Saints and Soldiers: The Void

War films are astronomically expensive to produce so I actually admire what this film company was able to do with limited resources. I am well aware that many historical films often veer from historical accuracy regarding the events and personages they portray in the name of "artistic license." I also get that the filmmaker was attempting to stress the discrimination faced by African Americans in a segregated military, however, deciding to make up a totally fictitious account of four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Jesse Owens is not the way to achieve this goal.

Jess Owens spent the war years working as a liaison for a national fitness program sponsored by the Office of Civilian Defense and for the Ford Motor Company overseeing relations with black employees. Owens never served in the military in any capacity much less as the commander of a Hellcat Tank receiving the Silver Star as the script would have you believe. In a film that was striving for realism this was about as believable as F.D.R. piloting a B17 over Berlin. There literally hundreds upon hundreds of African-American soldiers who served in tank divisions as well as around 6,000 black soldiers assigned as truck drivers in the "Red-Ball Express." How difficult would it have been to do a little research and create a character based upon the experiences of some of these men? It would have made for a far more plausible film.

This film really did have a lot of potential. A credible script would have made it a pretty decent movie.

For a viewer with interests in WW2 and it's weaponry, this movie was not too bad. For anyone looking for another Saving Private Ryan, look elsewhere.

Both of the S and S movies have been fairly decent. The first was more dialog than action and this one leaned more toward the action. At least until it became kind of preachy about racial harmony, etc... The part I liked best about this series is the accuracy of the era the creators have, well, created. All of the vehicles and weapons are period accurate. They did a great job with the props. The 'cats' (how many times did the actors say Hellcat in this movie?) were awesome and the fact that they seemed to have gotten an early model Panzer Type 3 is really cool. What I did not like was when the movie became a lesson for potential WW2 hobbyists. All the talk about the M18 caliber and ammo types got a little bit educational when people just want to see it shoot. Also, the panzerfaust would easily cut through the armor of a Panzer 3 from pretty much any angle. So, for a movie that seems to pride themselves on accurate depictions that wars weaponry, the shot with the panzerfaust was a bit of a stretch. Still, I am a huge WW2 buff and gave the movie a 7.

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.

This film illustrates the brilliance of the nascent Saints and Soldiers franchise and after watching The Void, you'll pray that more installments are coming.

The first few scenes have some clumsy, cheesy dialogue that tries to develop the characters. That's on the director's shoulders. But stick around--the real character development and some quality acting comes once the shells and bullets start to fly.

This is a compelling plot--an African American soldier is, through no fault of his own, thrown in with a couple of tank crews with a few men who don't want him around.

I won't spoil a thing. If you can get through the first 20 minutes or so, then prepare for very good war story that shows what all men are made of in a foxhole.

The score is fantastic, too. This doesn't rise past 8/10 because of the cheesy stuff early on and some improbable scenes during firefights (plenty of those, too).

We can only hope that the S&S rights owners have many more such fine films in development.

I liked the previous Saints and Soldiers movies. As long as the combat is realistic and the plot good I am not to worried about special effects. This movie was one long sermon on how racist Whites are. I can understand introducing the idea but devoting an entire film to the concept got old really quickly. Every time you thought the plot was going to get going in came yet another sermon. I managed to watch the whole movie but barely. If I want to be preached at I'll go to church not watch a war movie. I do not care much about people's skin color and I think every living American is abundantly aware of the prejudice in America prior to the 60s. No need to go on and on about it until you start rooting for the Germans just to shut the guy up.