Movie: Fury

Fury:  a WWII film starring Brad Pitt.  Timeline is Spring 1945.  The Allies have crossed the German border but Germany’s war defense effort remains substantial.  Pitt’s character, Sgt. Don Collier, is a tank commander.  His crew has been with him since North Africa.  When the film opens, we learn that Collier’s tank is the sole survivor from an encounter.  This film is presented in the style of Saving Sargent Ryan, and war is shown in all its brutality.  There is also a sense of Tarantino’s Inglorious Bastards present, a prior Pitt WWII film.  Both films are clear that the enemies are the Nazis  and they deserve to be killed.  The tank’s crew is diverse, which is expected in a 21^st century movie.  Michael Pena as Gordo, the Mexican-American, and Jon Bernthal as Grady Travis, the Southerner, play effectively off each other.  Shia LeBeouf gives an Oscar quality performance as the Bible quoting Christian.  The counterpoint character is a private, played by Logan Lerman,  who is assigned to the crew as they are heading into another battle.  Lerman is a transferee from the typing pool and has no experience with death.  He is also presented as an intellectual who has read Hemingway and plays classical piano, which we learn during an interlude between the taking of a German town and the next battle.  The break in the fighting allows Pitt to reveal the complexity of the tank sergeant.  Collier speaks fluent German but how that came to be is left unexplained.  The film was written and directed by David Ayer.  The battles have a realism that propels the movie.  The film’s title is taken from the name painted on the tank’s main gun.  This emotion is also reflected in Sgt. Collier character and in the battle scenes.  Veterans of war speak of the savagery of battle and the need to act with decency once the fighting has ended.  My father did not watch war movies because he found their treatment of war silly and unrealistic.  I think he’d find this 134 minute film to be the exception.  This film grabs your attention with the opening scenes and holds it firmly to the end.