Nesokrushimyy

The battle scenes among the tanks kept me watching indeed. Perhaps because of the quality of the sound of my DVD and the lack of soundtracks found in some other films, this film did seem more mediocre o me - although the tank scenes were good and some parts still enticed me to see what would happen next. Not a bad film - but less impressive than many other Russian war films indeed. Definitely, far from the movie "T-34"

And, on top of that, VERY bad CGI: tanks always explode in flames. Also, Tigers in Russia? Come on...

Over the last decades war movies have become more realistic, showing the horrors and terrifying experiences soldiers of all nations are exposed to under battle. Since 1945 German war movies have almost always been Anti-war movies, like "Die Brücke", "Das Boot" and later "Stalingrad" and therefore leaving the audience depressive after viewing it. American War movies have mostly been glorifying vehicles for some kind of hero, which made them a bigger hit at the box office. That has basically first begun to change with "Apocalypse Now" and later the brilliant "Saving Private Ryan". British war movies are maybe kind of in-between and very well narrated with "1917" as the most recent, brilliant example. Most of those successful war movies have in common, that they bring us the persons and the events closer with high credibility and get the audience emotionally connected to the main characters - that is not the case with "The Tankers". The strange behavior of the male main character tank commander Konovalov towards his wife/ex wife, entering the story as a brilliant tank engineer, is never really explained. He is only described as a brilliant tactician but egocentric and ruthless man, for whom it is quite difficult to evolve any kind of sympathy. The background/charcters of the other tank crew members are only described on the surface if at all, they don't have their own story. But they all die "nicely" with "sleeping" eyes and as man doing their duty. You just don't buy it. The movie promotes the heroic efforts of his KV 1 tank crew under the battle of Rostov and it is certainly understandable that Mosfilm would like to give the russian audience russian heros - they just didn't touch me.

They put some efforts in the tank battle scenes and usually russian war movies are, when it comes to WW II tanks and material, more accurate than western movies. But the fighting scenes are just not convincing at all! 10+ German Panzerkampfwagen IV attacking one russian KV 1 tank exposed on a hill top with the apparently long range 75 mm KwK 40 which could penetrate 40 mm steel on 700 m distance, making no significant damage at all!! Even without being a nerd, when watching those scenes, the movie almost appears comic-like. The movie show a lot of russian war material and if you are interested in that it's worth watching, but it never get's you carried away.

Ever wonder what happened to those WWII tanks that were knocked out of commission by enemy fire or broken down? This movie gives a behind the scenes look at a WWII Russian tank depot where those wrecks are brought in for salvage or repair. Not a bad flick, and even though I don't speak Russian, it's well acted.

Unless you have a thing for Soviet armor, I would say that you should give this movie a miss. It's supposed to be about the second battle of Rostov in July 1942, but it looks like it's been shot in the same muddy field in northern Russia. The makers might have heard about tactics, but if they have, they have promptly forgotten almost everything. Tank vs tank combat is often within spitting distance, and the Germans appear to be dropouts from the Imperial Stormtrooper Academy of Shooting. Meanwhile, the Soviets hit with almost every round, and every hit is a penetrating killshot. The German tanks must have cardboard armor, though, as in one scene, a tank is knocked out by two hand grenades tossed at it. While the "star" is a KV-1 tank (a rare bird in war movies), most other tanks are T-34/85, which weren't used until a year and a half later. All German tanks are supposed to be PzKpfw IV ausf. F2, but that tank was quite rare by that time. It's more likely that the real battle involved short-barreled PzKpfw IV's and IIIs with the 5 cm gun. The German tanks all sport side armor skirts (Schürzen), which were introduced in early 1943. They are probably there to hide the fact that the tanks are converted T-55s. The Soviets are a motley crew of comrades, and only the political commissar is a bit slimy. The acting is OK, but a few actors stand out as pretty wooden. There's never really any real suspense, as the tank crew (while suffering losses) manage to defeat almost every German tank, even when the enemy assault with an entire company. The script has a love story of sorts, which appears to be there just to make girlfriends endure this rather mediocre 90-minute movie.