Belyy tigr (2012) Reviews

• very strange but worthwhile war film!

  SpannersGerm6692014-07-25

  Now to start off with, if you are planning on watching this film expecting another typical war movie, then you might be disappointed! This surreal Russian film is more about courage and mental torture of war, with battle scenes taking a back seat. For that reason I really liked it. The story kept me captivated and the characters were interesting enough to invest my time in. When the tank battles do take place, I thought they were superbly done, with the mysterious "White Tiger" having a scary and almost indestructible sense about it. Now one can dismiss this powerful German tank as just that, or you can look deeper and see what it stands for. The director has created a very multi-layered film that will make the deep thinker feel as though he or she has had a good work out. Not for everyone, but in a world of movies that lack creativity and originality, White Tiger comes highly recommended!

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• Great movie with an important message

  ttass1012015-03-16

  As previous commentators have stated, this is an 'unusual' war movie. Despite having a quite good and accurate depiction of fighting on the Eastern Front, including depictions of lend-lease armour at the start of the film, it's the allegorical message that's the main point of the film. In short, the battle between the White Tiger and the resurrected Russian tanker is an allegory of Russia's centuries old battle with invaders from the West (be they Teutonic knights, Napoleon or Hitler in this case). The message of the director is that WWII was just another episode in this long struggle and that the White Tiger (western militarism) hasn't been destroyed in 1945, but is waiting dormant for the next episode....and the immortal Russian tanker will once again be there to confront the 'Tiger' again. The film was made in 2012. Considering current events it's proved to be quite prophetic

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• War movie, Tarkovsky-style

  ramayana2013-03-30

  Starts out as a perfectly good war flick and turns more and more surreal during the last thirty minutes. Or maybe I should say, it becomes a meditation over the meaning, the spirit, the essence of war. As a whole, White Tiger is like an episode of Twilight Zone filmed in the gritty philosophical manner of Tarkovsky - some faces and scenes almost appear like a nod to the protagonists of Stalker. It probably won't please those who watch this for the war part, and because marketed as a war movie, it probably fails to reach out those looking for the surreal and mystical. However, even if this film is an odd bag, it has the potential to leave a lasting impression on the viewer because the point it makes in the end (in the fireplace monologue scene) is utterly taboo-breaking with thoughts no Western-made WW2 films dared to express. 8/10 for a few sluggish scenes towards the end.

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• This is NOT a war movie, but a symbolic parabola

  tomcat-350-275212013-05-19

  If you expect a good war movie, with some video game-like scenes, it's not for you. Albeit the movie is very accurate in depicting contemporary armies, weapons and such - what else would you expect from a Russian movie? - it has nothing to do with history. Rather it looks like a mystic thriller until you get to the end. The entire story of the White Tiger is not the central point of the movie, despite it looks like so. Whatever is the White Tiger, whoever drives it, or whatever happened to our hero before he was found is not the point of this movie. They are both symbols, and they are both misguides. While the viewer is lost in trying to cope with their meanings, puzzled whether Naydenov is a phoenix, rebirth from fire, or the White Tiger is supposed to be some godly chariot... while it is not. This, dear viewers, is a quite delicate piece of film. There is a reason for changing the pace from an action movie to a Tarkovsky-like scene with the peace treaty and the dinner, and then the almost boring shot with the march of the POWs. And it is all revealed in the very last scene, with the person sitting at the fireplace and resembling Hitler, or is he Hitler himself? This scene itself is the answer to the mystery of the White Tiger. Here we zoom out from the entire story. The Second World War is just a plot device. We are being delivered a teaching. And it is: Whatever happens in history is viewed through many people's glasses. All will distort it, and this results in obviously false stories of a ghost tank being able to obliterate entire divisions, or an undead tankman who is trying to fight it. And when such stories can be created, there is always space for more. Such story is the eternal guilt of the German people for what happened. Yes, dear viewers, this film is a very brave criticism on people who falsified our history: the White Tiger is nothing else but forgery itself. It symbolizes the stories born in the storms of history which last for decades, centuries even. This is what Naydenov's final words mean. Indeed, it is a Russian war movie which super-gently assumes that Germans are not to be held guilty of the war, because most of history is actually made up. And I'll let you figure why the Jews are mentioned in the very last scene. Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!

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• Moby Dick with an 88mm Gun

  Lomax3432015-07-29

  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.

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