Fury – Film Review
By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts
Wardaddy: Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.
Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan: Here’s a Bible verse I think about sometimes. Manytimes. It goes: And I heard the voice of Lord saying: Whom shall I send and who will go for Us? And… I said: Here am I , send me!
Wardaddy: It will end, soon. But before it does, a lot more people have to die.
Wardaddy: I had the best gunner in the entire United Army in that seat. Now I have you.
Wardaddy: Wars are not going anywhere, Sir.
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. Written by Sony Pictures Entertainment
FURY (2014) FILM REVIEW – WAR NEVER ENDS QUIETLY – 11-2-2014
11-2-2014 – Written By: David L. $Money Train$ Watts – Journalist/Film Reviewer FuTurXTV & HHBMedia.com – David Velo Stewart – Editor – HHBMedia.com
When I hear arm chair military analysts on network or cable news shows like ABC’s “This Week”, NBC’s “Meet The Press” or MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” say that President Obama can’t defeat the terrorists ISIL in Syria and Iraq without sending in lots of U.S. ground troops they from have not seen Fury.
When neo-cons, Tea Baggers, “Right Wing” bloggers and almost all of Fox News watchers think we should not pull our troops get out of Afghanistan and should still have a large force of American troops in Iraq have not seen Fury.
When Millennials and even many Gen-Xers think intense and realistic warfare are on next-generation console video games like Halo 4, Destiny or Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare then they also have not seen Fury.
Warfare rarely gets as simple, honest and brutal than when one watches director David Ayer’s Fury. I wish films like Red Tails (2008) was as realistic and powerful as Fury. The problem with a Red Tails or Pearl Harbor (2001) is that they are shot like a traditional Hollywood World War II film were death is a scorecard. The more Nazis or Japanese fighters are killed on screen the more and audience thinks we are easily winning the war. And everyone on the Allies side dies cleanly or with an honorable self-sacrifice to save a mission.
But there are non-traditional action based World War II films like Wolfgang Peterson’s classic submarine thriller Das Boot (1981), an equally great and somber The Railway Man (2013) and even the LA EigaFest 2014 short film masterpiece Suicide Volunteers that are compelling dramas that really push viewers to examine the powerful psychological and emotional toll on soldiers.
WHAT I LIKE ABOUT FURY:
Fury is a perfect blend of exceptional tank fighting scenes while still making those same action packed scenes evoke a truly haunting feeling that death is inevitable in war no matter how heroic the soldiers or noble their cause. Fury had me hooked when we start the film in the final days of World War II and we are told that the Germans have now mobilized everyone from women and children to take up arms to defend the Fatherland. Unlike the Japanese who were forced to surrender and end their war machine after we dropped the A-bomb on Nagasaki. Fury’s film motto is “War never ends quietly”. These are truly the bitter dog days of WWII because with the end so near no one really wants to die. But for Brad Pitt’s steely-eyed and even tempered Don “Wardaddy” Collier he devotedly believes his Fury 5-man tank crew’s purpose in life is to kill any SS and all Nazis until there are none left. So when Fury gets a new “baby face” crew member Norman Ellison, played by Logan Lerman, David Ayer turns your stomach and flips the notion of any World War II film when you see Norman being forced to clean up the blood and guts off his seat in the tank. Ayer pulls no punches with Fury and shows Norman literally picking up the blown off face of his replacement. This also reinforces how grisly and bloody reminder that tank warfare is like no other warfare. Tanks are rolling deaths because they can inflict lots of death, but also there is hardly any way to escape death if one is badly wounded. And if one is killed inside the tank than it may be several hours or even days before the tank crew can clean away your blood and guts in your cramped and tight section in the tank. There is nowhere to hide if one gets scared or has doubts you are going to survive facing off against the superior made German tanks that can destroy three to five U.S. made tanks in every combat encounter. When you have killed thousands and repeatedly survived death than “Wardaddy” can seem robotic and emotionless, but watching Fury you realize each crew member has a personal code or quirk to deal with their almost inevitable deaths in combat.
WHAT I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT FURY:
The only two things I did not about Fury was kinda of knowing that the film’s only lead women characters, Irma and Emma, were going to get killed soon after we saw them. I thought Ayer’s wanted the German women to represent a glimmer of hope and sanity for Norman. And when they are ironically blown up by their own German forces–we see the last bit of innocence drain away from Norman, so now he can become a more focused and fearless Fury fighter. Hollywood can get corny and loves to use death as a motivator to make a lead character complete a mission or goal. Or death can be an excuse to be heroic. I truly thought Ayer could have let the women live and still get Norman to find another less contrived plot point to make him as dedicated, hard fighting, focused, somber and loyal Fury member as “Wardaddy”, “Bible”, “Coon-Ass” and “Gordo”. The only other thing I did not like in the Fury was accidental way Norman was allowed to escape the film’s final Fury battle scene when a young German solider has pity on him and lets him live. I know this is another way Ayer is trying to make a statement that not all Germans were bad or predictable evil socio-paths. I wish Norman could have found a more innovative way on his own to secure his own freedom rather rely on a random charitable moment from a German soldier. Maybe Norman could have slipped on dead German soldier’s jacket or uniform that was by Fury and then snuck away. I would have really preferred to see that scene.
WOULD I PAY TO SEE FURY AGAIN?
Without a doubt I would pay to see Fury again and again. The tank warfare scenes alone would be worth seeing. But I would go back just to watch the playful and witty banter of Fury’s crew. I truly admired David Ayer’s ability to establish a deep sense of male bonding and team unity without having to make their dialogue just a series of dated jokes and crude insults. And if one is a fan of Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008) than you will be a big fan of Fury. I can easily see multiple Oscar nominations for Fury. I happily give Fury$$$$ and highly recommend that everyone should see it right away.
SPOLIER ALERT – THE WHOLE FURY STORY:
“As the Allies make their final push into Nazi Germany, a battle-hardened U.S. Army Staff Sergeant in the 66th Armored Regiment, 2nd Armored Division named Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) commands an M4A3E8 Sherman tank named Fury and its five-man, all-veteran crew: Boyd “Bible” Swan (Shia LaBeouf), gunner; Grady “Coon-Ass” Travis (Jon Bernthal), loader; and Trini “Gordo” Garcia (Michael Peña), driver. The tank’s original assistant driver/bow gunner has been killed in battle and his replacement turns out to be a recently enlisted Army typist, Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) who, it transpires, has never even seen the inside of a tank before, let alone experienced the ravages of war. Norman later earns the nickname “Machine”, given to him by Grady Travis.
The surviving crew, who have been together since the North African Campaign, despise the new recruit upon meeting him, for both his lack of experience, and for his reluctance to kill Germans, especially the teenagers of the Hitlerjugend in cold blood; a decision which results in the destruction of one of the Allied tanks and its crew. Wardaddy is furious and in an effort to brutalise the young man and ‘educate’ him to the realities of war, he violently attempts to force Norman to take his weapon and shoot dead a captive German artilleryman, who was wearing a looted American trenchcoat). When Norman refuses to do so, Wardaddy forces the gun into his hand and makes him execute the prisoner.
This bond between Norman and Wardaddy becomes stronger after capturing a small German town, where Wardaddy and Norman meet a German woman, Irma, and her cousin, named Emma. Norman (presumably) has sex with Emma, then joins Wardaddy and Emma’s cousin for breakfast, during which time Norman discovers that Wardaddy has sustained horrific burn scars on his back at some point. However, the rest of the crew barge in and cause tensions while at the table. Shortly afterwards, a German bombardment hits the town, killing Emma and some of the American forces.
The platoon of tanks, led by Wardaddy, gets a mission to hold a vital crossroads (protecting a clear way to supply trains), but after encountering a German Tiger I, only Fury remains, the other vehicles being knocked out. The vehicle is immobilized after hitting a landmine; shortly afterwards, a battalion of three hundred Waffen-SS infantry approaches. Wardaddy refuses to leave, and the rest of the crew, initially reluctant, decide to stay and plan an ambush.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men nevertheless inflict heavy losses on the Germans using both the tank’s and the crews’ weapons, but gradually, one by one, Grady, Gordo and Bible are all killed and Wardaddy is wounded by a sniper. Norman and Wardaddy retreat back into the Fury where they share their last words. Wardaddy tells Norman to escape through the bottom hatch of the tank and he hides in the crater made by the landmine explosion, while Wardaddy stays behind and is killed by soldiers after they drop two grenades into the tank. A young German Waffen-SS trooper finds Norman, but does not turn him in, leaving the assistant driver hidden safely beneath the destroyed tank as the surviving German soldiers move on. The next morning, U.S. Army units discover Norman, and it is implied that the German offensive failed because of the crew’s actions. Norman is taken off to safety while he looks back at the carnage of dead German SS troops and the destroyed Fury….Wikepedia.com”
David L. $Money Train$ Watts • FuTurXTV • HHBMedia.com • [email protected] • www.hhbmedia.com • David Velo Stewart