excellent war movie

Rating: 8/10 (29 September 2006)

can i say the only problem with this film is the extras where everyone wax' lyrical about how they made this film for under $1 million dollars and how it looks like they spent a lot more. well if they hadn't of told me then i would have thought the production costs would have been a lot higher, as they have told me i kept looking for faults in the film. thank god i didn't find any ( apart from a terrible English accent for the character Oberon ). I've recently started looking for the more non blockbuster films in this genre and this film hits the spot. i know the actors are very experienced in TV work, they are not known actors to the majority. this may lend to the films ability to tell the story without any egos, showboating or Hollywood fight scenes. the fight scenes when they come are very realistic, close to those in band of brothers. a couple of characters are killed off without so much of a whimper, realistic. the acting is very good as well, you get to care about the characters. each person has very different traits which lend themselves to the story, which is what this film is, a very good story about events which actually happened during the battle of the bulge. one thing to also note, this film shows us how the war was played out by both sides. not all Germans were maniacs like Hitler, a lot of the axis soldiers were professional soldiers and conscripts (like Rudolf deacons mate), however atrocities like the Malmedy massacre were carried out by SS troops. To understand these views please watch The Downfall starring Bruno Ganz as Hitler, this film (made in Germany) portrays very well the differences as mentioned above. please watch saints and soldiers whether you enjoy war movies or not, these types of stories must be told so that we remember. Lastly, anyone who doesn't believe that stories like this happened - try reading books on war like Ambrose' D-Day and Civilian Soldiers for Allies and even Guy Sajer' Forgotten Soldier for Axis history - they will have you appreciating the sacrifices of the few.