A must-see, small-budget gem

Rating: 8/10 (11 April 2005)

In Mid-December 1944, while Hitler's army blitzkriegs through the Ardennes Forest in Belgium, American sharpshooter Corporal Nathan Greer, known as Deacon, finds himself held captive with over one hundred other soldiers in a snow covered field.
As panic and confusion ensue the German soldiers open fire on the prisoners, in the historical event now known as the "Malmedy massacre". Greer, his friend Gordon Gunderson and a handful of others escape the massacre by hiding in the nearby woods.
The small band of soldiers come across a stranded British Intelligence officer with valuable information to be delivered to Allied Forces, further upping the stakes of their already dangerous situation.
With few weapons, no food and a strained camaraderie, this tiny band must take on the unforgiving winter to fight their way back to allied occupied territory.
Once in awhile a small independent film can show us a large part of what Hollywood has forgotten about movie making. A lack of emotions can kill what should have been a great film.
I saw Saints and Soldiers last night after a year and a half wait. An old friend from the COMBAT! Yahoo group (call sign Bayonet) convinced me to see this way back when at the first chance I'd get and I'm glad she did. The theater had all of seven people in it for a 5:45 showing.
My friend Lenny and I saw the film together, and I loved this movie. Lenny's dad fought in the Battle of the Bulge, and this film brought home to him things his dad may have felt 60 years ago. Up until his parents moved into a retirement apartment, Lenny's dad had a W.W.II jeep in his garage (Perhaps he shipped home a part at a time in boxes marked kitchen utensils?) My only negative comment for "Saints and Soldiers" is a five to ten second inaccuracy about the "Malmedy Massacre" about five minutes into the film. It gives the impression that the US POWs were somewhat at fault for the mowing down of prisoners by machine guns fire. Had I not known about this in advance unlike many other war history buffs that went to see it, I might have been tempted to walk out right then, but we didn't and I'm glad we stayed.
The film does a good job of presenting fresh ideas within a W.W.II story, even if it does remind me of small parts of other war stories in places without being a bit cliché. Surprisingly, Utah as a filming location never looked so much like Belgium before, and with mostly " history re-en-actors" making up a large part of the cast, it looked really accurate. I'm waiting to hear from "Dodger" or "Web455" on how accurate the uniforms are, but I understand that collectors lent the production authentic vehicles, a very nice touch.
As mentioned before the film opens to us seeing the killing ground of the massacre three weeks after the fact. An excavation of frozen bodies from under the snow is in progress. Then we flash back to the day of the event. Had this film stayed true to the facts mentioned earlier, it would have been an improvement, and that's my only complaint in the entire film (Jr's note: Dad's got a fair beef here as it's supposed to be historically accurate, so I'd be docking it too). We follow several survivors as they escape coming together and forge a bond few will ever know in real life.
From now on the film rates top marks from me, but I don't want to get into spoilers and will say no more about it. This film is more about the people that just happen to be involved in a war together. It reminds us that good people & bad can be a part of the sum of any specific group. It also reminds us good people die for things that are worth dying for. And bad people can die for bad things too, and remind us that the innocent (sick, women, children, elderly, refugee, etc.) also die in wars. And finally, there's a lesson about prejudice to be found here as well. The center character of the story is a former missionary of the Church of Later Day Saints, hence the title, but other than knowing he has a bible (or prayer book) and was a missionary, there's no preaching, lecturing or religious intervention in the film to be found. It's not the blood bath of Saving Private Ryan either; it had tactfully handled blood on screen as well as the issue of death. The film also included a moving original score that helps with the gamut of emotions you will feel during the show.
I rate this independently made small budget gem a "MUST SEE IT" in the theater on the big screen. Judging by all the Best Picture awards it has racked up at the various film festivals, I think that's a safe statement. The film comes to DVD on May 31st, and it's on my buy list.