Better Late Then Never

Absolutely Fantastic

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

OK acting for the most part couldn't overcome corny, ham handed writing and plot, especially the the parts concerning racism. The actors spouting technical factoids about guns and equipment seemingly meant to impress WW2 nerds was dumb. The most egregious failings were the unrealistic appearance of equipment (fresh of the assembly line - no mud, dents or wear whatsoever), and uniforms (suede leather shoes fresh out of the box; no dirt, stains, smudges or rips on the clothes).The actors spend most of the movie freshly shaven until someone finally realized how ridiculous they looked. The racist guy goes from clean shaven to having 3 days growth in the middle of a scene. Amateur hour. I will say that Owens relating the experience of black units with combat experience being relegated to rear guard service and support duties was a common occurrence and a realistic touch.

If you come into Saints and Soldiers: The Void and watch it for what it is, overall you will be pleased.(1)The Plot/Dialogue: From beginning to end, the story definitely has direction, as you'd be pressed to find a scene where the narrative feels like it has stalled or is not moving along. Character development is somewhat lacking at the start, but towards the end I feel that Little does a decent job of filling holes. Ben Urie as Lt. Goss and K. Danor Gerald as Jesse Owens do commendable jobs and perform their roles at very respectable levels. Where lines and script may have been cheesy or written poorly, the superb acting of these two cast members definitely cover it up. In total, there are many parts where there could have been extra speech, or could have been rewritten, but nothing too bad that would deter you from watching the film. The "whole concept" from start to finish was nicely done.(2)Scenery/Setting: As always, Little does a magnificent job at taking the low budget and what little he has to work with and turning in a masterpiece backdrop. Everything from the prop guns, to the tanks, to the uniforms were period-correct and had a real, authentic look and feel. In my opinion, the explosions and special effects may not rival those on the big screen, but they were never anywhere close to looking fake. The blue/gray tint from editing really gives an old war-time look, which also adds to the realism. The only knock I have is some of the props would have benefited from a little dirt, as sometimes they looked to new and not battle-torn, but nonetheless impressive.Final Thought:Ryan Little has proved once again that he deserves a shot to direct a bigger budget film, albeit with a better script writer, and more well-paid actors. The scenery was outstanding and the special effects were done very well for the budget. If only there were deeper-voiced actors that seemed more battle-tested and a better dialogue for the script, I may have given this movie a 10/10. Not a game-changer, but a credible war movie that does not dishonor the genre.

For those looking for a massive budget film like Fury, this is not it. It has some very good Hellcats and Pzs and it was a real good show of how to take down a tank. I enjoyed the movie for the most part, but there were some pet peeves that got to me. Everyone on the American's side not using a sub-machine gun seems to be using an M1 Carbine or maybe an M1 Garand. If they were fighting on the front lines, someone would have been using a M1903 Springfield since it was the primary weapon given to those on the front until 1944. It's nothing major, but a little peeve I had that does nothing to detract from the rest of the movie. Another thing that sort of ground my gears was how slow the Hellcat seemed to move at all times. It was the fastest tank of WWII and one of the most maneuverable (the turret was painstakingly slow though and they kept that), so Hellcat drivers would drive like mad to get shots at the German tanks' weaker side and rear armor. They would not try to actively go head- to-head against any tank due to the fact that 1-inch armor is not very protective and so moving was its only means of surviving. Add into that that the 76mm cannon on the Hellcat was very finicky about penetrating the front of the Panzers and Tigers, they tried to avoid frontal assaults as much as possible. The later Panthers were impossible for a Hellcat to penetrate from the front because their armor was simply too thick so that meant having to move for side/rear shots. All in all, these are just my personal pet peeves and I find the movie to be very good and beyond my expectations.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Saints and Soldiers trilogy, these are low budget WW2 movies, set on the Western Front, the first was in late 1944, during The Battle of The Bulge, the second was set in the South of France during Operation Anvil and the 3rd, this one is set in 1945 in Germany and the plot isn't that much different from the bigger budgeted 'Fury' - A group of two American Hellcat Tank Destroyers are to scout an area known as 'The Void' (I can't find any reference to this area in history, but here the context is that its Indian country) meanwhile a group of troopers being transported by the Redball Express, driven by none other than Jesse Owens himself is ambushed by a squadron of dated German Mark III Panzers, an English Agent is in the group who make their escape - soon the Hellcats arrive and its a question of who can outsmart who in the skirmish that follows. If you look through my other reviews you will see I like all kinds of movies but I am something of a WW2 buff and its always interesting to see these films, clearly made with love and care. Little here tries to put as much as he can in every shot to increase Production Value and it extra shots have been added to make the place feel more like Germany / Austria and less like Utah where it was filmed. For the most part this works, along with a heavy de- saturation of color in the edit suite, making you feel like the film is almost black and white and giving it the appropriate vintage feel. I recently also reviewed Allies and its easy to compare these two films, probably both having similar budgets and using resources from Tank Collectors and re-inactors. Allies is probably the superior of the two movies, but SAS - The Void is not without its great moments of action and tension. Some of the actors are good too but sadly this makes the weaker performances stand out all the more and these aren't helped by some very over stated dialogue. Little needs to team up with a good writer next time but also trust in his best actors to deliver more emotion with less words on some key scenes. Here and there dialogue is forced to explain things too much, but never the less what you have here is actually a great little film. Its well researched and feels bigger than it actually is, there is nice sense of scale and battle in the climax. Its biggest flaw is that its very hard to make a film shot in the States actually feel like Europe unless you can drop in some blue screen shots of European Towns or Villages (or Alternatively build one as they did in Fury) still with the obvious restraints of budget you have to commend Little's effort because it tries really hard with every shot to make the location feel European. I think this is a great film, with good attention to detail that is let down by some aspects that were clearly beyond the control or means of the production financially but with stronger writing it could have been a stronger film still. Worth watching and I look forward to Little's next film War Pigs, which has some big names in the cast - he has earned his shot to make a bigger movie, that is for sure.