Review of Saints and Soldiers (2003) by Alex L — 27 Sep 2009

Probably one of the better war movies that I've seen despite the lack of budget (1 million are you crazy?) and a list of no named actors. But after watching the movie, the director did a masterful job of maximizing every ounce of resource that he could extract.

It seems that with every war movie that I've seen, regardless of the time periods, I've seen every recycled story and angle used. But to me this movie takes a departure from the traditional war film and centers the plot around this small band of Allied soldiers trying to escape the encountering Axis forces.

Without revealing the story, the movie uses the soldier's personal history to collide with the present and then allows it wrap the story up nicely at the end. This the movie was really about the drama and character development, so those looking for a real action driven war movie may be disappointed.

Nevertheless, the director really kept the style and action in a clean package, a nice change from many of the war movies that I've seen. The movie is a real diamond in the rough among all the great war movies that have been made.