American Jingoism at its best/worst!

Rating: 2/10 (8 March 2015)

Having eagerly anticipated seeing this movie, I was wholly disappointed by the lack of realism throughout the film. After watching such excellent albeit biased depictions of the later stages of WW2 such as Band of Brothers, I found the whole film lacked credibility. I am aware that American audiences need cheering up due to their failed imperialistic ambitions through the Middle East and Afghanistan but are they that uneducated that they could not watch American troops being sacrificed in inferior tanks (the Sherman was no T34)? There was much true heroism with tank crews clearly out gunned and out classed by German Tigers and Anti aircraft/ anti tank crews and the film could have paid a greater tribute showing how the crews dealt with such adversity. Instead we get a Tiger being taken out by Fury after the first 3 Shermans get destroyed. Hardened Tiger crews had little or no difficulty destroying multitudes of Shermans, yet this Tiger crew miss more targets than they hit. The final scene is truly shocking. Crack SS troops with Panzerfaust by the boatload are incapable of cooking the disabled Sherman and lose dozens of men waging Kamikaze attacks on the tank. They would had bypassed the tank and maybe left a dozen men to finish off the Sherman. In conclusion, a great flag waver for American heroism, a poor attempt at portraying the realities of war.