Vonnegut Show All… Richard Jutras Don Jordan Michael John Fedun

Director Director

Keith Gordon

Producers Producers

Keith Gordon Leon Dudevoir Robert B. Weide

Writer Writer

Robert B. Weide

Original Writer Original Writer

Kurt Vonnegut

Casting Casting

Valerie McCaffrey

Editor Editor

Jay Rabinowitz

Cinematography Cinematography

Tom Richmond

Executive Producers Exec. Producers

Mark Ordesky Ruth Vitale Linda Reisman

Production Design Production Design

François Séguin

Art Direction Art Direction

Zoe Sakellaropoulo

Set Decoration Set Decoration

Frances Calder Simon La Haye Daniéle Rouleau

Composer Composer

Michael Convertino

Costume Design Costume Design

Renée April

Makeup Makeup

Diane Simard

Hairstyling Hairstyling

Bob Pritchett Anne Morgan

Fine Line Features New Line Cinema Whyaduck Productions

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

English Yiddish German

Releases by Date

01 nov 1996, 15 dec 1996, 18 feb 1997, releases by country.

• Theatrical 13

114 mins   More at IMDb TMDb Report this page

Popular reviews

Review by 𝔸ℕℕ𝔸 ★★★½ 4

Kurt Vonnegut opened Mother Night with:

"This is the only story of mine whose moral I know. I don't think it's a marvelous moral; I simply happen to know what it is: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."

Listen: Let's think about that for a second. An author literally opened up their novel with the moral of the novel. That's like ruining a sports game by opening with the results. The game's been had. It's been played. Kurt Vonnegut gave away the moral of his story. Just like that. In the first paragraph.

Almost like a scientific experiment. I state a hypothesis then I…

Review by HalloweenHenry ★★★★

Arguably Nolte's best performance. Inspired me to revisit Vonnegut 's work. Sadly, it's as relevant now, as ever.

Review by Scout Tafoya ★★★★½

www.rogerebert.com/mzs/the-unloved-part-125-mother-night

Mute in the clamour of shells he watched them burst Spouting dark earth and wire with gusts from hell, While posturing giants dissolved in drifts of smoke. He crouched and flinched, dizzy with galloping fear, Sick for escape,—loathing the strangled horror And butchered, frantic gestures of the dead.

For no reason at all I ask you to reconsider a movie in which a man joins forces with fascists and then spends the rest of his life regretting spreading their message, even though he was doing it for what he understood to be the greater good. In the days after dozens of Bush administration officials and allies cheered on the police beating the shit out of student protestors at…

Review by Kevin Collins ★★★½

A tad too solemn for a Vonnegut adaptation. Faithfully Kafkaesque and wryly irreverent at times, but I imagine this would've worked better in the hands of the Coens' or someone likeminded. For what it's worth, this is the most literal text to screen translation I can recall within my unavoidably limited purview.

Review by RAFIF ★★★★★

"My dear sweet Eva, this is the only way I know how to make good the frightful wrong which has befallen us. It does not matter what lies ahead, for I have a full life behind me, all in those few sweet hours with you.I once told you that I would pledge my life for our nation of two, and reside there even in death, as surely as I reside in heaven when your arms are around me. Soon it will be time to keep that pledge, and I rejoice to think that earthly distractions will no longer intrude on my eternal devotion to you. From this moment forward our nation of two is the only country I will know…

Review by fizzybenilyn ★★★

The word that keeps springing to mind is 'Competent,' those who have read the book won't take away anything new from this, but still it's a much better adaptation than Breakfast of Champions was and Vonnegut makes a little cameo towards the end.

Review by Josh Katz ★★★

beautifully acted, and about as well adapted from a screenwriting standpoint as you can get (in terms of vonnegut movie adaptations), but still: i’m not convinced ANY movie can successfully capture what makes vonnegut’s writing so bracing.

as my high-school english teacher sez, you can’t film a sentence; how vonnegut writes is more important than WHAT he writes. what is both manic and thoughtful on the page becomes too plodding and literal on camera.

Review by Mihow ★★ 2

Dithering and full of your favorite actors, it's a strange combination. You basically point at the screen and go ooo that guy!

Nolte dithers for 90 minutes - mostly bumbles, the dad from Family Matters shows up as a black Nazi, why wasn't there more Goodman, why is this film so boring, why am I dithering? Is it contagious?

Anyway it's kind of a nice film, and it sucks. There's absolutely no point however.

Also, Sheryl Lee! A fine young Nazi.

Review by Pete Talbot ★★★★

Damn that's well acted and directed. I found this after watching the recent documentary on Kurt Vonnegut where he had said how much he had loved this version of his story and I can see why. I kind of wish there was just one more thing to this story, one more act. I think it's that I really loved Cat's Cradle and how that just got more and more crazy that I had hoped for one more escalation to this. Regardless, this is so well done that it feels like it could have come from any decade, that it could have come out of Sidney Lumet's filmography and that it's a shock that this seems to have been instantly forgotten in its time.

Review by Lucas Vasconcelos Silva ★★ 1

A nice discussion that gets overshadowed by messy (and uninteresting) filmmaking and boring tone.  

Review by Scott Martin ★★★★½ 1

Remarkably tense thriller has Nolte front and center giving one of the best performances of his career. On the surface it’s about spies and relationships but underneath are seething explorations of patriotism and loneliness. Beautifully shot and written, with a number of great smaller performances, notably from Lee, Goodman, and Arkin.

Review by Chloe

Strathathon #32

As far as Strathairn is concerned, he has maybe 45 seconds of screentime in a part that could have been played by anybody. I think his character might have been more important in the book, but he's a bit nothingy in the movie - disappointing.

The film as a whole? Hmm. There's a really interesting vibe to it, but it's not really enough to sustain the momentum required for the many tonal and narrative shifts. There are a lot of noteworthy performances (Alan Arkin rules, Sheryl Lee is great once she actually gets to do something, John Goodman does the John Goodman thing he does so well), and yet Nick Nolte seems a bit adrift in the lead…

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Mother Night

Details: 1996, USA, Cert 15, 114 mins

Direction: Keith Gordon

Genre: Drama

Summary: Chiller about an American asked to infiltrate Nazi Germany as a pretend-traitor and anti-Semitic propagandist. From the Kurt Vonnegut novel.

With: Alan Arkin and Nick Nolte

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MOTHER NIGHT

(Ro, LL, VV, SS, NN, A, D, M) Romantic worldview of heroism through espionage & marital love; 6 obscenities & 5 profanities; images & threats of war, raid on house, suicide, man kicks & abuses man, man strikes child, man cuts hand, & references of rape; foreplay between married couple & implied marital sex; upper male & female nudity; alcohol use; smoking; and, betrayal & deception themes

More Detail:

Combining humor, romance and black comedy into an eager but uneven adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel, MOTHER NIGHT focuses on American Howard Campbell, who lives in National Socialist Germany and serves as a spy for the U.S. government. In the late 1930’s, Campbell becomes very well known around Germany as a skilled playwright, which places him in the company of many military leaders. One day, he is approached by an American agent who presents him with an offer he can’t refuse. His mission is to assume the role of National Socialist sympathizer and produce a weekly radio show espousing National Socialist ideals, which would serve as a front for sending secret information to the Allies. With his true purpose known only to a few, Campbell becomes a hero in Germany and a villain in the United States.

This movie has a fascinating premise and is told with skillful direction, photography and acting. However, this movie fails on three points: cuts, characterization and comedy. There are some transitions in the movie which happen too quickly without explanation that they seem to cheapen the integrity of the story. Anti-Semitism and National Socialist aren’t laughing matters. This movie also contains some violence, marital sex and obscenities.

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Retrospective on Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night

A retrospective on kurt vonnegut’s “mother night”.

Reviewed by Mark Lindquist Post Road Magazine, Issue 10, 2005

“This is the only story of mine whose moral I know,” Kurt Vonnegut writes in the introduction of “Mother Night,” his third novel. “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

He wrote the introduction in 1966 for the paperback edition of this 1961 novel, which has always made me think that Vonnegut, like many writers, wasn’t really sure what he had written until years after the hardback was in the stores.

Vonnegut’s amiable introduction goes on about Germans and Nazis and his experience during World War II. The future author, as all his readers know, was hiding in a cool meat locker under a slaughterhouse while above him 135,000 civilians burned to death in Dresden after an allied fire-bombing of the German city, which had no military value.

“It was the largest massacre in European history, by the way. And so what?”

Surviving the fire-bombing of Dresden was a formative experience for Vonnegut as a novelist, though he sometimes disputed this, and it served as the jumping off point for his 1969 breakout anti-war novel, “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

By the late 60s Vonnegut had bridged the divide between high art and low art, becoming a bestselling author at the same time he was called “the best living writer in America” by Graham Greene. I have always admired his ability to turn simple and unpretentious prose into the stuff of classic pop literature.

But back in 1961 Vonnegut was relatively unknown, still feeling out his role as an artist, and about to find his voice.

Howard Campbell, Jr., the narrator of “Mother Night,” is an American writer living in Germany when the Nazis come to power. He is recruited by United States military intelligence to be a spy when World War II begins. As a respected playwright married to a popular German actress, Campbell easily ingratiates himself to the Nazis and offers his services as an anti-semite.

Soon Campbell’s Jew-baiting rants are being broadcast on the radio, bringing inspiration and joy to the Nazis, and coded messages to allied agents.

After the war, Campbell’s intelligence contact helps him return to New York. There he is a hero to the Iron Guards, a group of crazy and pathetic American Nazis. This role-playing seems to have no end, as the U.S. Government will neither confirm or deny that Campbell was a spy. He longs to call out, “Olly-olly-ox-in-free,” so that the make-believe will be over. Eventually he is frozen by an existential nausea and gives himself up to the Israelis.

And I should mention that “Mother Night” is also a love story. Through the course of all this madness Campbell loses the wife he loves dearly, finds her, sort of, and then loses her again.  Part of Vonnegut’s appeal is his ability to be both cynical and sentimental at the same time, a skeptic who believes love conquers all. He adds another moral to the previously mentioned one.

“Make love when you can.  It’s good for you.”

Campbell numbly tells his tale from an Israeli prison cell where he is awaiting trial for his crimes as a Nazi propagandist, idly wondering if his intelligence contact will come forward and identify him as a spy just following orders.

Vonnegut’s primary moral – be careful about what we pretend to be – is made explicit by Campbell’s Nazi father-in-law who points out that it doesn’t matter whether Campbell was a spy or not. “’All the ideas that I hold now, that make me unashamed of anything I have felt or done as a Nazi, come not from Hitler, not from Goebbels, not from Himmler – but from you.’”

The author reminds us that no matter how righteous our cause, no matter how insane and evil our enemy, we must be careful how we act if we want to keep our souls as artists and humans.  True in World War II, true in the sixties, true now.

In 1989 Kurt Vonnegut wrote a letter to Mark Lindquist.

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An American playwright is lured into dirty politics while living in WWII Berlin in this fascinating adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's novel.

Keith Gordon's dry-eyed version of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s novel is less Vonnegutian than one might have hoped -- less absurd, less larky -- and less Vonnegutian than one might have feared: The wacky, philosophical story stands up perfectly well without the author's annoying verbal mannerisms. Howard W. Campbell Jr. (Nick Nolte) is an American writer recruited to spy on the Nazis and masquerade as a radio propagandist during World War II. Years later, he's recognized as a Nazi and beset by Nazi hunters, neo-fascists and Russian spies, eventually landing in the Israeli prison from which he tells his story. Was Campbell a working Nazi? What counted for more: his work as a spy, or as a propagandist? The movie addresses this heady stuff head-on, with a quiet sense of the ridiculous and no apparent strain. Gordon, whose A MIDNIGHT CLEAR was seriously underrated -- juggles the material adeptly, and Nolte makes for a convincingly nonplussed Campbell. Vonnegut buffs may miss the clownish peaks and valleys -- there's no mistaking this for a film made during the '60s, Vonnegut's glory days -- but it's still a fascinating trip.

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Rotten Tomatoes® Score

A fine, melancholy adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s 1961 novel, with Nick Nolte in peak, vulnerable form.

Frankie Faison comes the closest to Vonnegut's spirit in his bold caricature of the Black Fuehrer of Harlem.

Director Keith Gordon emphasizes the speeches more than other issues, and his otherwise thoughtful movie needlessly romanticizes hate.

Nick Nolte is excellent in Keith Gordon's ambitious but flawed adaptation of Vonnegut's fascinating novel.

Surprisingly good Vonnegut adaptation

Additional Info

• Genre : Drama, Thriller
• Release Date : November 1, 1996
• Languages : English
• Captions : English
• Audio Format : Stereo

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You Can Definitely Tell M. Night Shyamalan’s Daughter Made ‘The Watchers’

Whether the pileup of all-in-the-family auteurist tropes is derivative or daring is very much in the eye of the beholder

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It would be easy enough to inventory all the ways Ishana Night Shyamalan’s debut feature evokes the films of her father; in fact, it’s harder to identify anything in The Watchers that doesn’t seem at least partially borrowed from M. Night’s formidable oeuvre. Adapted by Ishana from a novel by the Irish writer A.M. Shine, The Watchers is a thriller set in a secluded and gorgeously overgrown forest ( The Village ) that’s potentially populated by mythic creatures ( Lady in the Water ); its protagonist bears the literal and figurative scars of childhood trauma ( Split ) and occasionally sees dead people ( The Sixth Sense ); it features recurring cutaways to menacing, swaying foliage ( The Happening ) and a subplot about scientific experimentation gone awry ( Old ). Certain characters are not quite who they seem at a glance ( The Visit ), and there’s even a cabin, suitable for knocking .

Whether this pileup of all-in-the-family auteurist tropes is derivative or daring is very much in the eye of the beholder; either way, with Dad moonlighting as a producer, it was inevitable that matters of lineage would make The Watchers a conversation piece, especially during a summer in which Ishana’s older sister, Saleka, is set to costar in M. Night’s new thriller, Trap. Nepo-baby discourse is in, and in a recent story in The New York Times , Ishana met the topic head-on, acknowledging her heritage and what she sees as her responsibilities as a filmmaker whose surname opens doors at the upper levels of Hollywood. “It’s really about meeting that privilege and honoring that with as hard a work ethic as we can,” said the 24-year-old filmmaker, who apprenticed as a second unit director on Old and Knock at the Cabin . “[We’re] holding ourselves to the highest standard possible.”

As a piece of direction, The Watchers is about on par with Ishana’s work on the underrated Apple TV+ original series Servant (which her father was the showrunner for); she likes shooting at odd angles and mixing in lots of predatory, overhead perspectives, and she knows how to pressurize a set piece. Atmosphere is everything in a movie like this, and working in tandem with the gifted music video cinematographer Eli Arenson—who also shot the gorgeous 2021 Scandinavian folk horror movie Lamb —the director succeeds in creating an environment that’s palpably haunted around the edges, once the exposition is out of the way, at least. Dakota Fanning stars as Mina, an aspiring artist and pet store employee in scenic Galway who punctuates her workaday boredom by donning a brown bob wig and picking up local lads while cosplaying as a glamorous ballerina—a bit of character detail that at first seems like a non sequitur but actually hints slyly at the themes of identity that figure into the main story line.

Mina, it seems, is uncomfortable in her own skin, owing to long-simmering guilt over some distant transgression; a terse phone call with her sister, Lucy, confirms a measure of familial dysfunction. At this point, long-buried trauma is as much of a horror cliché as cursed artifacts or filleted teenagers; where a movie like The Empty Man satirizes such conventions, The Watchers uses them as a crutch—a telltale sign of a fledgling screenwriter. Hoping to distract herself and in need of extra cash, Mina accepts an errand chauffeuring an exotic (and expensive) parrot across the countryside to Belfast (which is surely the first time that this precise narrative setup has been used). After driving pretty much into the middle of nowhere, her car breaks down, leaving our heroine to wander through the rapidly darkening woods with the caged bird in tow.

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The scenes of Mina cowering in the forest are evocative enough that the movie could actually use more of them; one of the script’s flaws is that it rushes headlong into its first big reveal when slow-playing would have been preferable. Mina, as it turns out, isn’t alone; she’s approached by an older woman, Madeline (Olwen Fouéré)—wild-eyed and wiry, with a mane of long, silver hair—who offers cryptic but dire warnings of the come-with-me-if-you-want-to-live variety and spirits her back to a strange, oblong structure with a massive glass partition in the front. Inside, Mina meets two more people—20-something Ciara (Georgina Campbell) and teenaged Daniel (Oliver Finnegan)—who attempt to quickly acclimatize the newcomer to what has become, for them, a nightly ritual. Their task: to spend the night on display through the aforementioned window—actually a two-way mirror—for an audience of unseen (but easily heard) creatures who apparently take thrill in their mundane exploits.

The sheer convolution of this premise has a make-or-break quality to it; suffice it to say that The Watchers unfolds very much like a movie written by somebody who used to get tucked in while listening to a vestigial version of Lady in the Water. The eternal contradiction in the case of Shyamalan the elder is the tension between his enduring eloquence as a visual storyteller and the stiltedness of his dramaturgy, and on this front, his daughter proves to be a chip off the old block—for better and for worse. As a piece of set design, the “coop” (as Madeline calls it) is striking and memorable, like a kind of surrealist terrarium; it’s fun to look at but ridiculous to contemplate. That ridiculousness goes double for the elaborate “rules” that Madeline runs through for Mina’s (and our) benefit. The arcana here is grueling stuff; like the saga of Narfs and Scrunts in Lady in the Water , it suggests less some kind of solemn, ancient doctrine than a fairy tale that’s being made up as it goes along.

Such messiness is not necessarily a problem in and of itself, and it helps that for every outlandish narrative detail, there’s a resonant image, often involving the coop’s window, which is mirrored on the inside so that the characters become their own private audience even as they’re performing for their captors. The film’s gravitas, meanwhile, resides largely with Fanning; her hilarious extended cameo in Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood notwithstanding, it’s been a while since the actor has had a high-profile lead, and she makes the most of the opportunity. The emotional transparency Fanning cultivated as a child star has been replaced by an ardent, nervy quality that’s perfect for a character who’s looking for a way out (that same quality was on display in Night Moves ); she’s particularly well-matched with Fouéré, an acclaimed veteran stage actor, who’s got just the right angular physicality and otherworldly look for a story steeped in all kinds of Celtic lore (standing stock-still among the gnarled tree branches, she looks like a medieval woodcut). As for Campbell and Finnegan, they’re both suitably intense but hamstrung by clichéd screenwriting; even within the stripped-down conception of the story, they feel extraneous, bordering on expendable.

Any further discussion of what happens in the film—and to whom—would undermine its main selling point, which is the enigma of the title characters and their ultimate motivations. Without treading too far into spoiler territory, it’s worth noting (and admiring) that Shyamalan is coloring inside the lines of genre here; any fears that the film will dispense with supernatural high jinks and reveal itself as a high-handed metaphor for our voyeuristic, spectacle-obsessed society dissipate pretty quickly (notwithstanding a couple of dated jabs at reality TV). Which is not to say that The Watchers is without gimmicks (or self-reflexive pretensions), or even that its mash-up of Twilight Zone paranoia and creature-feature scares ends up feeling coherent—just that it basically plays fair by setting up a surreal scenario and seeing it through, as opposed to the sleight of hand in, say, The Village , with its phony, jerry-rigged creatures and Rod Serling–ish message that the real monster is (drumroll, please) the American way of life.

That movie was a proverbial film of ideas, and it was also in some ways M. Night’s Waterloo—the one where his reputation for storytelling trickery caught up with him. The Watchers is not nearly as cerebral; it’s less a political (or showbiz) allegory than a fable about our shared capacity for change. It’s a theme that’s ultimately addressed so plangently that it has the opposite effect and borders on goofiness. That’s where the family resemblance comes in once more. M. Night’s most distinguishing characteristic has always been his earnestness, which he uses as a shield against irony on-screen and off; with The Watchers , Ishana wields the same secret weapon with an endearing mix of awkwardness and pride.

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It’s curious to see writer-director Neil LaBute merge into the 2020s with power plays between genders again, first in House of Darkness and now Fear the Night , which hits theaters and digital platforms July 21. Avid filmgoers no doubt appreciated LaBute’s deep dive into the messiness of human emotion and behaviors in films like The Shape of Things and In the Company of Men back in the 1990s . His work after those two great films never felt quite as elevated, however some have been downright engaging nonetheless.

Fear the Night falls nicely into that slot. It’s a throwback to those 1970s action thrillers that so often filled the screen and, for some reason, have made a resurgence in the early 2020s. Those were B movies, to be sure, and Fear the Night feels like another one. Hey, there’s room for all kinds of “art” on screen. But there’s something compelling about Fear the Night that keeps you invested until the very end.

Maybe it's simply the premise. A spirited bachelorette party at a remote location is interrupted by masked intruders who surround the house and begin shooting arrows inside the house. They want something hidden inside the home, but these women aren’t about to give up so quickly. Mainly because of Tess, played by Maggie Q ( The Protégé, Designated Survivor, Nikita ) doing what, well, Maggie Q does best. Kick ass. Read on.

For the Love of Maggie

Maggie Q is the predominant driving force in Fear the Night. As Tess, she inhabits her brooding military veteran very well. Tess is battling her own addictions and difficulties fitting in with other people. It doesn’t help that she promised to attend her sister Rose's (Highdee Kuan) bachelorette party in the California hills. Her other sister, Beth (Kat Foster) also comes along, much to the displeasure of Tess. The two have unresolved issues, and while LaBute’s execution of that brouhaha never quite feels all that believable, we’re not meant to dwell on it for too long.

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You see, it’s all about the battle with the “bro” guys wearing masks and toting arrows who want to break into the house. Tess has the military smarts to at least attempt to thwart the takeover and begins doling out instructions. Some of them work. Others are sketchy. Blood is shed, and often in the way you would find viscera splatter in a 1970s film. It's kitschy yet, dare we say, thrilling.

The goal then becomes getting through the night alive. Rounding out the cast is Gia Crovatin (in a noteworthy turn), Kirstin Leigh, Ito Aghayere, and bad guy Travis Hammer, who keeps his minions on alert, fiercely salivating over the alleged “fortune” hidden in the home. Through it all — and this is not a surprise — Maggie Q delivers a powerful performance and her character’s existential angst begs for as many scenes as LaBute will give her. On that note…

Fear the Night Wants to Dive Deep

Clearly, LaBute is attempting to showcase a battle of the genders here with a touch more bravura. He also wants you know there are underlying themes running through Fear the Night. One of them is that the “terror” is always inside of us. “The call is coming from inside the house,” as it were — figuratively in this case. We are our own worst enemy. But other people can be, too. So there’s that.

Another theme is the fear of the unknown. Tess and the other women don’t know what these brutes are truly capable of, at least until the body count rises. And finally, there’s that feeling of having messed with the wrong people. In this case, women who have been controlled and marginalized, let’s say. LaBute spins the tale in effective fashion, tossing in several big, bold 1970s-style titles; chapter headings, if you will. It’s like an amped-up episode of Police Woman by way of a female Kojak with any kind of female law enforcement flick tossed in for good measure. But in a good way.

Related: House of Darkness Review: Neil LaBute Mines Fun Horror From a One Night Stand

Maggie Q and Travis Hammer and, to some extent, Gia Crovatin, fuel this endeavor. As we enter the final stretches of the film, there’s plenty of gore, action, and thrills to keep people invested. LaBute captures the mood and the raw nerves prevalent pretty well. If you haven’t dipped into LaBute’s previous work, you wouldn’t really know that within him lies something even deeper and deeply moving to bring to the screen. But judging by the number of producers listed in this film's credits — it does appear to outnumber the cast, and even Jeff Sackman of American Psycho is on board — you realize how challenging it can be to get any movie made in Hollywood these days.

There may have been a few too many cooks in the kitchen. The litany of producers may also be a glaring reminder that the current actors’ and writers’ strike — and that near-miss of a potential Broadway strike this week — come at a time when creativity and talent ought to be appreciated on a deeper level. Fear the Night may not be the best Neil LaBute film, but it’s a good one and manages to keep you invested until the very last frame.

From Quiver Distribution, Fear the Night will be released in theaters, on digital, and on demand on July 21.

• Movie and TV Reviews
• Fear the Night (2023)

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Celebrate Juneteenth at these Maine events

The holiday is Wednesday, but events start this weekend and run through the end of the month.

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Westbrook Middle School students Bella Zollarcoffer, Priscila Nzolameso and Sarikong Oak held tables educating and informing the community on Black hair history at Westbrook’s Juneteenth celebration last year. Cullen McIntyre/Staff Photographer

Juneteenth, which became both a federal and state holiday in 2021 , celebrates the anniversary of federal troops’ arrival in Galveston, Texas, on June 19, 1865, to ensure all enslaved people had been freed. This year, the holiday falls on Wednesday, but celebrations are happening over the next two weeks.

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. –  Indigo Arts Alliance presents The Welcome Table, an intergenerational symposium celebrating global cultural and culinary histories. Activities include art, movement and meditation workshops led by activists and cultural workers. 60 Cove St., Portland.  indigoartsalliance.me

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. –  Victoria Mansion is hosting a community day with free admission and a recitation of the Emancipation Proclamation by local actors. 109 Danforth St. Portland.  victoriamansion.org

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. –  Space and the Tate House Museum are putting on a Juneteenth community day with free admission and tours of Ashley Page’s “Imagining Freedom” exhibit at the museum. The historical art piece puts viewers into the shoes of an enslaved woman named Bet. 1267 Westbrook St., Portland.  space538.org Advertisement

1-6:30 p.m. –  The first event of “The City that Carries Us: Pain, Streets, and Heartbeats” will take place at the Public Theatre in Lewiston. The celebration will have a parade and a block party with performances, as well as scheduled activities and rituals throughout the day. It is hosted by the organization Maine Inside Out. 31 Maple St., Lewiston, maineinsideout.org

2-3 p.m. –  Through “Poems of Reckoning and Resilience,” the Portland Museum of Art and Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance seek to honor the legacy of Black Americans. Featured poet Nathan McClain will join local poets in the Great Hall at the museum to celebrate Black liberation and creativity. The museum is also offering free admission Saturday through Monday, in celebration of both Juneteenth and Pride Month. 7 Congress Square, Portland.  mainewriters.org

11:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. –  The fifth annual Juneteenth Celebration on House Island in Casco Bay will focus on Black joy, as well as nature, health and economic opportunity. Guests can stay for one or two days, and partake in activities like camping, hiking, yoga and games, all led by BIPOC leaders. Fortland, House Island, Portland.  eventbrite.com

4:30-7 p.m. –  The Community Organizing Alliance is putting on an event with speakers, live performances, poetry readings, a voter registration drive and catering by Bab’s Table. There will also be opportunities to get involved in the racial justice movement. The Atrium at Bates Mill, 36 Chestnut St., Lewiston.  eventbrite.com

1-3 p.m. –  Riverbank Park in Westbrook will host a community event with art, poetry, music and guest speakers. There will also be a barbecue picnic, a student fashion show, hair braiding, pick-up soccer and more activities sponsored by the city. 667 Main St., Westbrook.  On Facebook.

7-8 p.m. –  The Portland Yoga Project is putting on a class called “Liberated Breath: A Juneteenth Yoga Experience” that seeks to reflect on the holiday through yoga. The class is free for BIPOC community members and is sponsored by the Portland Public Library. 7 Bedford St., Portland, allevents.in

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