A German mother, Elisabeth Vincken (Linda Hamilton), who had already lost her eldest son in the Battle of Stalingrad and whose husband is a cook serving in the German army, and her son, Fritz, are seeking refuge in a cabin near the front lines in the Ardennes forests region of western Europe. They are invaded by three American soldiers and then soon after three German soldiers, and after much resistance the mother manages to convince the enemy soldiers to put aside their differences for one night and share a Christmas dinner.To tell you more about the story would be a crime. The film is so well made that you are drawn into the story once the first images hit the screen. The film is well paced. I was pleasantly surprised on how much I enjoyed the movie. Now this film is "A Christmas THEME" film but it is made for an older audience and not for children. Now children can watch but they would be bored. When this film pops up on Television watch it.

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.

I was flipping channels last night and stumbled upon this movie. I was like "hey - that's the chick from Terminator playing a German lady during World War II" and paused for a minute to see what the movie was about. I didn't see the beginning and didn't get to see the end, but I was GLUED to the television while I was able. I was so disappointed to have missed the ending that I've got it on my calendar to see the rest of the movie. I found the character development to be well played and wanted to know more about each one. It was so interesting to watch how they interacted with each other. The movie kept me sitting on the edge of my seat waiting to see what would happen next with the soldiers. It was a great story of the true spirit of Christmas!

I came here for a review last night before deciding which TV movie to settle in front of, and those I found made this one look unmissable. How misled I feel!Firstly, it needs to be pointed out up front that this is very much a housewife's daytime movie. The performances are wooden, every sentence is an attempt at 'poignant' in the way that housewife's daytime movies and bad soap operas always are, and it is based in that predictable and well-trodden premise that men (particularly soldiers) are essentially violent and incompassionate. The whole movie is about the 'drama' apparent in the moments when the male characters threaten to develop a second dimension.If that sounds tolerable (or even enjoyable) to you, then be warned. Linda Hamilton's German accent, while quite good, is painfully distracting - as is her face, for some reason. The other performances are no doubt an enduring source of embarrassment to their perpetrators, with painfully thin and obvious characterizations being the order of the day. There are few surprises, but do watch for the 'Monty Pythonesque' endless supply of food and drink that miraculously appears from the hungry soldiers' knapsacks!I wasn't expecting action, but I had hoped for beautiful or textural or emotionally charged. What I got was a particularly bad Christmas 'feelgood' story that will have an intelligent audience cringing with the crapulence of it all.Watch it under the folowing circumstances: 1: There's nothing else on. 2: You are a fan of predictable 'housewife takes on men and wins' TV movies. 3: The only way you can appreciate a true story is when Hollywood turns it into a feature film. 4: You've imbibed enough nog that your emotions are easily stirred by unsophisticated storytelling.