Fury

When I watched Dunkirk, it was a toss up between that and another war film. This week I watched that movie:

Fury (2014)

Fury is set during WWII and concerns a tank crew invading Germany. We have Don 'Wardaddy' Collier played by Brad Pitt as the tank commander. His driver, Trini 'Gordo' Garcia played by Michael Peña, the gunner Boyd 'Bible' Swan played by Shia LaBeouf and the loader Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis played by Jon Bernthal. They are veterans who started in North Africa and via D-Day are now in Germany proper. Early on, they are joined by Norman Ellison, a rookie clerk who for some reason has been assigned to their tank as their new assistant driver and front gunner.

The title of the movie comes from the name of their tank, 'Fury', a modified Sherman sporting a 76mm main gun.

On the surface, Fury is a powerful movie. It is extremely grim and gory at times and does a good job at illustrating the unbelievable horrors of war. The battle scenes are dramatic and the acting is fantastic. The director, David Ayer did a good job and the props are spot on. Fury is in fact the first movie to feature a genuine Tiger tank since They Were Not Divided (1950). All the uniforms are authentic reproductions, the vehicles are real museum pieces. The Tiger is in fact the only functional Tiger left in the world. So lots of kudos there, as this is what sells the reality of the film.

There are however some real problems as well. Most battle scenes feature tracer rounds, e.g. rounds that glow brightly in flight so that the gunner can see where he is shooting. This glow can only be seen from behind the bullet, but in Fury it often looks from the side like they're shooting lasers. It genuinely looks like a Star Wars battle at times.

The second big problem is a famous tank fight between Fury and it's three sister tanks vs. a German Tiger. It is very dramatic, but completely idiotic. It is a commonly held belief that it took four or five Shermans to kill one Tiger due to the Tiger only being vulnerable to the Sherman from behind, while its own 88mm main gun could chew through the Shermans like paper. David Ayer either ignored or was ignorant of the fact that Fury's 76mm gun could easily have destroyed the Tiger at a long distance, so the entire duel is pointless as it stands. In fact, the remarkable length of the 76mm gun compared to the regular Sherman gun meant that they were always singled out by Tiger crews for fear of being killed. I'm not spoiling the scene, but beyond its drama, it is really dumb.

Some people have criticized the final main fight as completely unrealistic, but there is precedent for similar things happening in real life. The fight contains multiple factual errors, but ultimately it's not a big deal. The rest of the movie is pretty much a paint by the numbers story, not bad, not great.

When I was done, I felt pretty overwhelmed and it took a day or two of quiet reflection to figure out what I really think about Fury. As I said, it is a powerful piece of cinema, but it ultimately has nothing to say. War is an exercise in soul crushing horror, but we already knew that. Beyond this simple message Fury has nothing to say at all. I'm not one to insist that every movie has to have depth and meaning, it can be pure entertainment, and I was entertained to be sure, but I kind of have a hard time getting why this movie was made. It is too depressing to be fun, it doesn't portray anything significant from a historical point of view. It's hard to explain, but compared to Dunkirk which was an important event in WWII, Fury is mostly just fighting. Is it only meant to be dramatic action with little else behind it? I'll leave it up to you to decide.

So, do I recommend this movie? Yes and no. Fans of war movies should watch it, fans of gore and mayhem could enjoy it, but beyond that maybe think twice.

That's that and all that. Join me again next time and until then, have a great and safe week!