This week I saw the new Brad Pitt World War II actioner 'FURY', with a couple of movie buddies at my local multiplex. Written and Directed by David Ayer we are taken back to the closing weeks of WWII with the rapidly advancing Allied Forces making their way to Berlin as Hitler puts just about every man, woman and child on the front line to defend the last vestiges of 'The Fatherland'. It is no easy trek across the German countryside though for the Allies as they are confronted with still heavily armed and at times superior fire powered German troops standing in their way at every turn, on every hilltop, in every village and town, and behind every stand of trees. What David Ayer has delivered is a cold, bleak, grim, violent, and raw account of the bloody battles between German troops and a small American tank command that has travelled more than three years and many thousands of miles to get to this point in our story.
'Fury' is the Sherman Tank commanded by Brad Pitt's Sergeant Don 'Wardaddy' Collier with a crew of four others. As the film opens we see on a muddy bare horizon a lone horseman partially cloaked in mist advancing to a battle scene - the image is surreal - corpses are littered everywhere, still burning armoured cars, destroyed tanks, overturned artillery as the glorious looking white steed and its German Officer rider gradually make their way through the mud and carnage of the battlefield. When you least expect it a soldier hurls himself off the back of a tank at the advancing lone horseman, brings him to the ground and inflicts several deadly knife blows to the chest, and then through the eye socket. And so we are introduced to 'Wardaddy', to his Sherman Tank, 'Fury', and his four other crew. One of them however is dead, having had his face blown off in the heat of battle. The dead crew member is still inside the tank, and with Wardaddy, the three survivors must make their way out of the battlefield to the next camp.
Arriving at camp, we learn that 'Fury' is all that remains of that last campaign having seen many casualties at the hands of the well fortified and armoured German troops. Outwardly Wardaddy is battle hardened, cold, calculating, scarred, war weary and a tightly coiled spring who will inflict violence on any German soldier, civilian, or officer to protect himself, his crew, his tank and to support the American and Allied Forces war effort. Inwardly however, he is fighting his own demons having seen more human atrocities, lost more friends and comrades, and been on the road for more than three years. At camp he is introduced to replacement Assistant Gunner Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) who was drafted only seven months ago, has never seen battle let alone a dead body and has been punching on a type writer for the last three months at sixty words per minute. Ellison is clueless, believes a terrible mistake has been made and pleads to be discharged from this duty. Unfortunately for Ellison these are desperate times, and his initiation is to clean out the tank of the remains of his predecessor - which includes scraping up his face from the floor of the tank and mopping up all the blood . . . Welcome to Fury!
What soon follows after an intense tank battle sequence across an open field is Ellison's Baptism by blood as he is forced to shoot a captive German soldier in the back. As the story progresses Ellison has no choice but to engage in the heat of battle and gun down advancing German troops to protect himself, his crew, his tank and his fellow infantrymen. Under the watchful eye of Wardaddy, Ellison develops a taste for killing Nazi's and in doing so gains acceptance from the remaining crew. We learn nothing of the crew of 'Fury' or their back stories other than the present moment through open dialogue between them during brief moments of quiet. We learn that there is Boyd 'Bible' Swan (Shia LaBeouf) a God fearing, bible preaching good Samaritan who takes his daily prayers inside the tank and is the religious anchor of the crew - he however, thinks nothing of gunning down the enemy because it is Gods work and he is chosen to carry it out. Then there is Trini 'Gordo' Garcia (Michael Pena) the Mexican tank driver who is battle weary too, burnt out and on the edge. The tanks mechanic and loader is Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis (Jon Bernthal) who has a very short fuse, is bad tempered, almost permanently angry, swears a lot and is an Italian thug - he is one can short of a six pack - but, in a fire fight he would be the guy you want to be standing next to!
We also learn that the crew, aside from Ellison, have been together for more than three years - longer than any other, and which they all acknowledge is thanks to Wardaddy's skill, wits and fortitude in battle and inside 'Fury'. As Wardaddy says - he started killing Germans in North Africa and now he is killing Germans in Germany. En route they have been through Spain, France, and Belgium to bring them to this point. Further battles ensue as the tank advances with an ever depleted battalion of soldiers in tow. There are scenes of close quarter combat in a small village where much carnage is inflicted on both sides. When they move out four tanks including 'Fury' go head to head in an open field with a far superior Tiger Tank, and in the closing sequence 'Fury' must go it alone with its five occupants against a battalion of three hundred or so SS Troops - needless to say it doesn't end well for anyone!
Brad Pitt plays it well as grizzled war hardened 'Wardaddy'. Shia LaBeouf is convincing too as the bible bashing righteous soldier of God 'Bible'. 'Gordo' has a lesser role, but nonetheless is convincing as a knock-about weary Mexican, but Bernthal as 'Coon-Ass' overplays his role too much and there is nothing likable or redeeming about his hooligan character. Logan Lerman wins his 'war name' toward the end as a sign of acceptance from the crew and 'Machine' comes of age inside the tank when all hell breaks loose outside.
David Ayer as Writer and Director has delivered a story in which really little happens except for tanks and infantrymen doing battle, and we probably could have seen more of this and less of the drawn out sequences seemingly filling screen time in between. There is plenty of expected war time violence, dismemberment of limbs and heads in the heat of cross-fire and the ferociousness and tenacity of battle between heavily armed foes. There is no real sense either of the sheer claustrophobia of five men being confined for prolonged periods inside an armoured tin can, and without any sense of their back stories it is hard to relate to the crew as individuals or a close knit team.
'Saving Private Ryan' rewrote the rule book by which all others are so far judged, and this film doesn't match that one on many levels. 'Enemy at the Gates' did a good job subsequently, but 'Fury' is not genre defining by any means. All that said, it is worth a look, and filmed in the English countryside with a US$68M budget it is entertaining enough, when the action comes it is well handled but it won't leave you pondering after the credits have rolled like the two aforementioned films did, or others for that matter depicting the conflict in Vietnam.
-Steve, at Odeon Online-
