Blood, sweat and tears

Rating: 9/10 (1 November 2014)

This is somewhat of an overwhelming movie. It shows the last "total war" at its most desperate. We see -- no, we smell – the excitement and the horrors experienced by a single tank crew.
This movie jolts you into realizing that much of what we've seen on the screen over the last 70 years about this war has become cliché. Most of those who lived through the war are dead and we can now dare to imagine what it really must have been like and tell stories that we didn't dare tell before. These men were both heroes and "inglorious basterds". Surely that's the way it was. The movie clichés are trotted out and then dealt with brutally.
A cinematic decision was made to show everything. In modern times, we need to see this to understand what total war is like. These are the things your granddad and dad refused to talk about. But if you're squeamish, be warned. Further, this movie provoked a huge emotional response in me. Bring a hankie. Yes, sweat, blood and tears -- this movie is an experience.
I have never seen armoured operations, tank battles and tank activities so well depicted on film, However, the German military seemed strangely ineffective at times. I suppose this was to give the film dramatic tension and showcase our heroes. It felt artificial.
Pitt and Lerman are very good, but it was Shia LaBoeuf who really shone. What a fine actor. This was a larger than life tank crew (something unavoidable when Pitt and LaBoeuf are in your tank). It bothered me a little that this crew was so ragtag and maverick. Hollywood loves this kind of thing, but it is not realistic.
Some of the scenes involving the interaction between the sergeant and the newbie also seemed unrealistic. But the decision to tell this story more or less through the eyes of Lerman's character was brilliant. Sensitive, intelligent, conscientious, not combat trained, lacking acculturation to military life and battle, his main asset is the ability to type 60 words a minute. Now if this doesn't speak directly to the hipster-reddit-twitter generation, nothing does. Norman Ellison is a young man from the 2010s, not the 1940s. It worked very effectively.
I'm glad they referenced the Falaise Gap. Now THAT might be a movie
Highly recommended!