Of Saints and Soldiers
by Thomas Baggaley
What are the classic elements of a good war film? Let’s see: the focus is usually on a small group of soldiers with an important mission. Many lives depend on their accomplishing this mission. Some (even most) of them die in the attempt, but in the end, against seemingly impossible odds, they are victorious and their side goes on to win the war. However for the best war films, this is just backdrop. The real story is the camaraderie that develops between the soldiers (not without some difficulty) as they face life and death situations together. A well-made war film makes the audience feel like they are a part of that camaraderie, and when each of these new-found friends die, you feel the sacrifice.
There, I’ve just given away everything there is to know about the latest LDS Cinema flick, the award-winning World War II-based Saints and Soldiers, right? Wrong. There’s more to this film than just a simple shoot-em-up, hooray-for-our-side war film – more, even, than a story of friendships developed under the heat of battle.
On one level, to give this film the “LDS Cinema” label is to sell it short. After all, only one character is LDS, and he isn’t even explicitly identified as a Mormon – although those familiar with the church will recognize the obvious implications of the character being from Snowflake, Arizona, having served a foreign mission and not smoking or drinking coffee. Additionally, many of the film’s events were borrowed from the actual war-time experiences of various members of the church, in part being inspired by the book Saints at War. On another level though, this is “LDS Cinema” at its best, with Christian themes of redemption, forgiveness and love – even for an enemy that would be much easier to hate – presented in such a powerful way it would make Richard Dutcher proud.
The film stars Corbin Allred, an experienced young actor LDS audiences will probably be familiar with from his role in Christmas Mission, a favorite Christmas-time video for many members, even if they are unaware of his starring roles in TV’s Teen Angel and the feature films Diamonds and Anywhere But Here, not to mention his appearances in Robin Hood: Men in Tights, Touched By An Angel, Sabrina: The Teenage Witch, Dharma and Greg and Boston Public. Allred plays the role of Corporal Nathan Greer, a young LDS soldier who is a dead-eye shot and whose comrades-in-arms have given him the nickname of “Deacon” because of his clean, upright lifestyle. He is joined by an excellent and experienced cast of actors: Peter Holden (Out of Step, Black Hole, appearances on Frasier, NYPD Blue, Charmed) as Sargent Gordon Gunderson, Larry Bagby III (best known for his role as a football player/vampire on TV’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer, plus he played Laman in the LDS market direct-to-video musical I Will Go and Do and appeared in God’s Army) as Private Shirl Kendrick, Kirby Heyborne (The R.M., The Best Two Years) – it wouldn’t be LDS cinema if he didn’t show up somewhere – as Flight Sargent Oberon Winley and Alex Niver (you wouldn’t recognize him, but he was the little boy in Charles in Charge) as Private Stephen Gould.
As the film begins, the American soldiers are thrown together as a few of the only survivors of the infamous massacre at Malmdy. Their task is simple: survive behind enemy lines until Allied forces succeed in pushing the Germans back. The challenge: Between them they only have one rifle and four bullets. Also, Greer – the one with the rifle – seems shell-shocked and is suffering from a series of terrifying hallucinations that threatens the safety of the entire group. Still, hiding out probably wouldn’t be too difficult, if it weren’t for the arrival of Winley, whose plane has been shot down. Winley has some urgent intelligence about a major German offensive that he needs to get back to the Allied forces before many lives are lost, and suddenly the mission has changed. No longer can the soldiers be content to lie low and wait. They have to get back across the battle lines to the Allies, and they have to do it before the Germans can mount their attack.
All of the actors are solid, but I was most impressed by Niver. As the film progresses, much of the focus is on his character and Allred’s, and his performance really sells one of the story’s most important themes. Holden is also excellent as the group’s gritty leader. Ryan Little had already shown his potential as a director in the critically-acclaimed but under-promoted Out of Step, but this film firmly establishes his position as one of the best directors of LDS Cinema, rivaling the quality of Dutcher’s own sophomore LDS-themed effort Brigham City (and Little reportedly worked with a much smaller budget too).
Sound design is something that is rarely mentioned in a film review, but special mention must be given to the film’s excellent, realistic and effective use of the theatrical surround sound environment – just one more reason to see this film in a theater instead of waiting for the video. Composers J Bateman and Bart Hendrickson (who learned his craft at Hans Zimmer’s Media Ventures) also provide an admirable score.
Finally, through the volunteer efforts of a multitude of World War II reenactors, who also provided period uniforms and equipment, the battle scenes are really quite stunning for an independently produced film. Watching the film, it is easy to forget that this isn’t a $100 million studio production. It doesn’t have the nearly unlimited visual effects budget that Hollywood’s audiences have gotten used to, but the battle scenes are still quite realistic (and the truth be told, such high budget productions so often get caught up in the spectacle of explosions that they lose the story, while this one keeps you focused on the characters, making it – in my opinion – a much better film).
It should be noted that this film is rated PG-13 – and rightfully so. (It had even originally received an R rating from the MPAA, but PG-13 is probably the rating it deserves – still, it is not for young children.) There is quite a bit of blood and violence in the film. There are also long stretches with no violence at all, and the violence is not presented in a way that is gratuitous or glorifies it in any way (unlike most violent PG-13 films these days), but this is a war film, and audiences should go expecting to see some blood. There are also a couple of moments that are quite intense. Hopefully this will not deter many people from seeing the film, because it really is a wonderful movie with a powerful story that is told the way it needs to be told.
Saints and Soldiers opens this weekend in Utah and if it does well in its opening weeks, Excel Entertainment (which also distributed God’s Army and The Other Side of Heaven) intends to push it nationally, much like they did with The Other Side of Heaven. More information about the film can be found at the film’s equally stunning award-winning web site: https://www.saintsandsoldiers.com.
