Mormom Proselytizing Disguised As A War Movie

Rating: 4/10 (7 May 2005)

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.