War in a shell

Rating: 6/10 (5 November 2016)

As war movies go, this one is not so bad. Lots of clichés of course. But I can't remember a war movie without any or all of those. That said, I don't remember seeing a WWII movie almost totally shot from inside a tank. I saw the cramped space. I imagine the stench of decayed bits of corpses in all the little places unreachable and «unbleachable». Little windows to see outside and the high probability of getting your upper body blown off if you have to open a hatch. And all this in a Sherman, a tin can compared to most of the heavy tanks the Nazis brought forth during the war. In battle, you're stuck in there, day after day, for months, if you are lucky, until you get finally blown off, just like the crews who were, minutes ago around you. I like this movie because it reminds us that men, ordinary men, fought and died in those things. Maybe some viewers have missed the point. As to the big fight scene at the end, well, I'll never get tired of seeing Nazis get mauled, even if it's just a fantasy. The bad guys have to fall.