Silent Night dramatises a search for humanity, with a hint that the spiritual (though mixed with pagan singing to a Christmas Tree) is the key. Honouring hospitality, even under duress, is a big theme. I enjoy war movies, especially when the themes of common humanity & pathos come into play. The German accents should have been better, and native German speakers would have helped. But still, it's nice to relax to a reflective war film, devoid of immoral language, that asks anthropological questions. It is far from blood and gore, nor is it some feminist fantasy of woman putting man to shame, though it is about a mother who bravely laments to her country's soldiers that their fight has been misconceived. For their part they respect her the more for her bravery, and feel the truth of her politically incorrect words – but should she be shot? The last character introduced, Capt. Dietrich, aligned to Hitler, levelled his gun... There are some early cringe views of a wounded leg (let the squeamish cover their eyes), and the wounded man soon shrieks in pain as the wound is cauterised (let the squeamish cover their ears). He later gives the opportunity to test how strongly the German leutnant links honour to his sworn word, which in turn shows Pvt. Rassi how the 'other side' can also suffer human tragedies of the heart. Rassi repents of some callousness. Yet the story concludes on the theme that some callousness is a must in war – perhaps is in life if "war is but the aggravation of the normal human condition". Honour to one's country, or even humanity, is not the highest duty, but it is a duty, and both sides, American & German, having welcomed the other during a brief Christmas respite between their lines, nevertheless rightly return to their lines, with a nice twist or two.
Review of Silent Night
