Fury

 

David Ayer’s tense and unforgiving look at the tank warfare during the final phases of World War II is well worthy of comparison with any of the great modern war films, and is probably the best film about the conflict since Terrence Malick’s masterful The Thin Red Line. Set only months before Germany’s eventual surrender and the end of the war in Europe, it follows a battle-hardened tank-crew of the ‘Fury’ Sherman tank that have been together since the campaign in North Africa. Led by their beloved sergeant Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, they face ever-increasing danger deep inside a Germany in which Hitler has declared ‘Total War – calling every man, woman and child to arms to fight against the invading Allied Forces.

Following the death of their experienced, long-serving gunner, the group is assigned Norman Ellison, a young clerk inexperienced in even the most fundamental aspects of tank warfare as his replacement. As the number of tanks in their company whittles away, the crew is left with the decision to save themselves, or stand and fight in the face of overwhelming odds.

Following a pitch-perfect opening hour that throws you straight into the brutal depths of the war, Fury is perhaps guilty of descending into a more formulaic American war film in its latter stages. Never less than fully entertaining, it treads on the toes of similar films in which the German enemy are simply nameless, faceless evil buffoons whose inability shoot straight borders on parody at times.  But it isn’t the all-American ‘boys own’ adventure either, as it fully embraces the flaws in its supposed heroes. The formidable Collier, played brilliantly by Brad Pitt, desperately clings to any aspect of the humanity he must have had prior to the war. His crew is harsh and unforgiving; having long lost any sense of hope for either survival or savior they may once have possessed. Only through the short-lasting innocence of Norman do we see any aspect of mercy, which is quickly stomped out by Collier, who forces him to commit an act of illegal warfare to prepare him for the horrors that lay ahead.

 

It is brilliantly directed by Ayer, whose large scale action set-pieces are only bettered by his ability to capture the claustrophobic, grim chaos of the inside of an M4 Sherman tank, reminiscent of Wolfgang Peterson’s similarly suffocating Das Boot. But most impressive is the faultless cast, who all deliver phenomenal performances. As well as the grizzly Pitt, Logan Lerman continues to impress in the most demanding role of his already notable career. Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal are equally great as fellow crewmembers, but it is probably Shia LaBeouf that most stands out. Having seemingly put a tent on the circus that has followed him for the past few years, he is finally starting to display the formidable talent he possesses. As Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan he delivers and beautifully understated performance, always looking ready to explode with restrained emotion. Inside the tank, the men are ruthlessly efficient unit, each completely reliant on the next for survival – an instinct formed over years of fighting in some of the bloodiest campaign of the conflict. Outside of the metal confines, they seem barely able to hold a conversation without the threat of violence erupting between them. They are men who have been broken time and time again, and now only seem fit for warfare. Without explicitly stating it, Ayer’s depiction of these men in the closest setting to civilisation – a meal with two German women in a captured town – suggests that for those that survived the conflict, there would never be a return to normality. 

Fury is a grim and unrelenting depiction of the horrors of warfare.  Men are butchered in droves without ceremony, and men’s faces betray few signs of civilisation. They are men who have seen the extreme depths to which humanity can descend to, sinking themselves in the process. They have killed without mercy, seen their friends butchered without pity and committed acts of atrocity without honour. As the war rolls to a close, with Hitler refusing to surrender, each death seems all the more needless. Though every sacrifice during the conflict is individually tragic, there is something increasingly catastrophic about the men who survived during the war when all seemed lost, dying when it was all but won. It is a ferocious, electrifying exploration of those dreadful late days of the conflict, dissecting both the physical and psychological impact of the bloodiest of all wars.   

Fury official website