This film is about a tank crew in WW2 that is going into the final days of the war and still facing Hell.
The characters are very credible, and this passes the ultimate test of "credible characters in incredible circumstances".
The five members each have a different level of humanity, from the novice to war who still has total humanity down to the one tank crew member who is a total brute. Yet even he has some humanity left in him, but he hardly shows it.
The other three are the tank commander (Brad Pitt), who handles brutality of war with objectivity, his second, who handles brutality by trying to be right with God, and the other one uses comedy to handle it.
I've been in the military, and it is quite common for "clerks" to be tossed into war like cannon fodder, because that is what "clerks" are viewed as being by everyone else, from officers down to the one stripers.
In fact, the clerks are considered to be the most disposable members of the forces.
We know that today. People didn't always know it in WW2.
The final self sacrifice at the end seems a bit much, but when you take into consideration that it's a spare of the moment decision, and mistakes are made with quick decisions, it's plausible. Not probable, but plausible.
Also, the final battle scene with five men doing so well against an incredibly larger force; well, that is sold to us by the amount of smoke around the tank, and the fact that if you are on the other side, surrounding the tank, you wonder if you are shooting at your own teammates across from you.
I think it would have been a better movie if the five soldiers all just abandoned the tank and tried to walk back to safety, but that's just me.
Other than that, it was an exceptional film that passes all the tests.