well intentioned but weakly executed

Rating: 6/10 (12 June 2005)

Based on a true story, "Saints and Soldiers" is an honorable failure, a low-keyed, understated film set in the closing days of World War II. Five men - four Americans and a Brit - are trapped behind enemy lines, desperately attempting to get a message to the Allied troops who are stationed miles away across a frozen wilderness.
This is a small-scale war film in which character and theme are more important than battles scenes and big-picture strategy. This is both the strength and the weakness of the film, for while the men talk about God and the Bible and the brotherhood of man, the script too often feels as if it is straining to make a philosophical or theological point and not allowing the men to truly develop as living, breathing human beings. Instead, they come across too much like mouthpieces for their respective causes - the committed Christian vs. the cynical atheist, for instance. Although well-intentioned, the movie could use a bit more sophistication in both its dialogue and its characterizations. The revelations and lessons also feel a mite trite at times, as if we didn't already know that we are all just the same under the various and sundry uniforms, languages, accents etc. Moreover, the actors, for the most part, seem to be reciting most of their lines by rote.
Although, in many ways, I admire what the makers of "Saints and Soldiers" were trying to do - going beyond the surface concerns of the traditional war film to explore the psychology of the common soldier - the film, quite frankly, simply doesn't have the depth and intelligence it needs to bring it off.