again, ingmar bergman may have meant the tank rumbling down the empty night street in the silence as a phallic symbol. but if he did, it was a foolish thought. (‘never trust the teller, trust the tale,’ said lawrence.) taken as a brute object, as an immediate sensory equivalent for the mysterious abrupt armored happenings going on inside the hotel, that sequence with the tank is the most striking in the film. those who reach for a freudian interpretation of the tank are only expressing their lack of response to what is there on the screen.
it is always the case that interpretation of this type indicates a dissatisfaction (conscious or unconscious) with the work, a wish to replace it by something else.