Fury Review

In the long run, I'd imagine that a smaller film like Fury probably won't not hold the same level of cinema iconography amongst the all time greats within the war genre of film. However, it does hold a small place of personal admiration in my heart considering my history with these types of films. To be quite honest, throughout the course of my life, I haven't really taken the time to truly explore as many war films as I would like to. Be that as it may, there are a couple of things that I tend to look out for whenever a title does comes across my way. For one thing, the action (although not specifically having to be epic in scope) must at the very least create a tension racking experience for the characters that we're suppose to root for. Something for the audience to emotionally and visually connect to with our supposed heroes on a visceral level.

The second most important thing for me are the characters that we follow along on whatever journey is laid out in the narrative. Just like any other movie, the characters can make or break a film almost as easily as any other aspect due to being our anchoring points of storytelling perspective. Because we're forced to follow along these individuals in their experience of battle, personality and/or character development plays a key role. Whether it's an interesting revelation surrounding a character's backstory, a screen stealing sense of charisma, or just the way that they interact with the world around them, there needs to be something that allows the protagonists to shine in a captivating enough way making them more than just a one dimensional tool for action. 

In the case of Fury, we're given a five-man tank crew as our leading cast full of individual potential for intrigue and emotional connection led by Brad Pitt. Everyone of the actors here here puts in notable effort towards bringing their characters to life, but is easily out shined by Pitt's performance in my opinion. Now, that's not to say that he's the only actor worthy of mentioning in the entire film. It's just a simple fact that the spotlight tends to stay on his character for quite a bit and you can completely understand why given the talent involved and presented. As for the other members of this 5-man crew, we have Shia LeBeouf, Jon Bernthal, Michael Peña, and finally Logan Lerman who closes out this ensemble

As far as commending certain actors for their performances, aside from Brad Pitt, we have to position a second spotlight over Jon Berthnal for effectively playing this vicious, occasionally disrespectful, and tough loving soldier. Shia's character, Bible, is one that didn't really get as much screen time as he should've in my opinion as the actor can be seen mostly just staring at someone else. However, there is a sense of a tragic backstory that one can see being told through his eyes which takes a very talented actor to pull off. It honestly felt to me as if I'd met these characters a bit too late in their military career to get the juicy details about their life. Now if that sounds like a flaw somehow, I wouldn't necessarily label it as that due to Fury being more about their current experience and not their individual history. 

Michael Peña's character along with Logan's could've easily been just background characters to me as their characters simply didn't stick out as much. Every ensemble film will have those characters that are simply there to help drive the other characters along with their supportive duties (which I suppose the tank centered setting thematically fits this sensibility perfectly). These two actors just about checks off all of the right boxes to be categorized in that supportive position when looking at them on the surface. Unfortunately, Logan's character, Norman, is actually very significant to the story as he acts as our avatar of immersion being forced along to join this team on their tank run through Germany.

I thought the idea of him not being much of a soldier but instead having a typist background in the military was a pretty interesting detail. However, that's about where the overall appeal surrounding this character ends for me. The film never really takes the time needed to fully develop or progress this character in an impactful manner resulting in him being pushed ever so closely to the "expendable background fodder bin". One of the questions that I ask myself in films like these is how much of an emotional impact would a particular character's death actually have on me which is my way of deciding how effective the direction or writing around someone is. In Logan Lerman's case, the answer is..."not too much".

As for the visuals, the film looks great and embraces the grim, smoke heavy, and gray color palette that WWII films are known for at this point. The settings are beautifully illustrated emphasizing on the bleakness of the war through sights of demolished buildings, tanks, and scattered corpses filling the screen for the majority of the runtime. Interestingly enough, the film spends a lot of its time focusing on being inside of the tank as a symbol of these soldier's home which I found bold from a cinematic experience point of view and fascinating from a storytelling perspective.

Once inside of this tank, this is when the entertainment value of the film really starts to shine as character personalities are in full blown affect coinciding with the gradually intensifying action taking place outside. It felt to me that David Ayer (who takes on double duty here as both director and screenplay writer) really wanted to emphasize the idea of the tank's interior being the place of comfort and confidence for these soldiers. So the highlights of their history together are all spent in that environment more than anywhere else. The mentality of a tank being a home away from home for a family bonded by battle is an interesting one that really shines best in these exceptionally directed interior interaction scenes.

As far as the action goes, David Ayer certainly doesn't skimp out on the expected goods with the big highlights being two highly climactic and intense battle sequences. This is where my admiration for Fury builds even further being that, aside from the great tank interior scenes, the direction of the exterior conflicts is handled with just as much care. The battles are very constraint and focuses on the safety of the characters much more than your traditional war blockbuster's epic wide shots of explosions (although there is a little bit of that sprinkled around). The first major battle scene takes our squad's tank, labeled "Fury", and pits it against one of the enemy's vehicles. What we're left with is an intense battle of wits as these two mechanical monsters continuously firing and tactically maneuvering away from incoming fire. 

It's gripping to witness from a cinematic perspective, but what I especially would like to bring attention to is the great detail given to the shots taken from within the small peep holes of the tank. It's a nice way of showing just how terrifyingly little these soldiers can see as they engage in life threatening situations. The second climatic moment comes more towards the end where Pitt's character, Don "Wardaddy" Collier, decides to take on an entire SS battalion force by himself with his tank while encouraging his team to leave him behind. This moment gave me yet another reason to pay close attention to his character as it beautifully portrayed just how connected he was to that tank. Remember that mentality from before? "A home away from home being a war vehicle".

Now as I stated before, I wouldn't necessarily place these scenes on the same pedestal with some of the most iconic battle sequences from other celebrated war movies, but it's certainly one of the most engaging that I've seen. We have the imagery of this one tank positioned in the middle of an enemy battalion struggling to hold its own as ammo slowly becomes a scarcity and survival chances begin to look grim. The movie then takes a gritty turn in showing the realism of war which is the fact that there is simply no happy ending for any of these characters. We merely watch them fight until their accepted inevitable bleak fate fighting till the last second. These are the types of scenes that really captivates me in these types of movies, so I was happy to see it executed beautifully here.

As far as any standout individual character moments go, there were a few that I quite enjoyed such as the team giving Norman his own war name as well as the revelation of a squad member's death resulting in the team bonding. This emotionally explosive yet tender family dynamic is also displayed through some of the arguments that Jon Bernthal's character, Grady, goes through with the rest of the team which I found entertaining. Another notably directed character spotlight comes where Don forces Norman to shoot an enemy soldier in front of everyone knowing deep down that he wouldn't have the heart to go through with it. Not only was this scene dramatically powerful to witness unfold but it also perfectly accentuated the brutal honestly of Don's "War is not merciful to you, nor should you be" attitude.

Overall, Fury offers up an engaging war film experience and one that I can easily recommend to any fans of the genre, but if you're walking in expecting an amazing ensemble cast story, you might leave disappointed. As stated earlier, the film throws you in the middle of a squad's unestablished history where some very key moments in their past is both unseen and untold. Much like the character of Normal Ellison, we're simply forced to tag along this band of soldiers on their last tank run until the harsh reality of life on the battlefield comes driving in at full force. The question is whether or not you find the journey of the experience fulfilling enough which I personally did for the most part.

Rating: 8/10