Saints and Soldiers (2003) Online

Every once in a while a little movie will come along totally unheralded, unexpected, under budget, under promoted, but which really shouldn't be missed.

Saints and Soldiers is such a movie. If you like lots of big budget special effect -loud explosions, -crashing airplanes, -panoramic scenes with thousands of extras slogging through the mud, -if that's what you want in a war movie, skip this one. It doesn't have any of those things.

What it does have, however, is a very effective ensemble cast telling a very compelling story, -a true story, of the Battle of the Bulge. From the utter confusion and tragic consequences of the "Malmedy Masacre", depicted in this movie as more an accident of the fog of war rather than a cold calculated act, to the final climactic battle scenes, this movie shows world war II as it most likely really was. A very personal war for each soldier involved.

My uncle was a soldier who lost a leg in Europe during that time and as he related experiences of battle, he always made it perfectly clear that war was always a very personal thing. You were doing everything to survive. Your enemy was doing the same thing, and somehow battles were eventually won or lost. The average G.I. didn't know, or much care what was going on over the hill, or on a grand scale. He only knew he and a few of his buddies were being shot at by a few of the enemy and they had to shoot back or perish. It's all about living another day.

This movie conveys those sentiments very clearly. It is about daily survival without the grandiose trappings. You really wind up caring about each of these characters. It is well worth seeing. Especially if you were a soldier -or know a soldier, -or just want to know more about being a soldier. In my opinion it will go down in history as one of the more realistic war movies ever made.

This movie is worthy of the 14 "Best Picture" awards it has already won...I hope that it gets a bigger national release.

I live in the San Diego area and I just took my family to see this film tonight, and I have to say that this is one of the most moving films I have seen.

I felt like this was an appropriate movie for my 13 yr old daughter to view (I would not recommend for any younger). The story was told so well that I felt she understood the underlying messages. We were able to have a very long discussion afterward about war and accountability of those who unjustly cause wars. We talked about recognizing the humanity behind the "enemy" soldiers who are, for the most part, just doing their duty to country. These men have wives, children, fathers and mothers who love them just as much as the families of the soldiers on "our" side.

I literally was speechless at the end of the film. The "surprise" ending caught me a little off-guard with its VERY poignant and thought provoking message.

The characters were well developed and I really felt that i could empathize with each man's approach to the situation they were in.

The impact of the movie far exceeded its budget. I was very impressed with the actors (for example, the beautiful French woman...who WAS that?).

I think I was most impressed with the acting of the Medic (The exchange of looks between him and the German prisoner at the end of the movie was classic!).

I read a lot of the reviews prior to watching this film, so I had somewhat of a biased opinion about what I might see. I have to admit, I found myself feeling like the movie exceeded my expectations and was VERY much worth it. I don't buy many movies...this is one I definitely will buy for my private library.

My wife and I go out to see a movie every Friday night. Some nights, I'll tell you, the Picken's Is Slim, as they were when we saw this film about six months ago (if memory serves). I'd never heard of it. She didn't want to see any more war films since that miserable, over-hyped "Pearl Harbor" with the lame love story thrown into the mix. (Cuba Gooding was the only good part in the movie, and, shock! His character's part really happened, too! Hollywood take note!) To tell you the truth, we nearly went to rent something to watch at home, but as we left, we heard a guy in line talking excitedly about how he'd seen it three times, and loved it. What the heck. We got back in line. Their popcorn is better than ours. We went in, not expecting much of anything.

I'll tell you, we were blown away. I came on this site tonight because I've been meaning to write and tell everybody to go see this little film that only ran a week in our local theater. (Buy the DVD!) I have read every comment on this site, and have to LOL at the comments about Mormons. What Mormons? I never even knew it was Mormons until I read it tonight on this site! And so what? It happened to a Mormon guy. It was his story. You expect Catholics to tell it? The other complaints about the story being predictable...what? It sure got us! It was a true story. Don't you get it? If it's true, you can't change what really happened--and what happened was humanity showing it's face. It was right winning out over allegiance.

I'm looking forward to the DVD coming out. I'm getting it and showing it to all my friends. This is film-making the way it should be done. We want to see it more of it.

This is a very simple story, told in a very simple way.A group of soldiers escape capture and fight their way to rejoin friendly forces. Nothing new or unusual there. However Ryan Little has managed to tell this simple story with a great sense of compassion and feeling. So much so that at times I had to remind myself that this was a story of war. Little manages to do what many others have failed in the modern war movie, let the story take preference over special effects and shock tactics.

The largely unheralded cast turn in steady, rather than spectacular, performances. Yet they work well within the over all feel of the movie, showing that war is fought by, in the most part, ordinary people under extraordinary circumstances. At times the pace was a little labored, particularly at the farmhouse. The relationship with the mother and child seemed to develop too quickly, somehow become pivotal almost instantly. This aside, character development occurs at a natural and easy pace. All these men are people we will meet in our own lives, bringing the story even closer to the audience.

This is one of the most satisfying war movies that I have seen for a long while. Without the big budgets and extreme violence, this little gem delivers a fantastic reward for those who take the time to watch.

8.5/10

The comment posted on the main page link certainly had an axe to grind against mormons. In fact the film itself never at all mentions the LDS church and for all we know Deacon could have been a baptist. That is all besides the point. The film takes us where a war film has never been before, the religious implications. And it is not overtly preachy. Somehow with under $1 million dollars the director has made a film that looks like an epic hollywood war film, complete with handheld cameras and a few war buddy cliche's. But what seperates this film from the pack is its main character, a devout religious sharpshooter, shellshocked from a raid gone bad, trying to make moral sense of what is going on. The film is also a great war film, and impecably accurate historically. The only sign that the film is low budget is its musical score, which at some times is a bit obtruse, but the acting is superb, and the directions is excellent. 9/10

In my own opinion, this is a triumph for war movies. It's just as intense as any war movie, but doesn't contain all the blood and guts our society today gives us. It has enough to convince the audience that it's all real and then brings you into the atmosphere by the fantastic acting. (Kudos to all actors involved) This is also a low-budget film, which helps you appreciate it even more because there are no signs of that small budget. This is just as intense as pretty much any war movie you will ever see, but you don't have to worry about it being too violent or bloody. It's just as compelling because it puts you inside the eyes of the soldiers themselves. I hope that all who have access to see this movie take advantage of it because this is a side of cinema that isn't seen often.

About a week ago i watched a trailer for the war movie, Brotherhood and i liked what i saw.After renting the title, and thoroughly enjoying it i returned it to the store and whilst there saw an equally promising trailer running for Saints and Soldiers. Me and a friend of mine instantly rented the title and afterwards we felt our money was wasted. Firstly, as far as authenticity is concerned, it is flawed and these flaws are listed on the IMDb page. Secondly, in the first 10 minutes of the film i had nailed every character in the movie. The over questioning medic, the gung ho yokel(I just wanna shoot me some krauts), the honourable sergeant, the crazy religious marksman with a mental condition and last but not least, the stiff upper lipped British pilot which as a Brit extremely offends me. Most RAF pilots were local boys ranking as low as flight sergeant, not the pompous mustachioed lord types. The tongue in cheek conversational exchanges between the pilot and the yokel almost made me switch the film off, 'dammit i just need a cigarette'.Awful. The accompanying banjo music whenever he was on screen made me want to tear out my hair. The lack of combat in the film is a major weak point and in the few instances in which there is a war on, the scenes are literally unbelievable, for example the American infantryman firing a bazooka at German soldiers (video game style) when there is a perfectly good perimeter set up with machine guns overlooking the field. Grenades seem so over used, is this a James Bond movie? It was obvious that Sarge was going to die, maybe he would be more fitting in Starship Troopers, i dunno. A film of this calibre would have been accepted as 'good' back in the 1950s but come on, this is 2005! The film obviously had a decent budget, it could have done a lot better with the resources it had, people want to see realism. You can badmouth special effects all you like but that is what the people want.The whole story was fit for post midnight television. Seriously, if you want a good laugh, rent this movie, its funnier that Sergeant Bilko, but if you want a seriously good example of winter conflict just watch Band of Brothers, or to give you a low budget example, When Trumpets Fade.

Saints and Soldiers is a quite powerful movie. It has a very human side, although the idea is not very unique.

A movie about 5 brave allied soldiers fighting their way back to base from behind enemy lines, during WW II.

Each of the characters embodies a different human typology. There is a subtle religious side, also.

The movie has a good visual narrative construction. It is worth being seen.

The main idea is that, behind the soldier uniform there is a human being.

FOR more then a year I have waited to see Ryan Little's SAINTS & SOLDIERS. Back in the fall of 2002, KSL-TV did a featurette on Mormon filmmakers and showed location scenes being shot in Alpine, Utah of a film with a World War II setting. It seemed like an ambitious undertaking for a low budget filmmaker. As time went on and the film was completed, word came out that the film was very good. Instead of bring it immediately to local theatres, Excel (the distributor for the film), began showing it at film festivals all over the place -- and it hit home with film fans, winning numerous awards.

When the film opened its theatrical run here in Utah. I have had the opportunity to see the film for myself and can say that it is EXCEPTIONAL!

Uncle Sam invited me to join them for 2 years back in the early 1960's. I was glad to serve my country and was even more grateful that I did not have to actually fight in a shooting war. Going through basic training and later, holding my breath as the Cuban missile crises came and went, I wonder what I would do if called upon to fire with intent to kill. I'm glad that I was not put to that kind of test.

As I experienced SAINTS & SOLDIERS, watching a young soldier of faith, who had previously served his church as a missionary in Berlin, face the reality of killing those whom he had come to love and respect, it touched my heart in a way no other war film has ever done. The film is very well acted, tense, moving and thought provoking. In short, this is a film that I will strongly recommend, will return again to see in the theatre, and will certainly purchase when released on DVD.

Congratulations to all involved!

I'll keep this "rewiev" simple.

The plot about different people finding and helping each other is good enough, but it fails to deliver.

I liked the beginning of the movie. It gave me hopes for a good story. But after the initial slaughter and the escape of a few gi's it declined. You feel that u have seen this a thousand times before, you always knew what would happened next. At least a surprise or 2 would be nice. (The part where the "missonary" capture a German soldier that shows out to be an old pupil from Berlin was just plain silly).

Every time the soldiers where "bonding" it felt like a cliché, done a million times before. The actors are non-convincing. When the soldiers where talking it seldom felt natural, especially the British pilot was awful. It feels like they just want to get the scene done and go home.

The scenes portraying bad weather where laughable. It sounded stormy, but the trees around never moved. And the snow was falling straight to ground, not being forced by the wind that was supposed to be there.

This is one of the worst war-movies I have ever seen.

Nothing but clichés really. DD (French for Deadly Dull).

There's a cynical New Yorker who learns near the end that not all Germans are bad. He has a secret.

There's a young ex-missionary religious type who hates to kill but is a great shot with a rifle. He has a secret.

There's a tough but kind-hearted sergeant.

There's a French woman with a young daughter. They live in a stone cottage in the woods. Afraid at first, she comes to love the Americans and gives them some bread.

There's a polite but unctuous Brit.

There's a gent from Louisiana who likes to say "whatever" some 50 years before it came into common usage. He spends part of his time asking the Brit for a cigarette and being turned down. He then saves the Brit but is wounded. The Brit puts a cigarette in his mouth and, yup, he dies. The Brit cries. He's learned to be more human.

There are some sadistic Germans. But there's one good one. Just one.

There's no drama, no tension, no interesting action. The Americans are hidden in an old building. Germans come and camp out above them for a while. It should have been nerve-wracking. Instead, you feel nothing. It isn't even interesting.

When there's a revelation, music comes up and the character stares at the camera for a bit. So that you won't miss it.

The acting wasn't the worst. The story and direction are a joke. The worst episode of "Combat" beats this hands-down.

Many films succeed outside the context of Hollywood hype. This one provides several messages competently executed by new talent, and without the special effects so commonly packaged by Tinseltown. Dialog and talent hold one's attention in a real-world interpretation of the Malmedy massacre and it's aftermath in WW2 Belgium. The tagline, 'A Time For Heroes' says much and it's more than appropriate for our time since the definition of 'hero' has been broadened by current events and uncommon courage. Lighting, sound, location, editing, and inventive writing make this a weekend wonder if you're seeking a story of principled men in desperate circumstances. Not unlike John Sturges' films.

It seemed the majority of the apparently small budget was spent in the first five minutes and that was nothing special. From there prepare for a slow meaningless meander in the hills or what we see of them anyway. The writing is really bad and the acting is not much better. I am shocked that this is rated a 7, that is laughable. It is shot in the style that reminds one of a cheaply made soap opera and that gives the film an unreal cloying tone throughout. I had watched "El Alamein" right before this POS and found it much better. In fact I can't remember seeing much of a worse war movie than "Saints and Soldiers" I doubt most people would sit through this rubbish even as made for TV movie.

I watched 10 minutes into this movie, and then I fast forwarded the rest.

Long, boring, clunky, episodic and badly acted. It even has a Brit soldier with a moustache and a silly stiff-upper lip worthy of Monty Python. The long 'men on the march' sequences reminded me of Saving Private Ryan, just in winter time and with a worse musical score.

In the rest of the world we don't really need more movies about American soldiers in WW2. I could not or did not connect with any of these country lads or their journey.

I don't recommend this movie even if you liked Saving Private Ryan, it also lacks any kind of exciting action or battle scenes that distinguished the latter.

Not an awful movie, but this one is somewhat dull and predictable. The characters are straight out of central casting - the farm boy, the guy from Brooklyn, etc. A great deal of the picture involves trekking through the forest while loudly chatting - probably not the best of survival skills during wartime. There are no surprises in this movie- when the sarge gets wistful and talks of the beauty of the French countryside, you know that he will be shot ASAP; and of course Deacon upon his death will see the civilians he accidentally killed (The six people you don't WANT to meet in Heaven.)

A bigger problem with this movie is that it is over-rated because it seems to be very popular with the LDS community who have skewed both the ratings here and at NetFlix. I'm sure that the Scientologists all thought that "Battlefield Earth" was greatest picture ever made also. Those of us who can separate our religion from our entertainment may find this film a disappointment.

I really really really did not like this movie. I mean I love WWII movies and shows (Band of Brothers was excellent) but I had a hard time getting in to this one, and then it just seemed like it ended. The movie went along just fine I think until the end. It's seemed the main character got shot, and his God hating comrade takes his scriptures. I'm assuming he reads them, but he could have taken them to give them back to his folks.

Another thing is our guilt ridden Mo character (I say Mo for Mormon and am Mo and do not mean any offense by it). He never seems to really reconcile with himself, which if this were the only loose end might be OK, but they dumped all this stuff out in the movie, and it seemed almost like they didn't have the money to wrap it up so they just stopped.

It's a Mormon production that avoids explicitly labeling the hero as a Mormon in order to draw in a wider Christian audience. The movie has many problems that were not related to the limited budget. To begin with, the characters who escape the Malmedy Massacre are wearing 101st Airborne Div. shoulder patches. This unit was not in the area of attack at the beginning of the German's Ardennes offensive. In fact, it was members of a field artillery observation battalion who were captured at Malmedy. The portrayal of the medic is is unbelievable and designed to make the Mormon hero appear even more saintly. It was a rare occurrence that a combat medic in the European Theater would carry a sidearm, let alone a rifle while wearing red cross identification patches as this was a violation of the Geneva Conventions. The medic in this movie carries a rifle without hesitation and acts more like an infantryman. The movie claims to be based on actual events, but the only actual event it seems to use is the massacre. The plot line for the RAF pilot seems pretty bogus. He says he was flying photo reconnaissance, but that early in the battle Allied aircraft were grounded by the weather. Even if conditions were clear in England, ground fog and a low cloud cover would have prevented the taking of intelligence photos from the air.

The film looks nice, but that is about it. The production needed a fact checker.

First of all: Kudos for making a big movie on a small budget. That's something to admire. But, - I found the film very, very boring. None of the characters managed to become more than cardboard figures representing some cliché archetypal movie character, if that. Two of the main characters were just about invisible, as badly drawn as they were. No doubt the true stories that the film is based on are extremely interesting and impressive on their own, but that never makes it into this movie. It all falls apart because of one-dimensional acting, shoddy directing and, well, bloodless plot. There are no hooks.

I watched the whole thing with director/producer's commentary afterwards, and the banality of their thinking shocked me. More than once my girlfriend and I burst out laughing from the Hallmark card philosophy and the team's blindness to the film's obvious faults.

Sorry - good try, but doesn't really cut it.

I have seen that this movie did not cost much to make, and it is startlingly obvious from the get- go. I'm not saying that films have to cost £100 million to be good, of course not, but to say this film is good, just because it was cheap, is very misleading.

There is no conviction in any part. The acting is amateurish at best. The English "accent" is terrible and it feels like the actors hadn't met before the scenes were shot. The script is tired and unoriginal. You don't get a sense of togetherness or camaraderie and I have seen better acting in Home and Away. There is cliché after cliché, I was so disappointed. When the American says he can speak German, it is so funny. Bitte and danke with the biggest American accent you have ever heard. Then the "British" guy enters the fray. Wow. If this wasn't written by Americans who have never been to England, or met a British person, then I would be entirely surprised.

I like war movies, I really do, but this was tedious, contrived, clichéd and boring. How it even got one million dollars of funding is beneath me. I would have saved up and spent the money on a project that was much more worthwhile!

As a British viewer I would categorise this film as OK but not great. My main problem with it the way that the British airman was portrayed. The character is portrayed as a selfish, rude and not very nice person.

Sure there are some Brits like this but in this film we are not told why. It would have been good to have had some background and character development on why this RAF plot behaved like this.

Other problems with this film is the plot. I was disappointed it did not tell the story of the massacre of the unarmed US troops at Malmedy. Instead it concentrated on a behind enemy lines escape.

The cinema-photography is good which is shot mainly in a snow covered forest. Acting is OK but again I found the medics character confusing. Why was he so nasty to the guy suffering from shell shock? If you are addicted to war films then see this, but it is not as good a Saving Private Ryan.

If you are British this is in the mould of a Mel Gibson 'make the Britis look bad' type movie.

This movie sucks in all respects:

It has a dull, boring and predictable story.

Its low budget becomes apparent throughout the movie and does not allow to make up the deficits of the story by means of good action.

One of it's anchors is hypocritical, religious nonsense.

The characters are either stereotypic or totally unrealistic in order to serve the religiously influenced storyline.

It is full of errors - related to the movie itself as well as the "real events" it is supposed to be based on.

Anyone, who speaks decent German, will hardly be able to stand the horrible language skills of the German figures without bursting into laughter, which isn't quite a desirable mood for a wannabe serious and emotionally moving movie.

I know that you shouldn't go into a movie with high expectations, but I did.

Fortunately , I feel that my money wasn't wasted, nor my time. In fact I came out feeling like I should have paid more. First of all, it was an awesome war movie, plenty of action, not too much blood, great story, acting, and plot. Religion really wasn't too intertwined with the movie, but it was Deacon's values that helps them survive, not a movie where religion is preached. I believe that "Signs" was more of a religious story than this was, as well as "The Count of Monty Cristo" It is probably just because of how people are prejudice against Mormons. I had a great time and anyone who looks past the fact that it was made by Mormons (which is sad that it must be overlooked by some people) and enjoys the movie, will discover it is awesome and worth seeing again and again.

...because I haven't seen all of it.

I lasted about 30 minutes before I had to pack it in. A pity because so much of it seemed to be well done - kit, costumes, weapons, scenery (with real snow) were fine and I suspect the vehicles would have been good if I had seen more of it, but the wooden acting (with the possible exception of the Sergeant, played by Peter Holden) and shambling action made it hard to watch. When the character with the ludicrous 'posh RAF English' accent (and I *do* mean ludicrous) arrived, I started to lose it - fast!

The last straw for me was the (almost ubiquitous, nowadays) Sixth Sense rip-off when a ghostly figure flitted across the screen accompanied by the obligatory, scary **chong** sound. After that I really started to look for the flaws and lasted only another 5 minutes or so before I crapped out.

Three out of ten for making an effort with the hardware and scenery and because I have never given a movie with so low a score before - I couldn't go lower without feeling bad towards the people who made it and, no doubt, mostly meant well!!

OK, let me begin by saying that "Saints and Soldiers" isn't really a bad film. It's merely deceptive and - because of that - dishonest.

I got suckered into seeing this film by my careless reading of a movie review by well-know columnist Roger Ebert. If he had been open enough - or aware enough - to disclose the movie's obvious Mormon content I would not have spent my money to take the family to see it. When I think about it, of course, I should have understood the tip-off given by the use of the word "saints" in the title. Not only that, but I was once before taken in by one of these Mormon-message films at this same theater. Either the theater management is Mormon, or they are trying to attract Mormon patron dollars. I think it's the former.

In any event, once in the theater it soon became apparent that something was amiss with the film. The American soldiers in the film were in a platoon that could not exist outside the state of Utah.

Look at the star ratings given to this film by the reviewers on this site and you'd think this movie ranked up there with Ben-Hur or Gone With The Wind. What's happened, of course, is that the home-town Provo crowd and their Utah co-religionists have packed the site with positive reviews. Page after page of raves for what is, in essence, a film with all the production values - as good as they are - of a made-for-TV movie. Especially egregious in the film was the absurd English accent attempted by actor Kirby Heybone - absolutely the worst foreign accent on film since that Scottish actor tried to pass as a Russian in "Hunt for the Red October."

So, despite the seemingly objective, patriotic, mainstream message of this war movie, in reality director Ryan Little's film is more an unconscious homage to the work of Leni Riefenstahl than anything else. Dr. Goebbel's would not have approved of the message of this film, of course, but he would certainly have admired the technique.

A lot has already been written about this little film that could. So, let me say that one of our local Christian stations played Saints and Soldiers on Memorial Day. I had my doubts, but it's rare that a highly rated film gets placed on the schedule for midday from this station. So, I sat for a while to check it out. By the time I knew what was happening, the film was over. Wow. That doesn't happen very often.

For such a low budget film, this is one of the best human interest stories I've ever seen from the World War II perspective. It gets down and dirty in the trenches and explores the inner doubts, fears and certainties of the soldier's reality. It even, God forbid, shows us that even the enemy can have members that are both compassionate and understanding in the face of mindless human tragedy and death.

My compliments to the extraordinary effort the technicians and extras put into placing these actors into real human situations and into a scenario that is hard to detect as a forest in Utah. We had a hard time figuring the location, even though we had been there in person. If high budget motion pictures had just a fraction of the attention to detail and freedom to express real stories that this one has, what an amazing set of movies we'd see on the big screen.

I can do nothing other than highly recommend this film. It is exceptional. (written by a U. S. Coast Guard veteran).