A Soldier's Tale

Slow and low budget character piece. A SOLDIER'S TALE seems interested in the corruption moral norms in wartime. The indoor scenes are dark and grainy, the outdoor scenes are just grainy. No one in the film is likeable enough to care about. Even the war content is of limited interest to WWII aficionados.

A British sargeant named Saul (Gabriel Byrne) in recently liberated Normandy meets a French woman named Belle (Marianne Basler). Belle is in trouble, the French Resistance wants her for crimes against France. Saul wants her affections all she wants is his protection. But an American G.I. (Judge Reinhold) has similar plans for Belle. Through use of voice over and flashbacks we get Belle's backstory, which is again slow, ponderous and unimpressive.

Saul thinks nothing of taking sexual advantage of a lone and powerless woman. Rape vs. execution isnt much of a choice and yet its hard to muster up much sympathy for Belle. A disappointment.

The other comment is pretty harsh on this movie. I rather enjoyed it. It was intense, and Gabriel Byrne's performance, as always, was outstanding.

Some of the war movies always seem to be so much alike. This one was so different and the ending is very unexpected.

I'd see it again - in fact, I own the movie, and I'm very glad I do.

Gabriel Byrne is so down to earth and SO believable. He is truly a joy to watch. Again, I stress the fact that this is not like an ordinary war movie -- it's GREAT, man!

This film is atypical love storey of two strangers and makes hou sympathise for two protagonists. The end is surprising and disturbing, these are only positives. But film is very slow, you keep wondering why the British sgnt is not working, how he gets all the time of his life to spend with his lover only. You wonder why those French resistance soldiers are shown as caricatures /cartoons rather than hard boiled, tough soldiers resisting Germans. You wonder why they can't kill that lady when only one british srgnt is guarding her. In all, mot a very enjoyable experience and no interesting moments in film except the end.