Starring David Schütter, Leonard Kunz, Tilman Strauss

Directed by Dennis Gansel

Streaming on Amazon Prime Video

After miraculously surviving a lethal Soviet attack on the Dnieper bridge, a German tank crew are sent on a secret mission to extract a rogue colonel from behind enemy lines.

I wasn’t intending to review new German language movie The Tank for Sci-Fi Bulletin. I thought I was sitting down to watch a gritty Second World War movie along the lines of Das Boot only a lot less moist.

Indeed, for the first 75 minutes, that’s exactly what we get, as we follow tank commander Philip Gerkens (magnetically portrayed by the excellent David Schütter) leading his sweaty but dedicated crew through minefields, playing hide and seek with soviet T34s, and taking on a giant SU-100 tank in a nail biting one-on-one. The similarities with Wolfgang Peterson’s submarine masterpiece are undeniable – but if director Dennis Gansel has taken inspiration from his predecessor it is with good effect. The set pieces are highly effective edge-of-the-sofa stuff.

But, shortly after the movie’s midpoint, The Tank takes an intriguing left turn, as it leaves Das Boot behind, embarking on an Apocalypse Now style journey into Commander Gerkens’ very own Heart of Darkness. The landscape becomes ever more mystical, with the boundary between reality and fantasy becoming less distinct by the second. It could be because of the amount of army issue amphetamines being consumed… or it could be something else. Who exactly is the Kurtz-like Colonel Hardenburg they have been sent to extract? And what is the truth behind his connection to the Tiger’s dedicated and loyal Nazi commander?

Whether or not you buy The Tank’s genre ending might be a bit of a marmite thing. It would be easy to see it as something of a cheat, perhaps not really earned by what has gone before, but given the sure-handed direction and the sheer commitment of the acting ensemble I was more than happy to go with it.

Verdict: I suspect The Tank might divide audiences, but wherever you fall on this one, it is without doubt, a meticulously crafted and compelling 116 minutes of cinema, which I would love to have seen on a big screen. I was genuinely sad that it didn’t get a UK theatrical release, but it’s well worth catching on Amazon Prime if you can. 8/10

Martin Jameson

www.ninjamarmoset.com