Off the Shelf…’Saints and Soldiers’

I think everyone in some way is fond of stories of WWII and has at least one great film in their video library. For me it’s Patton and Saving Private Ryan, as well as a lesser known story of war-time heroism called Saints and Soldiers. While many people, I bet, have never heard of this little film, I believe more should. What an underrated but stellar WWII movie. It was made with very little money but looks as if it had a huge budget. Not quite Saving Private Ryan in terms of scale, but it really impressed me. For those of you in the dark have a look at the trailer. For those of you in the know, hopefully we’ll share some common opinions in this post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fFhPZGcPFlA

Saints and Soldiers takes place in the end of WWII and tells the story of a handful of soldiers that escape the P.O.W. massacre at the hands of the Nazis. With no supplies or weapons save for one only one gun (and 4 bullets), taken off a pursuing captor, they set out to find the safety of the nearest Allied outpost. While trying to avoid recapture and certain death, the foursome happens along a stranded British pilot with some reconnaissance info about impending Nazi troop movements. More important than keeping themselves alive is this information which will keep hundreds of Allied troops alive if they can deliver it successfully.

While this is film found much success in film festivals and the like, it missed a broad audience. I can see that it would have been likened to Saving Private Ryan and more similarly Band of Brothers, and therefore may have been overlooked as a cheap knock-off, but this movie still kept pace in my opinion. Saints & Soldiers relied on a more intimate relationship between the soldiers who although from the same Army certainly didn’t know one another, and it was more about discovering who they were than some ‘shoot-em up’ war movie.

What made Soldiers work so damn well, in my opinion, were the close angel shots. This seemed to aid in the story as you got to feel part of the action and panic as they continually escaped and hid from the German soldiers. Again it was intimate (at times) and it also helped you get to know the soldiers just as they got to know themselves/each other. A slight bit of “low-budget” poke its head out but overall it still felt pretty professional and the “this could be a cheap TBS movie” feeling turned into a “why wasn’t this in theaters?” as you neared the half-way mark. There was a surprising amount of danger in a film that was more or less 5 guys running through the snow. They were not so much soldiers (as they had their equipment stripped prior to the massacre in the beginning) and now resembled fleeing prisoners.

That said, the action was still there and from the opening sequence this film just gave off hints of brilliance and determination to be a fine WWII story. Cast with a bunch of relatively unknown actors, their animosity really helped sell the plot and the dialog. Overloading a film with famous actors (or with one huge star) can sometimes take me out of a film as I notice/recognize some of their mannerisms and constantly recall other movies they are have been in. Not the case here and I really did get the feeling that these actors were living what their characters were enduring and it kept the story compelling and engaging all the way to the end. I found it all very refreshing seeing some impressive talent in this bunch of unknowns (save for Peter Holden, who I couldn’t help shake he looked like the son of Mr. Patton himself, George C. Scott) and everything about this movie just worked.

In the plethora of war films out there, this was the closest to a Spielberg project (both Ryan and Brothers) without blatantly causing the viewer to say “this feels like they’re copying Band of Brothers“, which to be really fair are completely different stories all together. That said, the movie was well worth the price of admission and while I still question why this didn’t find a wide release, I’m just glad I got to see it at all. A great and heartfelt story that has elements of a pure character study, set against real events in history, Saints and Soldiers delivers in a way that smaller films aspire to be but never quite get there. You want a truly great WWII movie, see Saving Private Ryan. You want a very worth successor that will surprise the hell out of you, see Saints and Soldiers.

G-S-T Ruling - 3.5/5

G-S-T Seal of Approval: GRANTED