Mother Night (Film)

Mother Night is a 1996 film based on Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 book of the same name. Nick Nolte stars as Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American who moves with his family to Germany directly after World War I and goes on to become a successful German language playwright. As World War II looms, Campbell meets a man claiming to be a member of the U.S. War Department and is recruited to work as a spy for the U.S., transmitting Nazi propaganda in such a way that it contains hidden messages that can only be decoded by Allied intelligence. After the war, Campbell is relocated to his native state of New York, where he attempts to live in obscurity. The film also stars Sheryl Lee as Campbell's German wife, John Goodman as the mysterious Frank Wirtanen, Alan Arkin as one of Campbell's New York neighbours, and Frankie Faison as a black leader involved with a white supremcist group. Vonnegut himself makes a brief appearance in a later scene in New York City. The film is narrated by Campbell, through a series of flashbacks, as he sits in a jail cell in Israel, writing his memoirs and waiting to stand trial for war crimes.