A pleasant surprise

Rating: 8/10 (16 October 2005)

I haven't read all the comments on this film yet, but I agree with most of the ratings I've read. I knew absolutely nothing about the film, saw it at the video store, and picked it because it is a WWII story, and the jacket blurbs made it sound like "The Great Raid": true story, awards and all that. Halfway through, one character is revealed to be devoutly religious in a way that only applies to Mormons (as far as I know). But there the matter is left. The LDS Church is not named, as I recall, and in any case, the script is securely in the "War story" camp. So any carping about "religious tract! Theological hogwash!" are just that-hogwash.
The Spoiler in this review refers not to the film, which I found quite convincing, well-done, well-shot, well-written, well-edited and well-acted, but to the Awful Truth revealed by the "making of" featurette tacked on to the DVD: It appears, from the featurette, that very few of the principals in the film have much acting experience; the screenwriters have very slim portfolios, the director also served as DP and cameraman, most of the soldier extras on both sides were played by volunteer re-enactors, they had one-count 'em-ONE P-51 Mustang to roar overhead (Too high. You could have added a few more in Post, guys) at the end of the film, which was made for less than a million dollars, and it was shot entirely in Utah!
On the other hand: Utah is fine as a location; it does the job. It doesn't look like a cheap film; Volunteer re-enactors did great work in Gettysburg and Cold Mountain (Romanians), as they did here, The script worked well; the director, Ryan Little, did a magnificent job with non-professionals and professionals, and deserves to be offered films with bigger budgets. Well done!