I watched this 2025 German movie a couple of months ago and hadn't gotten around to posting a review of it. With the launching of a Donald Trump war against Iran, it feels a bit odd to do so now.
This review contains spoilers.
Der Tiger, released in the US as The Tank, is about, on the surface, an improbable mission given to the crew of a German Tiger tank that has just seemingly survived the detonation of a bridge to go deep into Soviet territory and rescue a behind the lines German commander who was apparently on some secret mission commanding a body of men likewise behind the lines. Their former CO, they learn that he did not die, as claimed, at Stalingrad. Because of the nature of the film, it's been compared, unfairly as in my view, with Apocalypse Now or Heart of Darkness, upon which its based, but the theme is completely different.
Going into it, on the surface the premise is absurd. A tank would make a very poor means of rescuing anyone, let along a Tiger I was was very prone to mechanical breakdown. They're far from stealthy. And the Eastern Front, like the Western Front, was a dense combat environment. It wouldn't work.
And that's not actually what the film is about.
In reviews of this film, a lot of reviewers are simply baffled by it. The excellent Fighting On Film podcast was one. But, from a certain prospective, the film makes perfect sense.
That sense is a Catholic one.
I don't know if the director is Catholic, but if he isn't, he's heavily invested in Catholic views. The clues are there throughout the entire film, from beginning to end. The tank and its crewmen (with one exception) aren't on a mission to rescue their former commander, whom they do meet at a bunker, but rather they're on a trip, literally, to Hell.
During the trip we learn of the reason why.
Everything is there. Odd grim reminders. One wounded tank crewman is is taken out of the stricken tank to go into "the light". A Mass, in Latin, is on the radio, which the Nazi era German radio would never have broadcast. The entry into the bunker is guarded by metaphorical angels, although they superficially do not seem to be so. The fires of Hell are at the end.
All in all, frankly, this film, which is nearly 100% metaphorical, is very well done, but a person needs to be aware of the imagery and background, which I suspect a German audience, where the two significant Christian religions are Catholicism and Lutheranism, which is based on it, may be more than most American ones, in order to grasp it.
In material details, this movie is pretty good, although it seems odd to even discuss the topic in this film. The depictions of German and Soviet armor are excellent, and the uniform details well done. The tank crew, as mentioned, is of the SS, and they wear SS tank crew uniforms.
