It is probably not an overly distant assumption that the stunning success of the Netflix Oscar hit “in the West” has its share in the fact that “the tiger” now appears. So the competitor of Amazon Prime Video does its own German World War II-original-and this also gets a theatrical release before his global launch on the streaming platform.
This is not only commendable because we basically prefer to see films on the big screen. It is mainly deserved for the “wave” and “Napola- Elite for the Fiihrer” director Dennis Gansel, which is as effective and intensely staged. With thriller and mystery elements, it quickly also makes it clear that it then stands out quite clearly from “nothing new” in the West and primarily offers successful entertainment cinema.
“The Tiger” please exciting entertainment cinema, which mostly plays in and around a tank.
1943, on the Eastern Front: At the battle for a bridge over the DNJEPR, the crew (David Schütter, Laurence Rupp, Leonard Kunz, Sebastian Urzendowsky and Yoran Leicher) of a Wehrmacht tiger class can just escape their Soviet persecutors. After you have faded together your badly damaged vehicle, the soldiers that are still physically and mentally and mentally are ordered to a mission that appears for them like a suicide command behind the enemy lines.
Your mission is to locate the Colonel von Hardenburg (Tilman Strauss), which is enthusiastic in a secret base and equipped with extremely sensitive information. Before he can pass on strategies and troop movements to the Red Army, the man should be brought back to the German controlled area or killed on site. While with strong stimulants it moves forward through the vernic Ukrainian steppes and forests, the quintet has repeatedly contacted enemy. The men have to face their own fears and conflicts of conscience.
A German war film ventures into the heart of darkness
In the press material for “The Tiger”, Dennis Gansel's mission is described as “a surreal journey into the 'heart of darkness'”. Anyone who has seen “Apocalypse Now” will know this wording. After all, the masterpiece of Francis Ford Coppola is an adaptation of the narrative “Heart of Darkness” by Joseph Conrad. There, Captain Willard and his unit played by Martin Sheen are given the order to track down or liquidate or liquidate the renegade Colonel Walter E. Kurtz (Marlon Brando) in the Vietnamese jungle, which is traversed by enemies and other dangers. The company gets into a veritable hell trip, in the course of which not only the absurdity of a conflict that has long been lost, but also the deepest abysses of the human psyche are uncovered.
It doesn't take long for “the tiger” to reveal clear parallels to the late-seventy epic. One almost expects that in the end a computer-animated brando double-bounder would even wait for the men. Doesn't do it, no fear. Dennis Gansel is a much too intelligent and imaginative filmmaker. He only leaves it with a respectful bow to the classic without copying it brazen.
The tiger's crew expects a dangerous new order.
Instead, Gansel drives his (anti) heroes to a final twist, who-with more, sometimes less subtle information-is designed in such a way that he may seem quite foreseeable afterwards, but is surprised when you look for the first time. A second or even third sight from this point of view is really worth it here.
The true enjoyment of this first-class and strong war thriller is not its dissolution, but the way there. Already at the intensive opening sequence it feels as if we are sitting in their tiger with the men. You can literally feel the rattling of the engine and smell the stench of grenades, muzzle fire and fear of death. While his men are becoming more and more panic, the tactically prudent but obviously commandant Lieutenant Gerkens remains (obviously tortured by the ghosts of the past (David Schütter With an amazingly multi -layered performance).
Like “The Boot” – only in the tank!
The work of chief cameraman Carlo Jelavic (“crime scene: the nest”) is reminiscent of various submarine films here and also in the numerous later scenes within the tank-both with regard to the settings and atmospheric. Finally, in both scenarios, the characters sit in a confined space within a deadly weapon, which can become their floating coffin at any moment to their floating or on caterpillar chains. The fact that both Jelavic and director Gansel were involved in several episodes of the popular streaming series “Das Boot” seems like preparation for the movie.
A particularly exciting passage even plays under water, so that the tiger actually mutates into a kind of undersee. There are also some suspense of a mining field and the duel with a gigantic Soviet armor in an open field. Even if the claustrophobic urgency of the brilliant “Lebanon”, the perhaps the best tank film, is not quite achieved, the implementation of such scenes is almost continuous.
Again and again the tiger goes through dangerous terrain.
Between these action and voltage highlights there are always atmospheric sequences at night and flashbacks, in which we learn more about the figures, their past and their mental condition. In some places, Gansel and his team let us puzzle whether the tank crew has just experienced what has happened. Or may we also see hallucinations caused by pervitin, the so -called “tank chocolate”, an early form of today's drug methamphetamine? This chemical “pick -me -up” was actually administered to many German soldiers at the time in order not only to suppress tired tiredness, but also to reduce them. Here it also serves to cleverly put different tracks towards the final turn.
In addition, “the tiger” tells an exciting story on the one hand that could actually have happened to a certain extent. Gansel was also inspired by reports of an uncle who even traveled in a tank on the front. With interspersed genre moments, however, he clearly sets himself away from much soberly presented titles à la “Stalingrad”. This ensures that Gansel's war thrillers with more pace and action is much more entertaining, but at the same time shocked in an efficient way. However, it will certainly take care of discussions that he has long refuted the myth of the “clean”, war crimes and mass murders of the SS completely innocent Wehrmacht soldiers.
Conclusion: With a focus on action and excitement, “the tiger” obviously does not want to be a second “in the West nothing new”, but rather more a entertainment film. This is also the case with a story told and a clever, particularly successful over the first -class equipment.