David Ayer, the director of “End of Watch” has released his second 2014 film—“Fury,” in which we follow a tank squad during the final days of World War II as they get a new recuit (Logan Lerman) and have to deal with lingering Nazi SS forces, leading up to a final stand.
I’m a big WWII movie fan, especially ones that are a little bit more on the gritty side. In this movie we get a story about an aspect of the war that is very rarely, if ever, covered—the tanks.
Usually when tanks are involved in World War II movies, they’re the mechanized cavalry who come in to rescue the soldiers at the last minute.
But in this film the audience gets a detailed, intense, and brutal look at what these guys have gone through, and what war can do to a person.
The main story involves the leader of the tank squad, Wardaddy (Brad Pitt), as he helps break in their newest member, Norman (Lerman), while at the same time trying to keep a sense of humanity in him.
It’s strongly hinted at that before Norman came along this tank crew had been with each other since the beginning of the war. So a big chunk of the first half is making sure Norman, who was not trained as a tanker but as a typist, gets how much of a responsibility he has as the co-driver.
At some points Wardaddy seems to try to retain any parts of humanity in him and in Norman especially. There’s an extensive scene where Wardaddy and Norman go into a German home and basically try to recreate a home environment.
But by the end he does realize that there isn’t much of chance of adapting to the world properly after the war. This is hinted at when Wardaddy later refers to the tank as his home.
Finally, I’d like to talk about the action scenes. “Fury” provides intense, fast paced, and wonderfully executed fight scenes. The best is a tank duel between three American Shermans and a German Tiger tank.
We see how intense it is, we see them try to outrun the enemy’s gun swinging around to kill them, we see the Tiger take out two of the tanks (three actually but one was destroyed early on), and we see why tank battles are so intense. I also have to give props to the people who handled the sound design.
I highly recommend this film. If you have a weak stomach for violence, then I understand why you wouldn’t want to see it, but this has enough character and wit behind it that it should appeal to anyone. This is without a doubt going to be on my best of 2014 list.