Saints and Soldiers: l'honneur des paras

Of the deluge of low budget World War II movies coming out of both Europe and the USA this little indie effort is better than most. I can see where great care has been given here to getting people who sound German to speak German, French to speak French. It may not have been shot in the South of France, but the DOP has spent some considerable care to give the film the warm tones of that part of Europe and the CGI shots blend nicely to convince of this too.

The plot is a little wish washy, men taking part in Dragoon, (The invasion of the South of France, August 1944) end up helping the French resistance on an unrelated mission. The number of characters is kept small and simple and the action scenes are nicely directed. The acting here is earnest, the cast aren't going to win any Oscars, but they don't make the mistake of over selling their performances like so many inexperienced actors would. Everyone here does a good job.

Its a small film and a small story, so don't be expecting Band of Brothers, but its well made with care and love and a great example of how to make a small but interesting film, as opposed to the terrible 'Rhineland' which felt like a bunch of re-in-actors out on a jolly. Here you can tell everyone involved wanted to make a good authentic film with a bit of heart, they succeeded.

If you liked the original your unlikely to be too disappointed, I personally wasn't and this has made it into my WW2 Collection.

Overall 'Airborne Creed' is a good film. It is beautifully shot and the main characters are quite convincing (contrary to the dialogues which often are not). All in all the story is fairly decent (although historically inaccurate, to say the least) but also very predictable; they could have got much more out of it. What makes the film average at best is firstly its Hollywoodesque usage of music. The soundtrack is "so heroic and mournful you can almost picture the tears running down the musician's face" (Yahtzee); it forces emotions down the viewer's throat rather than letting them experience themselves. Secondly, the potential of the film's portrayal of good & evil was barely exploited. Why is it that in American films the heroes always die a slow, painful death, whereas for the enemy it is 'one shot, one kill'? It is really not necessary to refuse giving the enemy a face to make the audience understand who/what is good or evil; after all, the story of 'Airborne Creed' clearly shows that the makers were thinking further than this black/white image and striving to add some shades of grey to it. It is a shame they dared not follow this insight consistently.

Movies aren't necessarily made to be historically correct (anybody seen Star Wars, or Guardians of the Galaxy). This was quite true to the time period. In the end, it was a very enjoyable movie, and presented a "human" side of people. I wish we actually had that in our real lives here in the US. A great movie to help us leave politics WAY behind.

I enjoyed the first Saints and Soldiers movie back in 2003, & was surprised at how good Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed was on the second go around. The acting was very good from the top three GI's & also give top marks to the German officer as well as the cute little French freedom fighter. The reason for my high marks of the film also come the above story, writing & direction of the movie. The combat had good as flow as well, but mainly it was just a top notch story. If you have a chance to see Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed, get it a watch, it was well worth the hour & half of my time.

Again give Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed your time.

Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed is a beautifully crafted WWII picture. Ryan Little delivers a moving film once again with Saints and Soldiers: Airborne Creed. With solid well developed characters just like in the original Saints and Soldiers. A strong cast of very talented actors bring the story to life. The action is incredible in this film. An all around great film.

This film has very strong female characters in it. This was refreshing as this isn't the norm with WWII films most of the time.

I could tell that the production team gave great attention to detail on this film. Well done.