Fury
D: David Ayer
W: David Ayer
S: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Scott Eastwood
The director of End of Watch releases his second 2014 film (the other being Sabotage, which I haven't seen). In Fury the audience follows a tank squad during the final days of World War II as they get a new recuite (Logan Lerman) and have to deal with lingering Nazi SS forces and at one point have to make a final stand.
If you've seen my Top 15 World War II Films article you can gather I'm a big WWII movie fan, especially ones that are a little bit more on the gritty side. In this movie we get a story about an aspect of the war that is very rarely, if ever, covered, the tanks. Usually when tanks are involved in World War II movies they're usually the mechanized cavalry that comes in to rescue the soldiers at the last minute. But in this film the audience gets a detailed, intense, and brutal look at what these guys have gone through, and what war can do to a person.
The main story involves the leader of the tank squad, Wardaddy (Brad Pitt), as he helps break in their newest member, Norman (Lerman), while at the same time he tries to keep a sense of humanity in him. It's strongly hinted at that before Norman came along that this tank crew, consisting of Wardaddy the C.O., Gordo the driver (Michael Pena), Coon-Ass the loader (Jon Bernthal), and Bible the gunner (Shia LaBeouf), had been with each other since the beginning of the war. So a big chunk of the first half is making sure Norman, who was not trained as a tanker but as a typist, gets how much of a responsibility he has as the co-driver.
This is emphasized in the film by just how many of the tanks get destroyed. The tanks the Americans had, Shermans, where easy to take out by the German's more advance tank, the Tigers. So it is miraculous that Wardaddy's crew has managed to last as long as they did. One way we can tell Norman's non-soldier like mentality early on is when he and Wardaddy first meet. Wardaddy asks, "What's your name?" To which Norman replies with just his regular name. He can tell Norman hasn't seen any action or done anything involving tank work because he hasn't been given a tank name.
While members of the squad do fall into typical war movie archetypes they are flesh out enough to where it isn't a problem. They do at times come off as despicable but given how much it is hinted at what they've been through together it is almost understandable.
As I stated early Wardaddy seems to at some points try to retain any parts of humanity in him and in Norman especially. There's an extensive scene where the Wardaddy and Norman go into a German home and basically try to recreate a home environment. We see Wardaddy has hidden eggs that he wants the two female German residences to fix, and he even gets a shave and washes up. But by the end he does realize that there isn't much of chance of him adapted to the world properly after the war. This is hinted at by him later referring to the tanks as home.
As for Norman, he does have a tough time adapting to the war mentality and he does eventually give in and even get his own tank name, Machine, "He's a drinkin', f**kin', killin' maching!" And even though he gets more comfortable with his role in the tank he still isn't at the same level as the others and Wardaddy sees that.
As I stated earlier this is a film by David Ayer who as did the spectacular 2012 film End of Watch. The real highlight of the film was the chemistry between the two main characters, portrayed by Pena and Jake Gyllenhaal. In this film we get the privilege of seeing similar sparkling chemistry between the tank members. Each one gives a great performance with the two highlights being Shia LaBeouf, yes really, and from Jon Bernthal, who you Walking Dead fans would know better as Shane.
Finally I'd like to talk about the action scenes, we get intense, fast paced, and wonderfully executed fight scenes. The best one was a tank duel between three Sherman and a Tiger tank. We see how intense it is, we see them try to outrun their gun swinging around to kill them, we see the Tiger take out two of the tanks (three actually but one was destroyed early on) and we see why tank battles are so intense. I also have to give props to the sound people with how they handled it the sound design.
I highly recommend this film. If you have a weak stomach for violence then I understand why you wouldn't want to see it but this has enough character and wit behind it that it should appeal to anyone. This is without a doubt going to be on my best of 2014 list.
(All photos belong to their respective sources)
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