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Mother Night is the film version of Kurt Vonnegut’s novel of the same name which follows the life, and death, of Howard W. Campbell Jr.(played gloriously by Nick Nolte). Campbell is an American whose family moved to pre-world war two Germany where he made a name for himself as a playwright and eventually a propagandist in Hitler’s government. From there he is recruited to be a double agent for the allies during the war. The movie itself however begins at the end with Campbell held in an Israeli prison on charges of war crimes and asked to write his memoirs.
The film, I cannot speak for the book as I regrettably have not read it, is a study into the fragility of personality. The moral of the story, we are told, is that, “You must be careful who you pretend to be because in the end you are what you pretend to be”. Campbell is first presented as an idealist bourgeois artist whose tie to Germany is his intense love of Helga (played by Sheryl Lee), his wife and star actress in his plays. When he is presented with the opportunity to spy for the Americans under the guise of a Nazi propagandist it is not out of any sense of nationalism that he is won over but by his own overdeveloped sense of adventure, for lack of a better word. After being confronted by a war department agent (played by John Goodman) Campbell says, “It was every playwright’s secret dream, to create the most challenging role I could imagine and then play the part myself”.
Of course Howard Campbell dives headlong into his role as double agent by becoming a radio personality in war time Germany. His dedication to his role becomes ceaseless until even his unguarded reactions are those of Nazi. ...Because in the end you are what you pretend to be. This is seen most strikingly at the end of the film where his older haggard self views archival footage of his mad rants. Yet despite this the one place where he retains who he is, is in his proclaimed “nation of two”. His love for his wife becomes an anchor to sanity. Yet out of his love for her he hides the truth of his spying; hiding, he says, his true self from her. So when he loses Helga to the ravages of war his hold on sanity weakens.
As the war comes to a close Campbell is captured and released to a life of solitude and anonymity in New York City. He dines every night with the memory of his departed wife and listens to war surplus copies of White Christmas. In time he decides to take up a hobby and he finds himself whittling a chess set, as he says, “In my solitude I created something that could only be used in concert with another human being”. And so Campbell seeks out a neighbor for a game of chess and a friendship is formed with one George Kraft (played excellently by Alan Arkin). The two bond over the loss of their wives and in time Campbell reveals his true self to his new found friend, and discovers a surprising level of acceptance and companionship.
After rebuilding his sanity through friendship a group of over the top, and strangely comedic, white supremacists track him down in order to show their admiration and present a gift. Campbell is presented with Resi, posing as her deceased older sister Helga, and the anchor of romanticism, the nation of two, that kept him sane these long years is made even stronger despite the initial deception. In time Campbell comes to love Resi even if that love is only a manifestation of his longing for Helga. Resi, who does reveal her true identity, still tries so hard to be live up to Campbells vision of who Helga was. Yet even this newfound happiness is disrupted when Campbell’s existence is broadcast in the media and for his own protection he is secreted away by the white supremacists. There he is confronted one last time by his “Blue Fairy Godmother”, the almost spectral war department agent that recruited him.
Campbell is confronted with the awful truth that his best friend Kraft and the new love of his life are actually Russian spies sent to lure him into their grasp. This final blow strikes especially hard as the last anchor to sanity he has, his love of Helga now transferred to Resi, is broken. No longer willing to live and die for his “nation of two” Campbell destroys the façade that Resi has constructed. She pleads with him to give her something new to live for but after all hope has been taken from him so he leaves her with nothing but a shattered illusion. The truth of it all it too much for poor Resi and she takes her own life as American agents raid their hiding place.
Campbell is captured and released, deposited back on the streets of New York with nothing left to live for. All that he is has been destroyed yet again, for the last time. He stands frozen, empty, with nothing left of his own personality. So in a despondent haze he returns to his old vandalized apartment and surrenders to his jewish neighbors in order to be taken to stand trial for his actions. Intermittently throughout the film he is shown commiserating with other prisoners and even guards and the weight of guilt, guilt he claims he taught himself not to feel, bares down on him. The final straw, heaped among so many others, is a letter from his “Blue Fairy Godmother” promising to testify on his behalf. This reprieve of sorts, this glimmer of hope, is too much for Campbell. Fearing his own freedom he dispenses poetic justice, hanging himself with the spools of his typewriter.
This film is truly amazing with Nolte’s performance through it all heartbreaking. From his attempt to comfort Helga’s young sister about her nihilistic wait for death at the hands of the coming Russians to his slow rebuilding of his life from the grip of solitude. Throughout the action is narrated from the perspective of the memoir with moody reflections of a fractured past. The supporting cast prove an excellent foil to Nolte’s sad lost soul. The cast as a whole is phenomenal save for the out of place, seemingly satirical, white supremacists that appear toward the end of the film. Music and lighting drive home the tone of every scene. A whole experience is created for the viewer.
Mother Night is an incredible study of self-deception and the destruction of self-image under the weight of tragedy, loneliness, and guilt. Throughout it all Campbell anchors his sanity to his love for Helga and this is eventually his undoing. Romance and tragedy, very Shakespearean save for the occasional bits of dark comedy and the incredibly introspective tone of the whole picture. The story is powerful and the acting is top notch. So much falls outside of my short two-page description and must be experienced to be appreciated and so I must thoroughly recommend this film.
I give it a letter grade of: A
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