“Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.” It is easy to be at home watching the news and say what you would do if you were faced with someone trying to end your life. War is something the world would be better without, because war makes every human, inhuman. Movies about war have been around from the beginning, and the early films always focused on the greatness of one man or a unit that did things above and beyond the call of duty. Lately though the films have shifted, no longer it is about the how war makes men great, it is how war can make men do things they would never want to do, now movies seem to be all about the horror of war.
During World War II the Germans had a superior tank than the Americans, which didn’t bow well for American tank crews. Not many films have shared what life was like for a tank crew during World War II, but every story comes around at some point, and now is as good a time as any for such a story. Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) has been fighting Germans from Africa to Germany, and with the end in sight, his only thought is the promise he made to his crew to get them home alive. After losing his gunner, Wardaddy is given a replacement named Norman (Logan Lerman), whose specialty is typing sixty words a minute. He joins a crew that has been together for four years, that crew is Boyd, (Shia LaBeouf) Trini, (Michael Pena) , and Grady (Jon Bernthal). This crew has survived extreme horrors, and as they survive their humanity slowly dies as they do what needs to be done to survive. Wardaddy and his crew must make their final push with a rookie gunner where they are outnumbered and outgunned in their attempt to strike at Nazi Germany.
We have seen what it is like to be a solider landing on the beaches of Normandy. We have also experienced life in a sub, but seldom have we had the opportunity to see the life of an American tank crew. With “Fury” you get to see and feel it all, and see the trust these men have for one another. Going for authenticity the filmmakers even used real tanks to give the story the realism it needs. Written and directed by David Ayer, who brings what he does best, only this time outside Los Angeles, and decades in the past. “Fury” has some powerful battle scenes, but where it shines is in it quiet moments. We see the contemplation of what war does to men as they struggle with what war has made them. Brad Pitt turns in a powerful performance, as the young guys do their best to try to match him. There have been a lot of Great War films over the years, and while “Fury” will not go up there with the greats, it is still a good movie. With the writing being the weak point, the realism and the feel lift the movie up, and make for an entertaining film.
Brian Taylor