Der Tank

Not only does Tank offer varied assortments in the ways of wit, action, and humor, I believe that it also accurate portrays the periodic levels of corruption that previously and continue to plague the various small town, white-bred trailer trash communities across the nation, moreover a mild example of which I can personally relate to.

Two years ago, a similar rural community with it's own breed of laws and regulations attempted to suspend my driving privileges upon ticketing a driver for speeding that had confiscated a driver's license that I had previously reported as stolen. My attempts to explain myself only proved a fruitless endeavor, as the community encouraged me to pay up and get over it. Only after I hired an attorney and threatened a lawsuit, did the grit munching scum-suckers in question withdraw their insistence.

Within this film, a corrupt southern bred police department attempts to enslave an Army Major's son after a deputy is justifiable beaten up in retaliation to assaulting a falsely branded "prostitute". As a portion of cover, the malevolent Sheriff runs a broadly defined farm that actually qualifies as a labor camp from which to subject luckless youths to intensive brutality. After failed attempts to appease the Sheriff's fury, James Garner elects to take matters into his own hands, commandeering a personally owned Sherman Tank in which to spring his son, and demolish a few of the corrupt police department's facilities along the way.

Perhaps another reason I enjoyed this movie is the presence of the highly versatile score by the incomparable Lalo Schifrin, who employs every compositional style in the book from Jazz to traditional military marches and a highly catchy disco tune. Unfortunately, the latter becomes a subject of unwarranted contempt from the Sergeant major's redneck upbringing, as he encourages local bars to refit their repertroire to stay any unwanted coersions to "dance the funky monkey".

Overall, the film offers a highly sympathetic premise, that eerily enough seems completely plausible in today's terms, given the prevalence of small towns, isolated from the civilized world and thus prone to erect their own dictatorial policies, no matter how severe.

Destruction! By tank. Revenge! By tank. Sadistic southern sheriff… yep let's roll over him with a tank! James Garner plays Commander Sgt. Maj. Zack Carey who moves to an army base with his wife and son in the south, but gets on the wrong side of the local sheriff when he knocks out the deputy in bar quarrel. Too proud to let it slide they want payback, so they frame his son with a drug charge and imprison him. Carey would now do it the sheriff's way to get his son out of prison, but circumstances change when that isn't followed leaving his son to be convicted serving three years. So Carey gets in his own prized Sherman tank to bust out his son while heading for the state border in search for actual justice.

Ludicrous, but amusingly dreamt-up boot-kicking patriotic nonsense of standing up. What starts off quite serious (where I thought it might culminate in pushing "Rambo: First Blood" territory), ended up as chaotically gung-ho and comedic in a very mechanical, but spirited sense. Relatively well-made with spacious cinematography and an upbeat music score contributed by Lalo Schifrin. Material-wise the wit is there, but it's a little deeper in its perspective themes, in which it really does moralise its intentions --- as what eventuates is a tug of war involving sappy dialogues and silly humour. The early sequences build some intense confrontations -- where Garner and Spradlin's authority figures go at it each other in their own personal war. But soon that is all forgotten when Garner goes for a pleasant ride with his tank and ends up on sort of a road trip with what seems like all of America are riding the heroic underdog home. Go you good thing! One thing that's for sure is that in one sequence Jenilee Harrison looks good behind the tank's machine gun. An excellent Garner is suitably likable and G.D. Spradlin nails down his bastard role as Sheriff Cyrus Buelton. Also there's a very good support cast lined-up with Shirley Jones, Dorian Harewood, James Cromwell, C. Thomas Howell and John Hancock.

James Garner portrays a military officer who has one very unique distinction. He owns his own Sherman tank! After butting heads with a sheriff's deputy, his son is framed for drug possession and he must battle wits with the evil sheriff.

This movie is sort of a cross between the original 'Smokey and the Bandit' and a free wheeling episode of 'The Dukes of Hazzard'. It's a predictable, mildly amusing film with cultural stereotypes. If you're willing to overlook this, it will provide you with the typical fast food type of entertainment.

Tank has been an inspiration in my life. Its rich plot is rife with moral dilemmas, all of which end in ethical resolutions. Zack (James Garner) is the epitome of all that is good and right in the universe, and he wins in the end like good should. While I usually watch the film for its moral content, sometimes I find myself fast- forwarding to scene eleven, which features james cromwell naked, chained to a phone pole.

Ten stars. This film has changed my life.

If you can ignore the dopey ending, the movie has some very nice surprises best of which is the incredible performance of GD Spradlin as the sheriff. This may be a lightweight movie but he does not throw away his role. He's genuinely scary and believable as the tyrannical sheriff. Jenilee Harrison is also at her most sexy in 1984. She was a mouthwatering beauty back then! The film rolls along pretty blandly but the scenes with C. Thomas Howell getting framed are pretty well done and plausible. If you can get over the guy owning his own Sherman tank, the decision to use it makes at least some sense by that point in the movie.