Saints and Soldiers (2003)

Director:

Ryan Little

Writers:

Geoffrey Panos (story)
Matt Whitaker (writer)

Release Date:

25 March 2005 (USA)

Genre:

War | Action | Drama | Adventure

Tagline:

Trapped behind enemy lines. All they have is their hope.

Plot:

Four American soldiers and one Brit fighting in Europe during World War II struggle to return to Allied territory after being separated from U.S. forces during the historic Malmedy Massacre.

Plot Keywords:

WWII | Film Festival | Mormon | Family Relationships

Awards:

16 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Corbin Allred	...	Cpl. Nathan 'Deacon' Greer
Alexander Polinsky	...	Medic Steven Gould (as Alexander Niver)
Kirby Heyborne	...	Flt. Sgt. Oberon Winley
Larry Bagby	...	Pvt. Shirley 'Shirl' Kendrick (as Lawrence Bagby)
Peter Holden	...	SSgt. Gordon Gunderson
Ethan Vincent	...	Rudolph 'Rudi' Gertz
Melinda Renee	...	Catherine Theary
Ruby Chase O'Neil	...	Sophie Theary
Jeff Birk	...	Radio Announcer
Ben Gourley	...	Private McKinley
Tane Williams	...	Injured One-Armed Soldier
Randy Beard	...	German Officer #1
Curt Dousett	...	German Soldier #1
Michael Buster	...	German Soldier #2
M. Casey Reeves	...	Weeping Soldier

Also Known As:

The Saints of War (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for war violence and related images. (edited for re-rating)

Runtime:

USA:90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | German

Color:

Color

Certification:

Finland:K-15 | Singapore:PG | Australia:M | USA:PG-13 (edited for re-rating) | USA:R (original rating) | UK:15

Filming Locations:

Alpine, Utah, USA

Company:

Go Films

Trivia:

The highest opening weekend of any release from Excel Entertainment: $129,056 (from only 26 screens; week of August 6-8, 2004)

Goofs:

Continuity: After leaving the forest house two US soldiers are carrying M1 Garand rifles. There's nowhere they can have taken this weapons from, except from the German they killed and the prisoner. These had a Luger pistol and a Karabiner 98k, not M1s.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The 20th IFP Independent Spirit Awards (2005) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Villa

Powerful war movie gem.

Every once in a while a little movie will come along totally unheralded, unexpected, under budget, under promoted, but which really shouldn't be missed.

Saints and Soldiers is such a movie. If you like lots of big budget special effect -loud explosions, -crashing airplanes, -panoramic scenes with thousands of extras slogging through the mud, -if that's what you want in a war movie, skip this one. It doesn't have any of those things.

What it does have, however, is a very effective ensemble cast telling a very compelling story, -a true story, of the Battle of the Bulge. From the utter confusion and tragic consequences of the "Malmedy Masacre", depicted in this movie as more an accident of the fog of war rather than a cold calculated act, to the final climactic battle scenes, this movie shows world war II as it most likely really was. A very personal war for each soldier involved.

My uncle was a soldier who lost a leg in Europe during that time and as he related experiences of battle, he always made it perfectly clear that war was always a very personal thing. You were doing everything to survive. Your enemy was doing the same thing, and somehow battles were eventually won or lost. The average G.I. didn't know, or much care what was going on over the hill, or on a grand scale. He only knew he and a few of his buddies were being shot at by a few of the enemy and they had to shoot back or perish. It's all about living another day.

This movie conveys those sentiments very clearly. It is about daily survival without the grandiose trappings. You really wind up caring about each of these characters. It is well worth seeing. Especially if you were a soldier -or know a soldier, -or just want to know more about being a soldier. In my opinion it will go down in history as one of the more realistic war movies ever made.