VIsually Spectacular but Lacking Emotional Element

Rating: 7/10 (15 April 2015)

The idea behind this movie, showing an in-depth view of an M4 Sherman Tank crew in the European theatre of WWII.
The cinematography of the movie is worth watching the movie on itself; the OK Corral final showdown was hokey at best, and Hollywood drivel at worst; to the point that it's just too easy to criticize, so I won't waste any more of your time on that subject.
The main character is extremely interesting, and well done by Brad Pitt. I think the movie also does a nice job demonstrating how war is "not real" in how people act. Nobody behaves in a manner that is indicative of normal life, nobody. They use the "Typist" as a person whom juxtaposes all of the others (including civilians) whose lives have been completely turned upside down, and they are just counting down to the moment they die. This is actually really unique, and never done before in a war film, but the producers couldn't just use that element as single dramatic element of the film; too busy trying to sell tickets with silly action movie scenes, and nut just the final scene.
On a technical point, the tank warfare shown is not accurate in that 4 Shermans would have never attacked a single Wehrmacht Panzer Tiger tank in the open field on purpose, when they could have easily called-in an air attack once they ID'd the Tiger tank. The US (by the way) produced 25 times more Shermans than the Germans manufactured Tigers, so obviously Tigers were not their only tank, but were there best (by far). The truth is the Germans made a mistake in producing such a sophisticate tank for the Wehrmacht because they took too long to produce. People love to hyperbolize how inferior the Sherman was to the Tiger, but war (as the movie states very well) is about killing your enemy as quickly as possible, and not about winning design contests.