October 19, 2014 -- I went to see this mainly because Brad Pitt is in it. I figured he's smart enough not to agree to appear in a big budget war movie like this unless it is a good one, and it turned out to be a good bet. Unfortunately, it was a lot darker toned film than I thought it would be. “Kelly's Heroes” it is not.

War is a grim business. We know this, despite the fact that many war movies, especially those made about World War II, make it look a more noble undertaking than it was, a “good” war fought with integrity for the highest of principles. This film is one World War II movie with an emphasis on the horrors of war and which minimizes the heroic aspects of being a soldier. A main character in the film is called a hero by another soldier at one point, and it seems like an absurd label. This is a pretty realistic war movie and it sure doesn't glamorize war, or make it seem noble.

In this film, war really is hell.

Soldiers are often called heroes in today's society, but that is just lip service. Soldiers returning from war are not actually treated well by society at all. The label seems hollow when a soldier can't find a job or get decent medical or psychological care. Too many of them end up homeless. They are those homeless, unwanted heroes, begging for money next to the road.

This movie isn't about heroes. It is about a tank crew trying to survive this war. The crew is trying to do its job and survive, by any means necessary. The job is simple: Kill Germans, and they do this with considerable skill and abandon. They often say, ironically, this is “the best job I ever had.” More than a few human heads explode from large calibre machine gun bullets in this film. We see one soldier's body crushed flat in a road by tank traffic. Bodies of civilians are hung from poles by the German SS like the KKK used to do to blacks in the south as part of a terror campaign to promote compliance.

Surviving in a tank war isn't easy, particularly in a Sherman Tank that is up against the superior firepower and armor of a German Tiger tank. Real tanks were used in this film, including the only operational Tiger 131 tank in the world. Dying in a tank is a tough way to go. Being burned alive is a common fate, another is dying from bullets or explosive devices that end up inside the tank. In the early part of the film, a typist, Norman Ellison (played by Logan Lerman of “The Perks of Being a Wallflower”) is dispatched to clean up the blood and remaining body parts of the assistant driver he will replace in the tank.

Ellison is looked upon with scorn by the tank crew, commanded by Don “War Daddy” Collier (Brad Pitt). The crew has survived for years by relying on each other, and they don't trust the new guy, at least not yet. Ellison must prove himself to them, and he has to prove himself by killing Germans. Others in the crew are Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LeBeouf of “Transformers”), Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal of “The Wolf of Wall Street” in a chilling performance) and Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Peña of “End of Watch”).

The film has a few intense battle scenes, but much more happens between battles, when the tank crew is waiting for its orders. Tension builds over the course of the film until a final battle, when the tank crew is ordered to hold a vital crossroads position against a vastly superior force. Ellison doesn't want to kill people. The war is almost over in April of 1945 as American troops march toward the interior of Germany, but Collier tells Ellison a lot more people will have to die before it ends. “Ideals are peaceful. History is violent,” Collier says, and World War II is as violent as it gets.

The acting is excellent in this film and the war scenes are well-staged. Some of the story is predictable, and sometimes it strains credulity, but it works pretty well for the most part. The relentless dark, downbeat, depressing drumbeat of the story and the graphic violence took its toll on me over the course this film. There is some humor in the film, but not enough to overcome brutal nature of it. This not a great war film, but it is a good one. This film rates a B.

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