Two Soldiers

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Aaron Schneider directs. David Boyd behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Kelly Matsumoto cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Tight 40-minute runtime — shorter than most television pilots.
• 2Released 23 years ago.
• 3Directed by Aaron Schneider, shot by David Boyd. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 4Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 5Editor Kelly Matsumoto shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Jonathan Furr and Ben Allison and Ron Perlman carry the top of the cast.
• 7IMDB entry: tt0304858 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Only 15 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.

The technical file

Cinematography

David Boyd

Original score

Alan Silvestri

Editing

Kelly Matsumoto

Production design

C. Robert Holloway

Costume design

Alonzo Wilson

Makeup / hair

Chris Varosky

VFX supervisor

Joseph Grossberg

Runtime

40 min · 0h 40m

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

Two Soldiers (2003) ↗

Also by

Aaron Schneider

• 
  Greyhound

  2020 · ★ 7.4
• 
  Get Low

  2010 · ★ 6.7

Community reviews

What people are saying

• CinemaSerf2026-01-17
  ★ 6/10

  Visually, this reminded me a little of “Field of Dreams” (1989) meets “The Waltons” with lots of soft-focus photography and a score from Alan Silvestri that I doubt even he can recall. It’s about a tightly-knit and poor American farming family who find that elder son “Pete” (Ben Allison) wants to volunteer to sign-up following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Despite reservations from his dad, off he sets to Memphis on the bus leaving his collection of bird's eggs in the care of his younger brother “Willie” (Jonathan Furr). Now this young lad dotes a bit on his sibling and swiftly decides - at the age of eight - that he is going to follow suit. He has to blag the 72c for his bus fare but when he gets to the draft office is given short shrift by the soldiers. Luckily he has his skinning knife, and there is also a kindly colonel (Ron Perlman) but what chance he can meet “Pete” again and/or join up? Though this is quite a nice feature, I couldn’t quite fathom what or whom it was for. “Furrball” delivers quite an engaging effort as the young traveller and there are some fairly substantial Hollywood names behind this film, but the story is remarkably thin. It’s not as if there is a draft forcing “Pete”, or the MPs arrive to wrench him, tearfully, from the loving arms of his family and so notwithstanding his obvious courage at stepping up to defend his country I just struggled to see the point of it all. It also makes for quite a long forty minutes, too.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• SH

  Shoe Clerk Picture Co. Inc.

Key crew

• Casting DirectorCraig Fincannon
• Casting DirectorLisa Mae Fincannon
• Costume DesignAlonzo Wilson
• ConductorAlan Silvestri
• EditorKelly Matsumoto
• Production DesignC. Robert Holloway
• Co-ProducerKate Miller
• Co-ProducerBetsy Pollock
• Short StoryWilliam Faulkner
• EditorAaron Schneider
• Art DirectionBurton Rencher
• Set DecorationBurton Rencher
• Key Makeup ArtistChris Varosky
• Key Hair StylistPat Mueller
• HairstylistSylvia Hendrix
• Supervising Sound EditorScott Martin Gershin
• Post Production SupervisorMeghan L. Noble
• Music EditorP. Daniel Newman
• Visual Effects SupervisorJoseph Grossberg
• Assistant Location ManagerChad Hartigan
• ProducerAndrew J. Sacks

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• brother
• world war ii
• devotion
• based on short story

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical2003-07-30PG-13

Also known as

International titles

• William Faulkner's Two SoldiersUS
• İki ƏsgərAZ