'Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.'

Rating: 9/10 (31 January 2015)

'Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.' David Ayer (Training Day, The Fast and the Furious, End of Watch, Harsh Times, S.W.A.T, Sabotage etc) wrote and directed this film that explores aspects of WW II – and all war, in fact. It is intensely brutal, unforgivingly bitter, and graphically assaulting – just like war. It is one of the better film s to capture the way war alters soldiers and the citizens of the country who are not involved. It is painful to watch: it is important to note.
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened Army sergeant named Wardaddy Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and his five-man crew – Bible Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Gordo Garcia (Michael Peña), Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal) and the very young 8 week in the Army typist Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered, out-gunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. There are a few moments when battle is not active that are memorable – the episode where Wardaddy and Norman have lunch and more in the home of two frightened German women, the confrontation of Wardaddy with Norman bringing him into the realm of being a killing soldier, etc – but for the most part the film is constant fighting, grizzly unspeakably horrid, insane, sociopathic but true to war mentality fighting.
The cast is excellent – if only the adopted varying accents would allow us to understand all the lines – and kudos to Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Alicia von Rittberg, Anamaria Marina. The musical score by Steven Price is superb and the cinematography by Roman Vasyanov is incredibly realistic. The film is very long – just like prolonged battles in war – and the end result is a crushing question of why do we continue to participate in such wastes of lives.