Fury (2014)

"Ideals are peaceful. History is violent."

World War 2 is staggering to an end. Norman, a rookie soldier who hasn't seen combat, is forced to join a five man tank crew, lead by battle hardened army sergeant Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, on a mission behind enemy lines.

David Ayer delivers a harsh and often brutal look at the horrors of World War 2 in this straight to the point ride into battle inside a small Sherman Tank. Not since Spielberg’s 'Saving Private Ryan’ have I seen a more truthful, realistic and horrific depiction of war than in ‘Fury’. 

What should be said about this film is that it isn’t pretty. War is ugly. It’s dirty, bloody, unapologetic and saddening. 'Fury' does a solid job in really driving that message home.

I found the film slightly reminiscent of ‘Saving Private Ryan’ with it’s bleak, realistic outlook on war but with a strong heart. You feel the bond of the soldiers and come to care for them. Much like ‘Saving Private Ryan’ you really get a sense that the film is historically accurate. Terms, events and facts are dropped subtly that just make the story come alive and draw you into the world in a way that most period pieces fail. We are exposed to sides of the war that you don’t normally see, for instance, the absolute coldness in the way that dead bodies were treated. There is a scene in particular where several soldiers are literally cut in half by an onslaught of machine gun bullets and, after the smoke clears, they are just left by the side of the road. One minute they are here, the next they're not. The cold reality of war sinks in pretty quickly.

Violence plays a large part in any film about war but what ‘Fury’ does effectively is not glorifying it in any way. Ayer makes us feel every bullet that ricochets off the tank and every bullet that tears through flesh. The sound design plays a large part in creating this realistic depiction of violence. The noise of a gun firing is emphasised to be as realistically loud and aggressive as possible, not something to be taken likely in most action films where guns are let off at the the drop of a hat. If a bullet whizzes by a characters head you are left in no doubt that, due to the the sheer velocity of it, if it had connected there wouldn’t be much left. Just when this thought goes through your mind, someones head is literally blown off in front of you. It’s so blunt that it’s hard to know what is going to happen next.

The violence is thrilling, not in the traditional sense but in a frightening way. Despite being in the comfort of the cinema, at the end of each battle you can’t help but feel lucky that you weren’t hit in the crossfire. The audience starts to feel the same fear as the soldiers as they ride into what could be their deaths because we have seen, in graphic detail, what a bullet can really do to a human body.

One of the main criticisms I had been hearing about the film before going to see it was that the characters weren’t "likable enough". This meant that when it’s all going down you don’t care about them. Although this is partly true at the beginning, each character being an acquired taste, I have to disagree. The men in the tank unit aren’t the most likable people in the world but, if you found yourself in the same position as them, would you be? What David Ayer shows us is how people cope with war. Each character is just trying to do their best to survive and cope with the horrific things that are going on around them and to the people they have come to care for.

The rookie soldier Norman is the audience. We are thrown into war, much like he is, and are left feeling breathless after each incident that opens our eyes to what war is really like. We learn the ropes with him and share his moral compass as he tries to navigate through dizzying battles and the brutality of what they were doing. Brad Pitt is excellent, as always, and delivers a believable and powerful performance as Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, the tank commander who pulls Norman through, kicking and screaming, and teaches him how to survive in the nightmare that is war. Logan Lerman is really great in the role of Norman. He really captures the innocence of a lot of young boys that signed up, only to be totally unprepared at the nightmare they were going to find themselves in. I’ve never really seen him before but I’ll definitely be keeping a close eye on anything that he might be in in the future.

Shia LaBeouf was the breakthrough actor for me in ‘Fury', I’d only ever seeing him in films like Transformers and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull… (Let’s take a moment to acknowledge these abominations…) Then add those films to his less than savoury reputation and it was safe to say that I was taken aback at his acting ability and how he totally played against type for this film. Even sporting a moustache Tom Selleck would approve of, he really pulls off a mature performance and went toe to toe with Brad Pitt, Joe Bernthal and Michael Peña.

The climax of the film is when we really get the satisfying pay-off that we’d been waiting for. We see the true faces of the men that we’ve been sharing the journey with and really come round to those who we haven’t liked from the beginning. Out-numbered and surrounded, you can’t help but feel a part of their fight and scared at the prospect of losing any of them.

I think ‘Fury’ does justice to the memory of the men who fought and died in World War 2 and definitely leaves you with a glimpse into what it would have been like to have experienced such atrocities.

I think the most overused word in this blog has to be reality but it seems to be the key feature of ‘Fury’. It really brings home the reality of war in a way that few films have done recently.