Saints and Soldiers | Corbin Allred, Alexander Polinsky | Good Moral Movie with a Moving Ending

Saints and Soldiers | Corbin Allred, Alexander Polinsky | Action-packed and intense - you'd never expect this much from an independent film

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Saints and Soldiers

	Saints and Soldiers Corbin Allred, Alexander Polinsky Excel Entertainment Group, 2005 average customer review:based on 68 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good Moral Movie with a Moving Ending

I am giving this a 5 star rating because of the acting and the sets. The uniforms and equipment used by the actors and extras was very accurate. Also in spite of a very limited budget and using the Utah mountains to film in the movie producers made a quality film. Without the sex, foul language, and smut of a Holyood production S and S tells a moving and inspiring story of a few WWII heros' struggle aggainst the odds. The ending scene is most moving and left me very touched. If you like good christian films I would reccomend this as a gift or an addition to your film collection.
Also the actors used for the film give a very good account of themselves. I wonder if they are native Utahites.

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Action-packed and intense - you'd never expect this much from an independent film

Based on real events, a large group of WWII American soldiers are captured behind enemy lines and end up being gunned down by German soldiers, but a few manage to escape. They plan to hide out and wait to be rescued until they encounter a British pilot who has important information that could save the lives of a lot of American soldiers. They must risk their lives to try to sneak back through enemy-infested woods.

As you watch this movie it never occurs to you that this is an independent and low-budget film. As they point out in the additional features included on the DVD, you wouldn't expect the fantastic set and authentic props seen here. There's nothing small-scale about it, either; there are lots of extras (all wearing authentic-looking uniforms) and the action isn't compromised in any way. But not only is it an intense movie, the interpersonal relations between the soldiers is shown in such a real way that few war movies manage to capture. And while I'm tempted to compare this movie to "Saving Private Ryan," "Saints and Soldiers" manages to tell a great story in a powerful and human way without the stomach-churning gore, and almost leaves you feeling inspired and uplifted.

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Proof that a low budget film can deliver big-time!

I noticed one bad review about this film, and checked into it. He (A. Muraca) thinks that the Soundtrack to the pornographic film Deep Throat was just as good as the movie. I'm sure he was expecting to see a blood and guts war movie, but read the title, it's SAINTS and Soldiers, not Blow Your Enemies Away With All The Firepower You Can Muster and Soldiers. This movie is about religion in times of war, and yes, atheists become christians all the time in the real world. Nobody forced you to see this movie. You paid to see this movie. You can only blame yourself for the two hours of your life that you want back.

I know several people involved in the making of this film, and I helped promote it in parades in Utah, where the film was made. It was made on a very low budget compared to the other war movies of Hollywood, but that didn't take away from anything in my opinion. This film won Best Picture at almost every film festival in the U.S. and more than delivered at the box office. My only complaint was that it wasn't shown in enough theaters or had enough promoting to really get it out there. But the result of what impact it did have shows that independent films from the Utah area are becoming more sophisticated. But then these are the same kind of people who brought us Napolean Dynamite, which was a very strange movie, but successful nonetheless.

My hats off to the makers of this film. It's powerful message and strong story in a perilous time are fine examples of how to deal with the struggles we face today.

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Disappointing Account of a Tragic Event

SAINTS AND SOLDIERS has a lot of things going for it. It is not a bad story. The action is nicely choreographed. The often hand-held cinematography tips its hat to techniques from SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and BAND OF BROTHERS. The uniforming and equipping of actors and extras is enough reason for a World War Two aficionado to acquire this DVD. The primary shortcoming of this film is that it is an increasingly fictional story tied to the real-life infamous Malmedy Massacre at the Baugnez Crossroads, Belgium.

My review, no doubt, goes against the grain of those who mistakenly dub this film a five-star success. Sorry folks. SAINTS AND SOLDIERS is another Battle of the Bulge movie gone awry. It is little better than another Utah-filmed work: A MIDNIGHT CLEAR. The unfortunate tradition is that movies filmed in Utah, and I include THE DEVIL'S BRIGADE on that list, have not done well in conveying World War Two stories.

To its credit, I applaud the first few minutes of the film and its portrayal of the Malmedy Massacre. The German Army re-enactors are appropriately attired and equipped as the late 1944 Waffen SS. There are so many versions of what happened at the Baugnez Crossroads, to include accounts from surviving American and German participants, that no one will ever really know what happened. SAINTS AND SOLDIERS does a credible job recreating one possible sequence of events that led to the shootings. The film does a much better job than the horrible recreation in Ken Annakin's 1965 movie THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE.

This is where the SAINTS AND SOLDIERS missed an opportunity. The chain of events leading up to the surprise meeting of B Battery, 285th Field Artillery Observation Battalion, assorted medics, ambulance drivers, engineers, and soldiers from other units is a great story in and of itself. The chance meeting, capture, shooting, and survivor escapes, as well as the US Army's discovery of the deed, would have made for a better movie. Sixty-seven US soldiers were gunned down on the pasture west of the crossroads. Amazingly, many soldiers survived the massacre. The best recounting of the Malmedy Massacre can be found in John M. Bauserman's book, THE MALMEDY MASSACRE (ISBN: 0-942597-77-X).

For students of the Ardennes Campaign, the SAINTS AND SOLDIERS inaccuracies begin after the handful of soldiers escape from the site of the massacre. Okay, call it nit-picking, but there was no significant snowfall until several days after the massacre. Much like A MIDNIGHT CLEAR, this film would have you think that the entire battle was fought in a winter wonderland.

Notice that some of the escaped soldiers are wearing the 101st Airborne Screaming Eagles patch and associated helmet markings. As an audience, we became familiar with these patches and helmets in BAND OF BROTHERS. BAND OF BROTHERS did a fantastic job recreating the siege of Bastogne. As for SAINTS AND SOLDIERS, sorry guys, the 101st was en route to Bastogne at the time and nowhere near Baugnez.

Historically the area around the crossroads was occupied by the Germans, albeit sometimes sporadically, until January 1945. However, American forces in Malmedy were only a few kilometers away. Many survivors made their way back to American lines within a few hours. Indeed, a few US military personnel made their way to the edge of the wood line surrounding the massacre site the day following the shootings. News of the massacre spread like wild fire throughout US Army headquarters by the evening of December 17.

Unfortunately, SAINTS AND SOLDIERS depicts our ad hoc squad of survivors as traversing miles of dense snowy wilderness miles behind the German lines. If so, the squad was traveling in the wrong direction. The story would have been more believable if the squad were survivors from the surrounded regiments of the 106th Infantry Division in the Schnee Eifel. There they would truly have been plunked in dissected terrain awash in Germans.

The Malmedy area did (and still does) have wooded areas, but farmers have long since claimed pastures from the forests and roads, trails, and crossroad settlements were sprinkled throughout the area. SAINTS AND SOLDIERS, again much like A MIDNIGHT CLEAR, assumes the entire region is nothing but a dense Scandanavian forest with little more than a few tattered shacks evidencing civilization. Ever been to the cantons of Eupen et Malmedy?

Additionally, I don't buy in to the squad's convenient discovery of an RAF reconnaissance pilot -- who often loses his English accent. The television series COMBAT! did a better job arranging encounters with downed pilots than this film.

Historical accuracy aside, there are some good moments in this film to include the squad's final dash from pursuing German soldiers. The Battle of the Bulge traditionally has not been treated well in movies. SAINTS AND SOLDIERS is another example. Add this DVD to your collection for its pure shoot-em-up Army film value.

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