War is hell: Brad Pitt and Fury prove it.
Fury
Grade: B
Director: David Ayer (Training Day)
Screenplay: Ayer
Cast: Brad Pitt (Moneyball), Shia LeBeouf (Transformers)
Rating: R
Runtime: 124 min
by John DeSando
“Ideals are peaceful. History is violent.” Wardaddy (Brad Pitt)
And violent Fury is, and old-fashioned WWII war story about the commander Don “Wardaddy” Collier of a Sherman tank, his crew, and a retinue of tanks, all heroically facing superior German tanks with their ability to destroy Shermans at will. The story is captivating, the soldiers believable, and the heroics inevitably sad. Pitt’s similar role, however, in Inglorious Basterds as a Nazi hunter, was far more nuanced, and frankly, directed by the genius Quentin Tarantino. David Ayer’s work in other men facing murderous times is still not competition for the sardonic Tarantino.
Many war stories tropes are here, such as the young recruit who needs seasoning (Norman, played by Logan Lerman) and the scruffy crew of diverse characters: the outwardly gruff master sergeant (Pitt); the inebriated Mexican, Trina (Michael Pena); the bible-bookworm-killer Gordon (ShiaLeBeouf); and the hardened tough guy Grady (Jon Bernthal)--stereotypes all but not overly so. This film is superior to George Clooney’s The Monuments Men as the jokes are quiet, not taking away from the grim reality, and the incidents are coherent with the overall plot, not set pieces existing for effect rather than complement.
That Pitt and Clooney are best buddies and recently married to accomplished women makes for a kinder comparison. Pitt, with his boffo performances in Benjamin Button and Moneyball and this one, is jumping ahead of his friend in the acting category but still needs to direct to compete overall.
As the four tanks dwindle down to just Fury (the name painted on Wardaddy’s tank), the intense warfare is mitigate only by a brief encounter between Wardaddy and Norman and two German women hiding in their apartment. What happens is not exactly what you’d expect and more illuminating about the tank’s crew than you’d expect. Ayer expertly underplays this episode as he shows a deft hand at even quiet, non warlike moments.
Norman will grow too fast for belief with each episode (it is only one day, after all) and Wardaddy’s terse advice on matters relating to sentiment, survival, and slaughter: “It will end, soon. But before it does, a lot more people have to die.” Exceptional heroics surface while everyone knows the German will surrender soon but remain steadfast with respect to their orders to stop the enemy. Although the final scene is hard to believe (at least 300 SS troops versus the tank crew?), the film is not compromised, for we are surely aware that this is not a good war, and war is hell.
John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts WCBE’s It’s Movie Time and co-hosts Cinema Classics. Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.rr.com
