Movie Review: Fury

Fury
Columbia Pictures, QED International, LStar Capital, Le Grisbi Productions, Crave Films, Huayi Brothers Media, USA, UK, China, 2014. 

It is April 1945. Don 'Wardaddy' Collier (Brad Pitt) and his crew 'Bible' Swan (Shia LaBeouf), 'Gordo' Garcia (Michael Peña) and 'Coon-Ass' Travis (Jon Bernthal) are the sole survivors of a battle. After fixing their damaged Sherman tank Fury somewhere in Germany they manage to return to the base only to be assigned to another mission. Rookie Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) replaces the tank's dead assistant driver and machine gunner. The harsh reality of war is made clear to him when he has to scrape the remnants of the previous gunner off the tank's interior.

'Wardaddy' Collier

Norman Ellison

Shia LaBeouf  as Boyd 'Bible' Swan

War is ugly and brutal and so is Fury's crew. The older crew members are cynical and mean and it is a hard time for idealistic and religious Norman. Although the German Army is almost beaten the ranks are filled with kids, women and old men. War crimes occur on both sides. Inexperienced Norman gets a brutal lesson in killing Germans. To survive the war terrible things are done and it leaves marks on the men. Surprisingly the crew grows together and what Norman begins to lose in humanity the rest of the crew members gain.

The movie divides into two parts: the first part depicts the dehumanizing effect war has on the soldiers and the second part presents the heroic last stand battle. And there is nothing wrong with that, the same recipe has been used more or less since "Saving Private Ryan", "Band of Brothers" and "The Pacific." The characters are more complex than it first seem, showing both their cruel and soft sides. The 'father' of the crew, Wardaddy is like Pitt's character from "Inglourious Basterds" only being slightly tamer. The battle scenes are gory, visceral and realistic. Although the story is fiction it is easy to believe as a composite of real war stories told by veterans. Some of the last surviving WW2 tanks were used in some scenes. The tank duel Fury vs Tiger alone makes it a tank film classic.

Rating: Very good

Starring: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jim Parrack, Brad William Henke, Kevin Vance, Xavier Samuel, Jason Isaacs, Anamaria Marinca, Alicia von Rittberg, Scott Eastwood, Laurence Spellman, Daniel Betts, Adam Ganne, Eric Kofi-Abrefa, Osi Okerafor, John Macmillan, Saul Barrett, Marek Oravec, Kyle Soller, Jake Curran, Jack Bannon, Branko Tomovic, Orion Lee, Vivien Bridson, Christian Contreras, Stella Stocker, Jacob Vonhendial, Lukas Rolfe, Leon Rolfe, Harry Hancock, Daniel Dorr, Bernhard Forcher, Edin Gali, Jaime FitzSimons, Chris Wright, Charlie Rotheram, Nick Beattie, Jimmy Carroll, Chip Dale, Dickon Leigh-Wood, Hugh Vere Nicoll, Xander Rawlins

Director: David Ayer