Saints and Soldiers (2003)

Simply Perfect

Please don't spend money on this.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

I love this take on a war story. I like explosions and action as much as the next guy, but it was refreshing to get a look at soldiers when they aren't running away from exploding tanks in slow motion. The relationships between the characters were not only well-acted, but also realistic. This film also did a great job of showing, in the very few actual confrontations, that war is between humans who all think they're right, not denizens of pure good and pure evil fighting to eliminate the other. I also liked the subtle details that showed that the director paid attention SPOILER(at first I agreed with my friend that it was unrealistic for the medic to use a gun, but then I realized that he missed every shot, like a real person who had never fired a gun in war would have). If you're really into weapons and war history, you'll notice inaccuracies with the props and such, and it sometimes got hard to keep track of who was who. Another thing I didn't like is the sound balance. It was very hard to hear the characters at some points, especially crucial lines that, if missed, make the viewer wonder what their reasoning was for a certain action. All in all, this is an excellent movie about "human-ness" in war and a refreshing take on the war movie genre, but it does have its flaws.

I always enjoy films about the Battle of the Bulge. It was the worst of times for Americans in the entire European war, so this battle always provides special opportunities for extra---but realistic---plot tension. When it's about the Battle of the Bulge, we never know whether our characters will be rubbed out, taken prisoner, taken prisoner, then rubbed out, tangle with clever Germans wearing the wrong uniforms (who also speak perfect English and know who won the World Series) or whether our heroes will just manage to hang on against a terrible whipping in awful weather. All of these elements make this a particularly rich venue for wartime drama.This movie was apparently shot for less than a million dollars, but it's a far better film than that modest budget would suggest. Even with unknown actors, it takes real skill to put a period piece with special effects on the screen for that amount of money. Nice cinematography. The weapons and the uniforms all look correct and the acting is decent.I would not be bashful to recommend this film to a stranger and would be happy to watch it again.

This movie follows 4 soldiers who are present at the Malmedy Massacre but who escape and make their way through enemy controlled territory back to allied lines. I watched this movie because I've read about the Malmedy massacre, and given the title and the fact that Chuck Colson recommended it, I thought it might have a perspective on the atrocity worth my time. Wrong! Intellectually and morally this movie is absolutely weightless and the rewriting of history is offensive. The depiction of what happened at Malmedy is pretty close to what some of the Germans involved claimed happened. Why would the Germans involved tell the truth? Furthermore, the German story is contradicted by the forensic evidence and contradicts the independent eye witness testimony of several survivors. The fact is that many of the men killed were undoubtedly executed--close range, bullet to the head, clustered together. The others were gunned down as they tried to escape, probably once they knew they would die otherwise. Further evidence against the German story is that Malmedy wasn't an isolated event, there were a number of other massacres, some involving civilians, attributed to the same group of German SS soldiers. So why did the movie choose to depict the event based on the German account? Because the truth would have conflicted with the platitudinous main theme of "we're all the same, we just wear different uniforms". I am a Christian so of course I believe we are all created in the image of God, but I find this kind of moral equivalence nauseating and intellectually weightless. The other thing that significantly detracts from this movie is that it is extremely predictable. I knew the ultimate fate of every character 1/2 way through the movie and many of these scenes were cliché. I gave it 4 stars because as a movie some of the scenes had their moments, I didn't turn it off, and there are so many other movies out there that are much worse so I have to leave room at the bottom to rate them.

Having not read the book, I will say that this movie was very good. True, it wasn't as good as Band of Brothers, but still superb. One thing I loved was that the entire movie went without one F word. I disagree with the reviewer who said it had Mormon overtones. Not one thing in the movie mentioned any religion, so I don't understand why he/she thought that it did. One character served a mission and taught a family. Many religions send missionaries abroad to teach. He's also seen reading scriptures. Many people do. And, if I was ever in a war and behind enemy lines, I'd sure be doing some praying myself. Great film. I wish more script writers would find other adjectives than the F word.