Starts good, ends predictably

Rating: 7/10 (15 February 2017)

**Contains mild spoilers**
The WWII battlefield has been retold countless times. As such, a new approach can be hard to create.
The film starts well, unlike most modern WWII films it focuses on an experienced tank crew headed by none other but the charismatic Brad Pitt. Against all odds this tank team seems to have survived multiple battles and the films begins showing a severely religious and naive new recruit commanded to join the tight-knit team near the end of the war. It becomes immediately clear that part of the film will evolve around the changing psyche of this new idealistic, utopian-minded recruit.
The film is explicitly gritty, showing the true horror of war. One particular memorable, albeit brief, scene shows a body being run over by a tank. Another shows bulldozers clearing away a small mountain of dead German soldiers. It seems to denounce the reality of war as any good war film will do.
Yet, despite this fantastic start the film made, it soon descends in terms of script, characters and story-line. The transition of new recruit "Norman" is so fast as to be unbelievable. Meanwhile an against-the-odds action-focused scene at the end, shows the Nazi enemy to be inept rather than the feared experienced enemy they actually were. In the end, the film seems to glorify violence that it earlier seemed to condemn.
The film is easy-watching, at times shocking and well produced but in the end is ultimately forgettable. If you are just looking for a general war film to fill the time, this film will fit the bill.