Director: Ryan Little
Writer: Ryan Little
Stars: Adam Gregory, Timothy S. Shoemaker, Michael Todd Behrens
Production company: Go Films, Koan(co-producer)
94 min, USA
One the one hand, racism and comradeship are good sources of story. However on the other hand, they can be also regarded as cliche. Consequently I guess what makes a film great is how to deal with its theme.
The U.S. army guys encounter a German ambush. They try to take down their enemy without additional help but fail. While the German ambush is still on the road, an U.S. general approaches there. This is a thrilling situation. I think time matters in this kind of plot but that is not how it works in this film.
Instead of focusing on the crisis(of course it is not downplayed), the director concentrates on depicting confrontation between Sergeant Owens, a black truck driver, and Corporal Simms, a white radio man. I do not want to blame this choice was bad, but what made me less interested was use of flashbacks. To say simply, flashback in this film try too much to explain everything. They could be abbreviated and replaced with some lines. A long flashback in the MIDDLE of battle scene? It was so naive and more importantly, it was too predictable.
And the tanks, they were all brand-new vehicles. Surprisingly, even the Nazis got new tanks(No.3? 4? Not sure). Oh, even the Panzerfaust was intact. I think the prop team could have done better than that...
I have no idea if this film series(there are two more "Saints and Soldiers" films) stems from a TV series. If it does, I can understand its commonplace way of storytelling. But if it doesn't, well, it is hard for me to find a good reason to watch the other two "Saints and Soldiers" movies.
