Fury, 2014
Written and directed by David Ayer
Starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Pena, Jon Bernthal, Jim Parrack, Brad Wiliam Jenke, Kevin Vace, Xavier Samuel, (hello to) Jason Isaacs, Anamaria Marinca and Alicia von Rittberg
SYNOPSIS:
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Out-numbered, out-gunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
When one is going to make a war movie, it’s important to make sure you know what tone you are going for. You can either look at the Second World War as the worst of humanity that it was, or pose your characters are American war heroes who valiantly walk through enemy lines and show off how awesome and American they are. Fury, the latest from David Ayer, however feels like it can have its cake and eat it. It flips from graphic and violently realistic portrayals of the horrors of war to a rather hackneyed account of a group of soldiers who fight off the Nazis single handily against all odds in a valiantly triumphant fashion.
Set during the final months of World War II, Fury sees Brad Pitt play Wardaddy, leading a crew of soldiers who operate the Fury Sherman tank and have just lost a member of their team as they make their way through Germany. Having been together since Africa, the team of the quiet, religious Bible (Shia LaBeouf), Mexican powerhouse Gordo (Michael Pena) and aggressive and bullish Coon-Ass (Jon Bernthal) have formed a bond of brotherhood and are despondent with the loss of their comrade. They get a new recruit in the form of wet-behind-the-ears Norman, a typist who has been drafted to fight the war who has never even seen a gun, let alone fired one.
Fury will most likely get a lot of comparisons Quentin Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds, mostly due to their setting and the fact they both feature Brad Pitt in a Southern-drawl leadership role looking to kill Nazis. Wardaddy is certainly less ‘fun’ than Aldo Raine, but Fury has a lot more to offer than Taratino’s bloated war “epic”, even if it is tonally all over the place. Pitt provides a very subtle performance, often never saying a word because his facial expressions do all the talking. His relationship with the young buck Norman, while cliché and predictable, is genuinely sweet and this is mostly down to Pitt.
Not that you can knock Logan Lerman for his performance as he’s the real shining star of the entire movie. As an audience we sit in the tank seat with him, being thrust into a situation we can’t possibly even begin to imagine with no earthly escape – even when you want to tap out and quit. Lerman is a revelation and stands head and shoulders above his fellow co-stars, even when they’re brining their a-game too. Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal are excellent in their supporting roles with Bernthal relishing in his ‘bully role’, trying to throw Norman into the deep end to “welcome him to war”. Even the usually dreadful Shia LaBeouf pulls out an exceptional performance as the religious verse spouting Bible, a performance that could have broken him away from his Transformers and Crystal Skull mediocrity if his vocally outlandish behaviour on-set didn’t overshadow it. Stories of him having some of his teeth removed, not showering during production and scaring his face for real because he didn’t think the make-up was good enough are what people will remember, which is a shame because all of those stories were unneeded. LaBeouf’s “real scar” looks just as believable as everyone else’s “fake scars” and you won’t even notice his teeth throughout the performance and nor will you take in how bad he smells. It feels like LaBeouf knew this could be a breakaway movie for him, so tried his best to show that he’s an actor who “takes his craft seriously”, but instead comes off as a pretentious buffoon.
Like Norman, we are thrust into this horrific scenario of Germany during World War II and Fury doesn’t pull its punches when it comes to the action on screen. David Ayer has gone out of his way to make sure that everything looks, feels and sounds as real as possible and there are certain scenes and shots that will have you wincing in pain or agony. It is gory, but it never feels glorified. As if to show on screen what World War II was really like, even if no one screen actually knows what it was actually like. The only problem is some of the practical effects of explosions can look more like village fate firework displays and there are times when the gunfire has more in common with Star Wars that anything else. Perhaps this is the most “realistic” approach and real gunfire looks like a laserblast from a Stormtrooper, but it is a little off putting.
But Fury‘s biggest issue is its baffling tone, as if it doesn’t know what it wants to be. For all of the good Ayer does with the realistic action and set-pieces and despite the great performances, his script is bogged down by Hollywood clichés that remind you that this is ‘just a movie’. Even when the stakes are at their highest, it follows a strict, predictable line which ruins a lot of the tension and atmosphere. This balancing act can be done well, but Fury just doesn’t quite manage it.
For all its flaws, it’s hard not to recommend Fury. It’s a balls-to-the-wall drama that never holds your hand in terms of violence and the leading performances are spell-binding. The movie sags in the middle with a scene that starts off well and then overstays its welcome, but overall Fury is a solid movie with a lot to shout about. Tonal problems and LaBeouf’s idiocy aside, Fury is pretty darn good war flick.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is the Deputy Editor of Flickering Myth and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
