Saints and Soldiers: The Void

An edge of your seat movie about the last days of WW2, when the Nazis were still fighting and it's up to a few soldiers to prevent some hidden German tanks from ambushing the unsuspecting troops travelling along a backup route, in ... the void.

I wanted desperately to see this third installment in the Saints and Soldiers franchise and say that Ryan Little learned from his heinous mistakes in "Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed". I have to wonder if my desperation has subconsciously influenced me into saying that this one is infinitesimally better than its predecessor, or if it is actually just as bad or worse. When one of my re-enacting associates posted on Facebook that he enjoyed this one more than Fury, it dawned on me what this film is. It is EXACTLY like a re-enactment battle would be! Everyone is in clean uniforms that they're afraid to get dirty (we re-enactors have to pay for our own uniforms, equipment, and blank ammo, which are all very expensive), operating clean, freshly painted vehicles, and delivering dialog that is written to be an instructional narrative for the audience. This is truly a re-enactment on film, complete with blow-dried hair and bullets that don't even put a mark on wooden barrels at point-blank range! By that, I'm referring to a shootout in one scene in which a character takes cover behind a wooden barrel, which real bullets would have destroyed very quickly, but he's safe and sound from the automatic weapon being fired at him. Beyond the squeaky clean look of the characters and equipment, this film is bad on almost every level and its foundation is every cliché possible, including a cold-blooded German officer that shoots one of his own men with very little provocation without a second thought. Naturally, that was done to ensure that the audience regards the Germans as the bad guys in the war who must be defeated. What actually makes this film potentially slightly better than its immediate predecessor in the franchise is the filmmakers' attempt to address the issue of racist policies and prevailing attitudes in the U.S. Army during the war. The problem is, it portrays one soldier out of a dozen or so as being racist, while none of the others share his contempt for Owens, the Negro soldier that circumstances have suddenly thrust in amongst them. The reason that I call this a problem is because in the 1940s, racism in the military and many US states was mandated by law, and it was something that the majority of European-Americans grew up with culturally. Even if a particular White American was not the type of person to automatically dislike people of African descent for no specific reason, he or she had still been taught that they were an inferior race, and most people just accepted that as being the way it was. Very few people stuck up for "Negroes" in those days, and even fewer in the military did so. Therefore, racism was not the "accepted exception" that this film portrays. Additionally, the inevitable conversion of the American racist and changing his attitude because of his interaction with Owens and being told of Owens' mistreatment and his father's lynching because of their race is even more far-fetched. After all is said and done, my first impulse was to give this film only one star, but I'm giving it an additional star for taking on the issue of racism, even if it took it on in a highly simplified way, and even though there was no point in putting it into the film. Trying to be woke before wokeness was a thing isn't going to change the past.

I had read Harry Yeide's excellent 'The Tank Killers: A History of America's World War II Tank Destroyer Force' and thought the screenwriter could possibly have lifted an incident from his book. Unfortunately, I saw a Hollywood 'woke' delusion that has no historical foundation. A great disappointment.

Someone had some nice toys and wanted to film themselves playing army in the woods using all the cliches from the big movies. But do appreciate the statement it was making about racism.

Better than average attention to tactics, props, weapons, etc. A satisfying tank skirmish with a decent plot and passable characters. The German tanks are reproductions of the very early Panzer IIIA (5 medium road wheels versus 6 in later models) re-fitted with a 50mm gun, and the American M18s are restorations.

Feels like a TV Movie. The story is okay, if you like tank battles it might keep you interested, but the overall "TV Movie" feel stops it from being anything special.

Notwithstanding its detailed war authenticities, this low-budget WWII film has a high dialogue-action ratio, with minimal suspense, characterization, and excitement, that makes it pale in comparison to the level the original achieved.

Quite certainly the lamest dialogue since "Plan Nine from Outer Space". Wooden acting, comical FX. Filmed in Utah and still the scenery was uninspiring. I was certain my wife would abandon it; fear this might signal the onset of dementia. The only thing that could make this worse is Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger.

This franchise seems to get worse and worse with each film. What was "The Void" about? In the past all the other Saints and Soldiers seemed to have a Christian based theme, this was just... Random. The actors I thought were interesting, the scripts and the acting had, lets say, A LOT OF ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT. Barely made it through the movie, hoping some redeeming factor could be found, but just like the whole movie, it continued to disappoint, in every regard. I expect more from Ryan Little and Producer Adam Abel, but everyone has a bad day right...or in this case a bad movie.

I liked it. The star was the M18 "Hellcat", the tank destroyer used by the Gi's. Nice to see a piece of history in action. No big name stars, but good performances. tension didn't build as it should have; story was kind of corny, but I felt good after seeing it. That's how I rate a movie.