Another fine mess

Rating: 7/10 (17 November 2014)

A frustrating film. Much of it is one of the most realistic depictions of war I've seen - up there with "Cross of iron" and "Come and see". Heads and limbs are blown off, rotting corpses are flattened in mud, and the chaos and brutality of the last days of Nazi Germany are also unflinchingly portrayed. Civilians hanging from trees and lampposts; snipers revealed as terrified schoolchildren in uniform; a grizzly tableau of bodies slumped round a table - Nazis unable to face defeat. There's also a graphic display of tank/infantry tactics which leaves nothing to the imagination.
The last third of the film sadly descends into cliché as the tank platoon makes a suicidal last stand against a 300 strong SS regiment. An odd decision by Brad Pitt as he's spent most of the film vowing to keep his platoon alive now that the war is almost over. Even odder is the platoon's decision to stay with him. A more appropriate response would be something along the lines of 'This is a fine mess you've gotten me into....' As you'd expect almost everyone perishes in a blaze of pyrotechnics, expertly staged but in terms of raw realism a damp squib compared with what's gone before.