Review: Fury

very good

Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (left) with Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (right) Source: ‘Liam Rooke’

A MOVIE that shows the gritty reality of War.

Fury pulls no punches when it comes to the brutality of the battlefield in this ‘bloody good’ story about a crew guiding their tank ‘Fury’ into Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Brad Pitt plays ‘Wardaddy’ who commands a five man crew featuring actors Michael Pena (Shooter) and John Bernthal (The Walking Dead) who’s mission is simple, to take as many German towns as possible. We are first shown Brad Pitt taking a German Commander down from his horse with a knife to the face in a battlefield were little else is left standing. When Pitt arrives back at his tank we are met with the rest of the crew hiding out with a previous crew member’s corpse lying in the tank being killed from crossfire. When back at base they are in need of a new gunner and who better to replace the previously experienced member of their crew that lay splattered against the inside of a tank than a young typist that also happens to be a pacifist who refuses to fight, Norman Ellison (played by Logan Lerman). Wardaddy sums up the situation as “I had the best gunner in the entire United Army in that seat. Now I have you.” We see the conflict he experiences in a strong reluctance to kill the German soldiers, yet also save his fellow tank comrades as the movie progresses. Wardaddy is left with the problem of trying to persuade the reluctant soldier to fight and watching the initiation of forcing Norman to kill a German soldier is uncomfortable viewing.

Fury (tank) Source: ‘Liam Rooke’

Don’t be fooled by the name, ‘Fury’ was no super-tank and was far less superior to the German tanks they had in the war. The front of the German tanks would have seen little damage from the Tiger class tank Pitt commanded in the movie and this was referenced in the film, the only reason they were ever destroyed in World War II was because of the sheer number of allied tanks and air support. Adding to the realism the film showcased the only fully functioning Tiger tank in the world for the movie and the costumes were replicated from museum’s who held the army uniforms. To add to the realism I can only assume, it was reported that Shai LaBeouf refused to wash, had a dentist take out one of his teeth and kept reopening a cut on his face to get in the mind-set of his character. He even unnecessarily drove the tank himself even in shots which could not view him.

I was a little let down towards the end when we see the blockbuster heroics that undermine the realism of the movie with Director David Ayer choosing to show a completely unrealistic last battle that can be described as ludicrous against a small army of German SS soldiers. I couldn’t help but feel the director’s previous action movies filtered in to this scene, however I found the battles entertaining and the film was much more than the simple “my tanks bigger than your tank” movie I was expecting.

The movie was entertaining throughout and Saving Private Ryan fans will enjoy this with David Ayer making a much needed comeback from his previous film Sabotage.