Saints and Soldiers III - Battle of the Tanks

This film essentially begins on the closing days of World War 2 in Europe with an American tank company liberating a POW camp deep inside Germany. Naturally, needing to evacuate the POWs back to the rear, several trucks are sent to transport them while at the same time two tank destroyers are ordered to clear out a company of German soldiers who have dug in at a small town not too far away. Yet even though the trucks are sent in the opposite direction, two of them are forced to take a detour and because of that they run right into a German ambush which kills everyone except the driver of one of the trucks named "Jesse Owens" (K. Danor Gerald) and a British POW by the name of "Lieutenant Goss" (Ben Urie). Luckily, they not only manage to escape from the Germans, but they also just happen to meet up with the two tank destroyers and warn them of the ambush as well. To that effect, figuring that they have the edge because they have two tank destroyers and the element of surprise on their side, the decision is made to attack the German ambush site immediately instead of waiting for infantry support. What they fail to realize, however, is that the German tanks are commanded by an extremely skilled panzer officer and that whatever advantage the Americans think they have is negligible at best. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this movie started off really well, but it seemed to transition somewhere along the way into a lecture about the need for better race relations instead. And while I admire the thought behind it all, I must say that this underlying message seemed a bit too obvious at times and the film suffered as a result. That being said, I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.