Review of Saints and Soldiers (2003) by Ismael S — 18 May 2009

Saints and Soldiers. Guess what, this is a low budget movie. Came out in 05, and I saw it first during that time. My father decided to rent it and I didn't really care for it, I only imagined another crappy take on WWII, and now being a low budget film, I imagine it to be crappiest.

Well I looked at the front cover and sa that it was just littered with "Film of the Year" awards, even though all the awards were from film festivals and the like, that always means something.

Ok well, I was impressed when I first saw this movie, and four years later, I still am.The story is about a platoon sized US POW inspection, The Americans are the POWs. Well, during the inspection a small riot breaks out and a large number of those troops end up dead, with only a handful surviving.

One group of the survivors band together and decide to make it back to Allied lines, until they come across a shot down Royal Air Force airman that holds critical information for the Allies. Problem is, the Allied Lines are twenty miles away and this mis-matched squad of Allies must make their way to the Allies before the Nazis launch a counteroffensive.

The story isn't really extraordinary but it something that hasn't really been done on film. The character are believable and the actors do a good job in portraying the characters. Now since this an War Film, everyone says, "How are the battles?" "Yeah you know, like the D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan.

" Ok well I want to say a few things first, this is a low budget movie, if they did a D-Day scene, all of the 970,000 in production money wouldv'e been used on that single scene. Also Saving Private Ryan set the precedent to every war movie.

In my opinion, it is the measuring stick to which every war film is compared to, which can be unfair. Ok so, before I get to the action, I will talk about the director. Ryan Little, this was his first movie as director, and it won several film of the year awards, I can already say he's on a path to success.

His style isn't unique, it's just so good, that it seems to be perfect. His cinematography choices were pretty good, especially during the action scenes. He also did a good job in capturing the emotional scenes as well, kudos to the actors too.

This now brings me into the action, being a low budget moive, there was very little action. However, the final scene has quite a bit of it, so don't think this movie is dull. To make up for that, the director/writer decided to approach this through a character driven plot, which has the potential to slow down, but the tense moments will recapture your attention.

During the action scenes, the camera looks crisp, especially against a snow covered landscape, everything just stands out. Also the choreography of the extras can visibly be seen as off, or out of sync.

For example, you'll see a Nazi already prepared to get into his 'shot pose' like half a second before the round hits him. Although a small amount of time, it can be noticable. It can be pushed aside however, since the low budget production only allows for so many action takes.

Well, one thing I noticed is the camera is placed in locations during the action scenes that makes the destruciton seem a lot more than what it is. Basically they placed the camera where the most aciton could be seen, now this was imperitive, since their budget only allowed for so many things to blow up.

The director executed this very well. He made it seem really believable and although you won't have gorry bloody messes in this movie, you will see warfare that is pretty realistic, not graphic, but definitely realistic.

The actors also helped with the scenes too, I mean if crappy actors were here, the action scenes would be dull and this movie would not have recieved the recognition it has. I'm sure if this movie had a Hollywood budget, it would have been on the same scale as Saving Private Ryan, I don't care what anybody says.

It really captured the stories of the soldiers, not the war. And that is what this movie is about, the soldiers. The landscape os this movie was also shown beautifully, it causes you to take in everything.

The characters in the story really draw you in. For real, the MPAA originally gave the film an R rating because the attachment one develops to the characters is too great to not suffer when one of them has died.

For some reason, the film retained the PG-13 rating. There is no swearing, nothing that wouldn't be presentable to child of reasonable age, and there is nothing that would seem too violent. Yes there is blood, but there is no gore, you won't see a man lying on back holding his intestines inside him (SPR).

When I really think about it, this movie realy took advantage of its budget and they did not let it get in the way. Watch the trailer, I guarantee it looks like a more Hollywoodish style movie. I was so impressed, and even watching it again, I thoroughly enjoyed.

Great storytelling, great portrayal of characters, and there is nothing I can say to improve this movie, they did everything they could with their small production. 4 stars.