Fury review

The last time we saw Brad Pitt as a wartime hero, it was in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds as the brutal, caricatured, Lt. Aldo Raine, but now in Fury, Pitt leaves the comedy behind and gives a visceral, rugged and more importantly, realistic performance of a battle-wearied Sergeant hellbent on protecting what's left of his squad from the Nazis.



When four U.S. soldiers return to their base camp in Germany inside their Sherman tank Fury, after carrying out a mission that cost them many men in their platoon, they are presented with fresh-faced, whimpering Normal Ellison (Logan Lerman) as their new assistant driver. Only trained as an Army clerical typist and having never even seen the inside of a tank before, Norman is instantly disliked by the tight-knit group, with them fearing that this new recruit's lack of experience and obvious reluctance to kill enemies will cause them harm when faced with real danger later on.

As the group and Fury embark on missions to help their fellow Americans advance further into Berlin, the men begin bullying and teasing their new comrade in an effort to get him up to speed. Guided by respected but affected, Don Collier (Pitt), aptly nicknamed Wardaddy, Norman becomes more and more accustomed to war, and starts earning the trust of his fellow tank mates and learns a lot about stepping-up, loyalties and courage.

It's gritty, but not in the way that we have seen so many films be over the years. Drive was gritty, Out Of The Furnace was gritty, heck, even The Hunger Games could be thrown under that category somewhat but each of those movies had a sense of lightness, a sweet romance undertone, some uplifting message or a way of making you feel like despite the evident danger, you yourself wanted to take part in "The Games" and look super cool with a crossbow. It made it look desirable, and not all that bad, regardless of the subject matter.

Everything about Fury however, is hardened, having been stripped of typical Hollywood varnish, there is absolutely no glorification of war here and it makes for some hard-hitting scenes. It's murky and dark, as you're constantly presented with shocking scenes of war aftermath such as towns in ruin, hanging traitors or bodies being squashed into the mud, which will stay with you. It ambitiously attempts to do for war movies what Saving Private Ryan did way back in the 90's under the watchful eye of Steven Spielberg, and David Ayer does pretty well in his approach, considering he doesn't have too much experience in the directing chair. 

He's not the only one to be commended here however. Lead by Brad Pitt but certainly not eclipsed by him are the portrayals of fellow tank-mates, Boyd 'Bible' Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis (The Walking Dead's Jon Bernthal) and Gordo (Michael Peña), all of whom embody their characters perfectly. Their brotherhood is believable and with their jokey quips at each other, anecdotal stories of times shared together and their palpable emotional connection, you really feel like these men's bonds are unbreakable. In spite of little screen time for each of them, lack of back stories and stereotypes so exaggerated it's bordering on sketch show (just look at the nicknames), they make their character's seem real and you can't help but empathise with them. 

Alongside all the triumphs of Fury, there are some shortfalls that unfortunately don't go undetected. For one, it does come across a little too modern for a film supposedly set in the 40's. Despite stating that the events that unfold take place in World War II and from the obvious fact that they are fighting German opposition, not much else cements it in that time period, especially not the soldier's 2014-esque-hair dos. Resulting in it feeling a little lacking in concrete history amidst its slightly vague context. 

For a film named after a tank, viewers expecting to see plenty of Robot Wars-style action will be greatly disappointed. Only one scene really exploits the potential for a thrilling sequence of battle involving the metal beasts and whilst a good one (if you forgive the laser-like explosions), it's pretty short-lived! 

Lastly, it doesn't really do anything groundbreakingly new with the genre. Okay, so it's an unflinching realistic depiction of a time that in this day and age is hard to imagine, with likeable characters in an unlikeable setting. But that HAS already been done before. It doesn't make the result any less impressive, but it's not going to blow you away in terms of revolutionary film-making vision. 

Even with its negatives, you'll undoubtedly not only walk away from Fury admiring the actor's talents but with a huge respect for people protecting their country, who deal with the kind of situations depicted every single day and that's probably the film's greatest achievement. Admittedly, it has it's miss moments but when it's good, it's very good and delivers a moving, no-holds-barred representation of warfare which really hits home.