Smartorhypo Highly Overrated But Still Good

XoWizIama Excellent adaptation.

Merolliv I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Usamah Harvey The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Ryan Russo I really enjoyed this movie. Not for it's intense action scenes. Not for its sound mixing, but for its thoroughly thought out art direction and its dedication to historical accuracy. The costumes, landscape and tanks really showed the hard work and research put into this film. Side-note: (Possible Spoilers) I thought the fact that the personification of the Russian people through Aleksey Vertkov was perfect. His inner struggle and physical battle can be compared to the struggle of the Russian people through the early 1900's. The personification of evil in the white tiger was also very interesting. The fact that Aleksey said at the end, we have to destroy the evil or he will return furthers the personification and drives the point that they put thought into the scripting.

clive_slatter When I first starting watching this film I wasn't sure what to expect. This is a sort of Moby Dick with tanks. In the early part of the film we see what remains of a Russian tank regiment after an attack by a German 'Tiger' tank. Whilst trying to prise the hands of a corpse from the steering handles of a tank they discover the driver is still alive despite what looks like 90% burns. Somehow he survives and is selected to hunt the German down using a new prototype tank.What we are given is a film that builds up tension very well as the Russian seeks to put an end to the Tiger's reign of terror and destruction. Here is where the problem lies as far as I'm concerned. The film builds up really well and is well paced... until the end. What had been a really enjoyable film has a substantial anticlimax. I was left with a real 'is that it?' moment. I had to watch the end several times to make sure I hadn't missed anything. Either that or it's one of the best film endings and I'm too much of a barbarian to appreciate it fully.

Lomax343 First things first - if you expect a "standard" war film like Saving Private Ryan or Enemy at the Gates or Fury, then this is the wrong place to look. White Tiger is a Russian film set in the dying days of WW2. The titular AFV is a lone German tank which appears mysteriously on the battlefield and destroys Russian tanks by the dozen, whilst seeming invincible. No crew is ever seen, with the result that it feels like a mash-up between the great white whale from Moby Dick and the homicidal tanker in Spielberg's Duel.Hunting the tank is a character halfway between Captain Ahab and Ishmael; a Russian tank-man who makes a miraculous recovery from seemingly fatal burns, only to find that he has total amnesia. He only knows that he can talk to the souls of tanks, and that he must hunt the white tiger.Sounds odd? That's the point. The film is heavy on metaphor and mysticism, and in the latter third becomes deeply surreal. There's a scene of three German generals signing the document of surrender, then enjoying a strange meal. Then cut to a line of Russian PoWs; then to Ahab/Ishmael alone in a field with his tank. The white tiger hasn't gone, he says. It's merely hiding, and will be back in a hundred years or so. Then the final scene: is it real? Is it symbolic? Is it happening in someone's head? You decide.This is a cerebral film. It asks questions, and leaves the viewer to struggle for answers.In Russian, with subtitles.

a666333 I found this film to be very successful. It takes an historical situation, carefully reconstructs it in an accurate and believable fashion, then applies an extra-real/fantasy overcoat as a platform to drive home a number of philosophical ideas. These are not simple ideas either, they are powerful and controversial and force one to think unless of course one was looking only for a nuts-and-bolts war movie. In that case, you will likely be disappointed but it worked perfectly for me. There were a number of slower scenes that would seem out-of-place without the wider philosophical/sociological themes playing out. I suggest that viewers not look to be entertained in the straightforward sense but instead allow themselves to be provoked. Don't worry about the acting, directing, sets, camera work, etc. They all good and work well. There is a clear Tarkovsky influence in many of the scenes although not as surreal what you get in Stalker and Solaris.