The 2012 Russian movie, "White Tiger", in my opinion is one of the best and most enigmatic war movies of all time. In some respects it resembles "Apocalypse Now" as a mystical, surreal film that operates on many levels. The story is set in World War Two on the Eastern Front, it covers Russia's drive on Berlin in 1945. Briefly, a salvage crew clearing the wreckage after a battle finds a badly burnt tank driver still at the controls of his destroyed T-34 tank. The driver's injuries are so bad that he is left among the dead to die, but he does not. Against all expectations he survives and his burns completely heal, but he has no memory of his past life. Once recovered he asks to return to the front as a tank driver. His crewmates find him strange and uncommunicative, but he is lucky and has a 'feel' for combat. He later admits to his commanding officer that he can talk to the tanks, he knows their stories, and this allows him to fight them. His commanding officer thinks he has lost his mind, but his success in battle results in him being given the job of hunting down the "White Tiger", a white-painted German Tiger I tank that appears in the midst of battles and seems impervious to Russian fire. The Tanker and his crew play cat and mouse with Tiger in a series of ambush battles. In their final battle, both the Russia and German tanks are damaged and disabled. The Tiger limps from the battlefield and disappears.
In an elaborate set piece, the German surrender in Berlin is reenacted, witnessed by the Tanker's commanding officer. While Russian soldiers celebrate in the streets, the officer tracks down the Tanker, who is servicing his tank. The officer tells him that the war is over, but the Tanker merely looks away to the woods in the distance and says "No. He is still out there. He will lick his wounds and when the time is right, he will be back." When that time comes, the Tanker will be waiting for him. He climbs into his tank. The officer turns his back for a moment and when turns around, the tank is gone, a trail of diesel exhaust on the horizon.
This seems like the end, but it reverts to its most extraordinary scene. At the end of the war, in a sumptious room, Adolf Hitler sits beside a fireplace talking to a person who's face is always in shadow. Hitler admits the war is lost and he and the German people will be blamed for everything that has happened. Books will be written, ridiculous documents will be discovered, memoirs will be dreamt up. He will be blamed. But Germany was only doing what all of Europe wanted them to do. That is the nature of war. It's an extraordinary speech that the Russian author, Ilya Boyashov, has placed in the mouth of histories arch villian.
Many western critics were baffled by the film and its strange mysticism. It really isn't that difficult to understand. Prophetic maybe. The Tiger is back. The Tanker is back. The faceless man listening to Hitler's confession is back. He never went away.
Ladies and Gentlemen, for your viewing pleasure may I present "White Tiger"
"God rides in a Golden Tank"
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