Brad Pitt sweetens brutally basic World War 2 movie Fury
REVIEW: All that can be said of Fury is that it is what is — a brutally basic war picture with Brad Pitt aboard to sweeten the deal.
Leigh Paatsch
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Fury (MA15+)
Director:David Ayer (End of Watch)
Starring:Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal.
Rating: ***1/2
Tanks for everything
In modern parlance, all that can be said of Fury is that it is what is: a brutally basic war picture.
No flashy gimmicks, no distractions, no unnecessary contrivances. If you like your military combat cut through with outlandish humour or historically verified heroics, you’ve come to the wrong movie.
This ain’t The Expendables, Inglorious Basterds, or Saving Private Ryan. This is just five men cooped up inside the one artillery tank, simply trying to survive what little is left of World War 2.
The year is 1945. Allied forces have already made serious inroads into Germany, but Hitler’s regime is yet to read the ominous writing on the wall.
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The five occupants of a US Army tank nicknamed Fury are at the very front line of the Allied invasion. They slowly move from farm to village to town, subduing all resistance by any means necessary.
Four of the quintet have been together inside the cramped confines of Fury since first going head-to-head with the Huns on the barren battlefields of northern Africa.
God-fearing Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf) is the main gunner. His loader is Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal), an animal of a man that has no time for religion. Or, for that matter, the conventional rules of war.
The driver is Trini Garcia (Michael Pena), a Mexican by birth whose allegiances switch between Swan and Travis as it suits him.
A recent recruit to the line-up is Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman). He was drafted into the army as a speed typist. A blatant admin error now has him sitting as second gunner inside Fury. This fresh-faced kid is under pressure to learn his new trade fast, or die even faster.
How the Cast of Fury Trained for the Most Realistic WWII Film Yet http://t.co/z5wh4yIGOA
— David Ayer (@DavidAyerMovies) October 17, 2014The boss of the outfit is Don Collier (Brad Pitt). He also goes by the nickname of Wardaddy, on account of his uncanny instincts in the heat of battle.
Collier is the only reason his unit has beaten the odds, and come so far in one piece. What he says goes. Collier is the first to lead by example, and is the last to lay down his arms.
Though so much of the movie takes place within the tank, it is what could happen outside the tank at any moment that defines Fury as a vicious, visceral screen experience.
No German citizen is to be trusted. Your last breath can await in the most mundane of circumstances, with the most ordinary-looking people involved. The Americans have a licence to kill, and are compelled to use it.
The one fact of life in this hellhole of a nation is that someone else’s death will lessen the likelihood of your own.
These narrow storytelling parameters give Fury a near-biblical simplicity that goes quaintly, yet bravely against the grain of a majority of the war movies of today.
Pitt gives off both the charisma and the commitment needed to make the movie matter when it should, and his fellow cast members wisely follow his lead.
Like the recent Lone Survivor — with which it shares a heightened grasp of the slippery logistics of ground warfare — Fury is a tough viewing experience. And also, a telling one.
Originally published as Brad Pitt sweetens brutally basic World War 2 movie Fury
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