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Tank (1984)

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13 comments in total

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7 out of 7 people found the following comment useful :-
His Own Private Tank, 18 September 2006

Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

Tank is one of my favorite James Garner films because our hero is playing his exact age and showing how a middle aged man can do some extraordinary things in defense of his family.

Of course Garner is no ordinary guy. He's a sergeant major on a U.S. Army fort in rural north Georgia and in line according to his commanding officer to be the command sergeant major of the U.S. Army. That's the highest ranking enlisted man in that service and he serves under the chief of staff. But Garner is looking forward to retirement in a couple of years with his wife, Shirley Jones and his surviving son, C. Thomas Howell.

He's got a nice little hobby as well. He's restored a fully operational World War II vintage Sherman tank. And he owns it, not the U.S. Army.

Garner runs afoul of the local law when he comes to the defense of a local prostitute beaten up by a sheriff's deputy, James Cromwell. The sheriff, a mean cracker by all description takes it out on Howell by framing him on a drug charge. Since sheriff G.D. Spradlin runs a nasty county machine, Garner uses the tank in some extra legal activity.

What I like about Tank is that you can't get more a more whitebread all American family than Garner, Jones, and Howell. Garner's whole life is spent in defense of the American way of life. But when it becomes corrupt in his part of the world, he doesn't hesitate for a second when no other course is open to him.

I have to confess I truly enjoyed seeing Garner run his tank right through the local jail and later through the county prison farm to spring his son. When Garner, Howell, and the prostitute he originally aided, Jenilee Harrison flee in that tank for the Tennessee border, the most jaded of viewers will find themselves rooting them on.

Spradlin and Cromwell are a couple of real easy villains to hate. They're a pair of throwbacks to the pre-civil rights era of the South. Both of them give fine performances.

But the real star of the film is that restored Sherman tank. What an item to have to deal with rush hour in New York City.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
I enjoyed it, 16 March 2004

Author: marzolian from Houston, USA

I didn't see this when it came out, so when it appeared on cable late one night I didn't expect very much. But it exceeded my expectations. It's the story of an honorable man who is pushed too far.

Yes, there are some stretches of the imagination to be made. For example, with all the gunfire, I don't remember anybody getting killed or seriously wounded. The good guys are too good and the bad guys are too bad.

But I enjoyed a few scenes a great deal. For one, the portrayal of the small town, that seems idyllic at first but is rotten to the core. I especially appreciated the scenes between Sgt. Carey and his son, the way that the military was shown pulling together as a family, and the others who help the group trying to get to the state line. These were all people that I wanted to cheer for.

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9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
Inspirational film; changed my life., 5 February 2003
Author: Bills Johnson from Banglapoor, India

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.

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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Worth a look., 26 March 2002

Author: pappythesailor from USA

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.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A reasonably enjoyable film, 23 November 2006

Author: dl43 from United States

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.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
A fun Movie, 27 March 2005

Author: bgarry999 from United States

This is an old fashion good vs. evil movie that is fun. Movies don't always have to have some heavy deep plot. Sometimes it's great to watch a movie that is fun that you can cheer, and this is one of them. It's now over 20 years old, but it still holds up as a fun movies to watch and enjoy.

A big surprise will be to many is to see James Cormwell playing a simple deputy sheriff, and what Command Sergeant Major Carey does to him.

James Gardner, as always, carries the film very well. He is a very believable CSM, and Shirley Jones has a military wife down pat. A young C. Thomas Howell does a good job too as a military son. G.D. Spradlin plays the very mean Sheriff that is very easy to hate. And Jenilee Harrison did this movie at the same time she began a two year run on Dallas, and she looks great in this movie. The whole cast together works great for this movie, and it's great for the whole family.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Good old fashion fun, 4 June 2005

Author: redmus from United States

I love James Garner in films and this movie is no exception. The story lines are tried and true, good northerner vs. evil southern sheriff and families always come through together. The life and times of a military family hits home more today than before. And yea, who would not dream about being Garner and having a Sherman tank and blowing stuff up! My favorite line is when toward the end of the movie a lumber truck driver says, "Hey what are a doing!" and a biker says "Stealin." Harris is great in a t-shirt. You have to admire the way Zach (Garner) handles the adversity. Coming to the end of his career, drifting away from his family until this good nature puts him at odds with the sheriff and he drops all his plans and dreams to save his family. I recommend it. Sit back and have fun.

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good start, but falls apart, 13 April 2005

Author: stevea8-1 from United States

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

It's as though they switched genres in the middle of the movie from drama to comedy. There's a good beginning building Zack as a tough as nails Master Sargent who is a stand up guy. Standing up for what's right in a corrupt town, including the Mayor and Police, gets him into trouble with the locals. When the mayor finds he can't touch Zack, he goes after his son, sending him to a brutal work camp on trumped up drug charges. Zack goes off in his tank to free his son and somewhere after the breakout the movie falls apart. Prior to this point, it seems there was no attempt to get a laugh, now, every cliché in the book is worked in at the cost of any pretense of seriousness

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Mindless fun, 17 December 2003

Author: knsevy from KCMO

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

***SPOILERS - LIKE I'M REALLY GONNA RUIN IT FOR YA!***

When I first started seeing posters for this film in the movie theatres, I thought all my dreams had come true. A movie about a tank! ALL about a tank! It'll crush cars and blow things up!

I went into the theatre on opening night expecting just that, and that's just what I got. At nine years of age, plot and acting didn't mean a whole lot to me - not when a Sherman tank was running over cop cars, anyway.

Now, I can see this film for what it is: a paper-thin plot, mostly-wooden acting (Except for G.D. Spradlin chewing the scenery), and plot holes you could, well, drive a tank through. But what the hell? It's a fun little movie, with plenty of tankish action to keep armor enthusiasts like me interested, even if the rest of the story IS so stupid it makes me want to retch.

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1 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
A truly cartoonish film!, 4 March 1999
Author: Walter Frith from Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA

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.

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