"Tank - a movie on you tube" Topic

No, not the James Garner romp from many years ago.
This one was about a Tiger I crew on a secret mission behind Soviet line.
No spoilers here, but wow!
A psychological thriller and not at all what one would expect from a WWII movie.

Oops. It was on Amazon Prime

Widely slated, but I thought it was entertaining. Like Saving PR meets Fury and on a mission just as daft and unlikely as both films portrayed.There was something very odd about their experiences right from the end of the opening sequence, but again, no spoilers.

Was the Tiger itself authentic?

Ochoin, from what I understand, it was a Russian tank chassis converted to look like a Tiger, but it looked really good to me.

As above, I thought it was an entertaining movie.

I heard it was a T55 conversion.

I enjoyed it. No spoilers 😀

I think David is exactly right – modified T-55

If you can get past the premise (let's send a 54 tonne main battle tank to sneak thru enemy lines to rescue a trapped officer) the movie is pretty neat

Here's what I said to my club after I watched it:

The dialogue is all in German, so you have to turn on subtitles if you're not fluent.

It's a German anti-war film, so it has A Message™ that hits you over the head enough to leave a bruise. It is also surreal fiction, so the bizarre ending is going to be unsatisfying for war movie geeks. That said, the surreal hints are deliberately hidden in wartime atmospherics, so it's mostly a pretty good straight-up war flick until the very end.

It's not quite as hardcore on the war action as "Fury" or "Saving Private Ryan" or "Thin Red Line" or any of the Russian revanchist WWII films. Personally I also think it isn't as good at it's anti-war message as German films like "Das Boot" or "Stalingrad", but you may feel differently. Nonetheless, some of the straightforward war-film scenes are worthwhile. I liked all the tank fight scenes, and also some of the other tanker fiction like navigating enemy country and getting out of a minefield. The Tiger replica they built is not 100% accurate, but they did a really good job on it. The movie includes a lot of nicely done touches that give you a feel for tanker life – e.g. constant exhaust smoke, worrying about fuel, working around minor equipment failures, the driver complaining about his compartment, military duties outside the tank as well as inside, etc.

There are plenty of totally unrealistic scenes (and even entire premises for the movie) that will make military history nerds leave their seats, but just suppress your urge to yell at the screen and wait. Some of them get explained when the movie takes a turn into "weird movie" land, and it becomes obvious they weren't in there for the history geeks. Others are just typical unrealistic melodrama for non-military audiences that we have to expect in modern films.

- Ix

I thought the tank commander was far more competant than the Tiger commander in "Fury."

It was an interesting film but not in the same vein as 'Fury', 'Saving Private Ryan' or even the German 'Stalingrad'. The historical detail was not bad especially the Tiger itself which was a combination of a converted Russian tank and CGI, especially when the running gear could be seen. No spoilers but the end explains most of the 'Huh?' moments. One thing I could not get past though was the commander's 'crusher' cap. It looked more like a cap worn by a Russian than a Wehrmacht item.

Watched on Amazon Prime here and was in English so no need for subtitles. Dubbing was pretty good. Figured the whole thing out pretty early. Some decent combat scenes but over all meant as a "message" film. And with you Artilleryman the commander's cap bugged me the whole movie!

Perhaps the hat was a trophy?