As promised here are my musings on the Brad Pitt World War II film, Fury.
The tank battles! My goodness, the tank battles. Perfectly choreographed, almost like a beautiful dance scene or a sword fight. But instead of long legs or spindly rapiers the medium is a M4 Sherman Tank. And there’s very little or no CG here, these are real tanks driving through real spring time mud (though filmed in England instead of Germany where the film takes place in April of 1945 just before the end of the conflict). You really have to sit back and marvel at what a truly amazing machine these tanks were and the courageous men that drove them. Luckily this film gives you 134 minutes to do that. Well, more like 100, because there’s a rather poignant and elongated scene in the middle of the movie where the group stops off in a freshly conquered town. This stretch really gives the actors their only non-combat scenes to work with and they do some great work, especially Logan Lerman, who I thought was the weak point of the film save for this middle sequence.
All right then, lets talk a bit about the actors. Obviously most of the praise will be focused on Brad Pitt. He’s one of the few true movie stars of this age and he does not disappoint. His character is a slightly muted version of Aldo Raine from Inglorious Basterds. I am also very jealous of Brad Pitt’s haircut in this film, I want it. While there are a few other actors in the film outside the tank crew, like Jason Isaacs who does well as an Army Captain organizing a push further into Germany and two actresses in the aforementioned middle non-combat scene in the film (thought talking about their performances would spoil that chunk of the movie), we really spend all our time with the five men in the tank named Fury. I’ve already mentioned Logan Lerman who is a newcomer to the crew, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, and Jon Bernthal. They all turn in great work here, well except for Lerman. I think he did his very best and it’s not to say he’s a bad actor but he’s got some growing to do. He’s done well in other things before like 3:10 to Yuma, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Noah, and not so well in the atrocious Percy Jackson series. I still think he’s an actor to watch as Hollywood seems very intent on making him a bankable star, and as he’s given better roles I think he will develop into a better performer. But my standout performer here was The Beef. LaBeouf is unfairly criticized. I don’t care about his personal life and antics. When he’s in front of the camera he acts his ass off. Hell, he’s one of the only enjoyable things about the Transformers series, just because he tries so hard and seems to just really give a shit. He was excellent here is a the devout character nicknamed Bible. The characters always referred to how Brad Pitt’s character, Wardaddy, kept the crew together, but it seemed like LaBeouf’s Bible was the real glue.
I’ve been critical of the film’s director, David Ayer, in the past. Ayer is best known for writing the terrific Training Day, but his follow up writing efforts were poor in Dark Blue and S.W.A.T., but then in 2005 he seemed to return to form with his first directorial effort in Harsh Times, but then made End of Watch in 2012 which I know many liked but which was one of my least favorite films from that year. He even made the stinker Sabotage this year which was a failed Schwarzenegger vehicle. But then he goes and does something like Fury and further complicates my opinion of him. The effort he gave here was astounding. The battle scenes were some of the most exciting since Saving Private Ryan with the tracer rounds flying through the sky and the rounds from the 75mm gun skipping off the ground into swaths of enemies and rounds of white phosphorous lighting up the extremely intense final nighttime battle. Ayer will be in the director’s chair for Suicide Squad, DC Comic’s upcoming film that focuses on the villains to pair up with their Justice League offering.
Fury is well worth checking out if you enjoy war films and even if those aren’t your cup of tea the performances here and visuals have something to offer for almost any moviegoer. Try and see this one ASAP.
midwestmovieman 