Fury **** (2014, Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman) – Movie Review

You get a sense and feel of the ideas, but it’s really hard to fathom out what this movie is actually getting at. Is it saying that in wartime,all sorts of atrocities, including the rape and the murder of prisoners are understandable, forgivable or acceptable? Is it just praising the outnumbered American army in their attempts at bravely and heroically taking on the might of the evil Nazi Germans? Is it an anti-war statement, saying all this terrible stuff we see is just a consequence of the folly of going to war? Or is it a straightforward battle movie entertainment, running like a cinema version of a war video game, and simply to be consumed with pleasure. Or all of them?

It’s probably best not to engage brain, just sit back and let it all wash over you. You don’t ask what The Dirty Dozen or The Great Escape is about, you just let them entertain you. Of course, today’s war movies can’t simply be escapist, ‘fun’ entertainments, and brain has to be engaged with our more sophisticated movies.

Fury is very full on, visceral and immersive. There’s no doubt that it’s a highly impressive movie, taking no prisoners. So it’s not for the faint hearted or sensitive. It’s quite gruelling in places, with sequences of strong war violence and some grisly images. The movie certainly puts you in the place with the guys and in the tank with the quintet. It demands your attention and holds it throughout, playing like a straight version of Inglourious Basterds, without its sense of irony, wit or twisted sense of fun.

It is clear that the film’s very much on the side of the embattled boys on Fury, particularly sympathising with Pitt’s character. It’s a good role for him and his very good in it. Logan Lerman has in many ways the main part, and it’s trickier for him to be sympathetic, because his everyman character comes over as a bit weak and wimpy and pacifist – at least at first till Wardaddy teaches him how to kill to survive. Nevertheless, Lerman is excellent, and pulls you along into his character’s feelings and journey.

It’s poignant that this is a role Shia LaBeouf might have landed around only five or six years ago, but now LaBeouf is playing the battle-weary, clapped-out looking second in command. It’s not nearly such a good role, but he does well in it, and keeps his second billing. He looks worryingly ancient with his silly moustache and missing tooth. But then so does Brad Pitt. Michael Pena and John Bernthal are the other crewman, and theirs are even less good roles, but they’re still effective. All these main characters come over as stereotypes, or at least archetypes, but that’s OK. It is not exactly subtle or good writing, but it works.

That’s true of the movie too. The middle section plays too long, and is the least interesting feature of the movie. But it turns out to be in many ways the key to what the movie’s about and proves an intermission in the tank crew’s battle progress, as well as the relative quiet before the storm.

Picking up the pace and power, the long climax is stupendously well handled, and totally thrilling, though the final events strain credulity to breaking point for all the sense of grisly realism. It does make for an extremely satisfying climax to the movie, though. This is probably the best tank fight in the movies and delivers the goods big time for fans of war movies.

And Ayer pulls it off triumphantly, achieving the impact and status he’s looking for. He crafts his movie expertly and convincingly, on what looks like a relatively tight budget ($68million). Roman Vasyanov and Andrew Menzies make remarkable work of the cinematography and production designs, and there’s commendably little CGI, helped by the story’s small, human scale. It’s five people’s story, not five million. With that in mind Xavier Samuel, Jason Isaacs and Scott Eastwood have very little to do as Lieutenant Parker, Captain Waggoner and Sergeant Miles, in cardboard roles so brief you think they must have been cut.

The film’s only real problem turns out to be the score, which is so over the top, you just wish it would shut up and let the story, images and performances do their work. It’s at this point it’s clear. The movie not only doesn’t need this score, it doesn’t need one at all. It’s is so powerful, and would have even more impact without music. The score is by Steven Price, Oscar winner for Gravity.

David Ayer is the clever writer and director of Harsh Times (2005), End of Watch (2012) and Sabotage (2014). He also wrote the screenplays of U-571 (2000), Training Day (2001) and The Fast and the Furious (2001).

Rehearsals began in early September 2013 in Hertfordshire, England, followed by principal photography in Oxfordshire. Filming for a month and half on different locations, including Oxford, concluded on November 15.

(C) Derek Winnert 2014 Movie Review

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