Attack of the Nazi Zombies, oh brother

Rating: 2/10 (7 April 2015)

There should be a second rating for truth and accuracy. I read an article in the New York Times that praised this movie for being very accurate. The Times got it wrong and the film makers got it very, very wrong. Why is it so hard to make an accurate movie about World War II? Many of the participants are still alive and they are always very offended with filmmakers present nonsense, like this movie. First of all the film makers chose to have this story take place in April of 1945, then they ignore the situation as it stood at that time. The war in Europe ended on May 7, 1945. The fact is that the five man crew of this tank had to know that the war was almost over as they were fighting deep in Germany. At that time the Allies (US, Britain, USSR et.al.) had more than twice as many soldiers and way more equipment than the Germans. Most of the German army was trying to get to the West to surrender to the Americans because they knew that they would be treated better than being captured by the Russians. In April alone 2.3 million German soldiers surrendered. To watch this movie one would believe that the Germans outnumbered the Allies and outrageous acts of valor were required. In fact, the allies were aware of the mass surrenders and trying to minimize their casualties. It is true that the US Department of war gave the armies inferior tanks. They chose to manufacture Sherman tanks which had far less armor and artillery. It was chosen because it was cheap and could be manufactured in greater numbers and the allies had far more of these tanks. But the German tanks were better, that much is true. As a result the Allies attacked in mass formations. Not one loan tank. This brings us to the final climatic scene. The five man tank crew are all alone in a broken down tank. There is battalion of about 250 Germans coming they're way. Pitt decides to stay there and battle the 250 Germans alone. In a broken down tank. In the last month of the war. His heroic (stupidity) attracts all four of his comrades who agree to a pointless fight to the death. The terrible part is that the Germans mindlessly walk into the Tank's line of fire as if they were Zombies. Maybe they were left over extras from Pitt's last movie World War Z. Maybe Hitler was so desperate for soldiers he enlisted the very old, the very young and even the recently undead. Anyway, even though the Germans co-operated in being slaughtered by the Americans they eventually overwhelm them. But there is more: in the closing scene we see scores of dead Germans surrounding the disabled tank. Notice that none of the dead Germans fell on the rough road. They all managed to die on the soft grass. I thought for a moment that the newly arrived troops moved the bodies off of the road, but they would have laid them in rows. This was not the case. The Germans were lying about as they had fallen. Just not on that rough, dirty road!