Perhaps my expectations for David Ayer’s Fury were a bit too high. Primed by the presence of a strong cast, the strength of the director’s previous film – the tough cop procedural End of Watch – and the realistic aesthetic employed to bring the grit and violence of war to the big screen, I was expecting the sort of film that would stand head and shoulders above other entries in the war genre. To be sure, there are some fine things in Fury, just enough to recommend it actually, but in the end it’s hardly on par with Saving Private Ryan or Black Hawk Down, the sort of movies that haunt and leave you shaken to the core long after the screen has gone dark.
When we first meet the crew of the Sherman Tank of the title, they are much the worse for wear. Having been one of the few tanks to survive a brutal Nazi assault, they hobble back to their Allied outpost, one man shy. While the tank’s commander Sgt. Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) does his best to show that the loss of one of his assistant drivers is all in a day’s work, those left in his outfit – Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Pena) and Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal) – know that beneath his tough exterior, he’s weighed down by the promise he made to get them through the war in one piece.
Despite being far worse for wear, these men and their tank are almost immediately sent back into battle as the Allies are undertaking a massive final push, knowing they have the Nazis on the ropes. Pulled off a transport, Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), a clerk typist, is assigned to take the place of Collier’s fallen comrade. Completely ignorant on the workings of a tank or his role in it, the young man has to study on the fly with the lives of his crewmates in the balance. That he learns quickly is all the more important as the Fury is headed to the front on what is all but a suicide mission.
The battle sequences that whirl about the Fury are well-executed, choreographed to deliver maximum violent impact. Since Ryan upped the ante in terms of graphic violence, war films in its wake have felt compelled to keep pace. For better or worse, Fury contains some of the most horrific war imagery in recent memory, but it’s never done gratuitously or simply to shock us. It’s very much in keeping with the amoral universe the characters live in as any sense of traditional right or wrong has been replaced by a code in which survival is the endgame – and this is to be achieved by any means possible. Ayer visually underscores this with the dank, dreary palette he adopts here – all is gray and dirty, the sky is perpetually overcast and the men themselves are rendered in a filthy, washed-out manner that suggests that their former, better selves have been replaced by compromised versions of themselves for whom killing has become a way of life that has no impact on their conscience.
The examination of what these men have become is the movie’s strongest suit, as we see the damaged people they’ve become yet are able to glimpse the whole individuals they once were. This is never more obvious than in the one extended sequence that does not take place on the battlefield. Having invaded a German town, Collier and Ellison find two sisters hiding in their apartment. Intent on keeping them safe from other soldiers who may do them harm, the sergeant sets out to quietly have dinner with the other three in an effort to recreate a moment of civilian normalcy. However, this get-together is interrupted by the other crew members whose crude, callous behavior destroys this brief respite, unable to recognize the value of the precious peace they’ve destroyed.
Each of the principals is able to convey a sense of weariness, each of their characters having been pushed to the breaking point – having seen too much and asked to do the unspeakable in the line of duty – yet determined to survive. However, Pitt and Logan are at the center of the story, playing out the familiar plotline in which the warweary veteran attempts to corrupt the innocent in order to save him. They’re able to bring enough life to this familiar tale that with the strong supporting performances and bracing battle scenes, deliver an effective war tale that suffers from being overfamiliar.
Contact Chuck Koplinski at ckoplinski@usd116.org.
