Soldiering, Spirituality, Courage, Guns, and Guts. A guys guy movie

Rating: 10/10 (18 December 2005)

Emperor Hirohito: All men are brothers, like the seas throughout the world. Soldiers and Saints brings this to the big screen without preaching it.
Soldiers and Saints is better than Saving Private Ryan (SPR). Soldiers and Saints has intimacy, guns, guts,explosions without big scenes, big names, or big guns. As a matter of fact, for most of the movie there is only one gun and four bullets. But four men fight for sanity, sleep, food, and their own salvation just as hard as anyone involved in Operation Overlord.
Four Americans and one reluctant Brit must bond and persevere cold, snow, and fear in order to make it to safety. When the four Americans live after the Marmady Massacre they learn about themselves through the actions of Deacon.
Don't be fooled that this is a simple war movie. This is a movie about spirituality and God. What happens when you know, I mean lived with and loved, the enemy? Are they still your enemy? What happens when you let "your enemy" live? Do you become "the enemy"? Deacon, superbly and humbly played by Corbin Allred (Josh Kirby--Time Warrior, Men in Tights). Deacon is confronted with a classic moral dilemma: is it our duty to do what is right when the outcome might be bad? For example, does Deacon shoot an unarmed German soldier? The medic Gould asks Deacon: Would he kill Hitler after Deacon admitted that "they are just like us only in a different uniform"? Deacon raises his Bible and says to the medic (Alex Polinsky: Perfect Fit, Law and Order)"You are the one with a lot of questions, I think you need this book more than me."
This movie is for fans who have seen every war genre movie. You must be familiar with black and white, good vs bad, us vs them movies such as From Here to eternity, Tora, Tora, Tora, or In Harms way. The message was so simple: we are good--they are bad.
The viewer must understand what happens to the man in the uniform: Sargent York, Das Boot, Mr. Rogers, The Big Red One, The Deer Hunter, and SPR.
The war movie aficionado must empathize with what happens to men who have been through war: The Best Years of Our lives, Born on the Fourth of July, or Full Metal Jacket.
If you have made it through all of these movies you will understand that there is never a good war or a bad peace (B. Franklin).
What happens in the zone between war and peace are well done in Saints and Soldiers. The intimacy in this movie is seen in the details: the psychological battle between the Brit with a cigarette and the Yank who wants a cigarette, telling the German guard "Mein Frau" when the German guard is going to throw away Deacon's picture of his wife (the Guard slips it back into Deacons pocket).
This movie is on the A-list above Band of Brothers, Windtalkers, and Saving Private Ryan. A must see movie.
Pay attention to the score. It sounds very familiar to the theme heard in SPR. I wonder which one came first?
The DVD contains a terrific bonus feature that has all of the major actors, producer, director and others talking about the making of the movie. Who knew that potato flakes make great snow?
Thank the friend that gives you this movie or become a better friend by giving this movie to someone.