Fury, as we all saw in the trailers, is a drama following a tank crew during the later years of World War II. The film is directed by David Ayer (
End of Watch,
Suicide Squad) which stars Logan Lerman as a gunner who joins the crew, and Brad Pitt as the leader of the crew. The rest of our motley team is played by Michael Peña, John Bernthal, & Shia LaBeouf.
While I haven’t seen Ayer’s other forays into film I have to give him some major credit for delivering one of the most shockingly graphic and honest depictions of war in line with the recent
Lone Survivor and
Saving Private Ryan (at least the first 20 minutes of that film since by the end of that we reach one of the most uninteresting war films in recent memory). During the few action scenes of the film I flinched at how graphic, brutal, and realistic the film chooses to be. There are moments where you’ll see a person standing then the next the entire top half of their body is gone! There are bodies flattened into the muddy roads and have just become part of the road now. There are children being hanged, heavy implications of rape, it’s just an incredibly dark film about the horrors committed during wartime. I realized halfway through that I had been gripping my leather recliner armrest to the point of almost ripping it form the intensity that the film rarely let’s up on.
The biggest shining example of Ayer’s directing though comes not in the action or the gore, but in the quiet
moments with the team. Within the 2
nd act of the film there is around 30 straight minutes that all take place inside this small apartment and the dialogue is expertly written. We peer into the psyche of the team and even during this quiet chunk of the film, there is a heavy uneasiness that can’t be shaken. This is where I find the trailers have done a massive disservice to the film. While the trailers sold an action film with moments of intense drama, what we actually get is a straight up drama film with rare action moments sprinkled within (I counted, you have 4 scenes in all).
Fury serves more as a view into the lives our dreary and battle-worn crew have to live than a gung-ho America rocks film.
Speaking of our team, I am hard pressed to find many other team based films (outside of the obvious CBM) that in such a short time make you feel so connected to every member. This comes from the incredible level of acting from the tank crew. Logan Lerman does well as the learning army accountant forced into a situation he wanted no part in and his performance really sells the horror of certain events in the film. I had some trepidations with Brad Pitt being in another WWII film (fearing he would just copy and paste the cartoony [but also amazing] Aldo Raine) but he does a surprising turnaround from his Inglorious Basterds days, trading in the cocky leader of Nazi hunters into a man completely ruined by his experiences yet still able to show humanity in the smallest of moments. Shia LaBeouf as the bible thumping gunner of the group almost steals the show from his fellow actors if not for a riveting performance given by Jon Bernthal as the crude (yet pitiful) Ass (it’s in his name!) mechanic. Remember that apartment scene I mentioned earlier? This is the scene where Bernthal absolutely takes the film from everyone else. Michael Pena as the driver gives a little over the top performance but it never feels inappropriate to his character leading to some much needed humor.
Ayer’s directing for the most part of the film is exceptional. He so easily shows the emotions the characters go through in the most subtle of ways. Hell, you remember that line “Best job I ever had” in the trailer? It’s done twice in the film and thanks to how perfectly the film comes together it becomes an incredibly moving moment (can a JamesMan tear up in these moments? Yes). The only major critique I have against the directing and the film in general is some of the action can be a little uninteresting. A specific tank battle later on in the film drags on a little too long for its own good but don’t worry, the final 30 minutes of the film makeup for this in so many ways.
Fury is among the best in the war genre. It’s dark, gritty, gory, intense, moving, emotional, Fury is a film that cannot be missed. If you’re at all worried about David Ayer directing the upcoming Suicide Squad film, don’t be. He’s already done the WWII version and if it’s anything like this then
Fury: 4.5/5
Please go ahead and like and comment on this review. I hope to see you lads and lasses again in my next one!