This big budget war movie, featuring a very rough looking Brad Pitt, is currently topping the box office and pleasing critics. So what is it about ‘Fury” that’s working everyone up into a fervor?
The time is April, 1945. A bulky looking Brad Pitt plays a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt). Wardaddy commands a 5 man tank crew. Their mission takes them behind enemy lines, facing overwhelming odds because they’re both outnumbered and outgunned.
This is a tense movie. I haven’t seen a movie this tense since I saw U-571. It’s not only tense, but tense and gritty, and unlike many of the other war movies out there, this film takes a step back at glorifying war and instead shows the devastation.
The movie is shrouded in grays and browns, which is an excellent visual representation of the movie itself, which focuses on the end of the war. The soldiers are exhausted, and battle weary, as they should be and the aesthetic design really plays this up.
This is a war movie along the lines of Saving Private Ryan, in that the director didn’t flinch away from being harsh. It shows true war, and not the dressed up versions that seem to be nothing more than Army recruitment films.
One great part of this movie is the contrast. It’s the very definition of ‘losing the battle, but winning the war.” By the time the tank crew starts work, it is well known that the Americans are going to be victorious over Germany. But that doesn’t matter to the soldiers in Fury, as they are facing a deadly, almost unwinnable mission. There’s almost a claustrophobic feel to Fury, especially in scenes inside the team’s tank. The movie does well by maintaining an impending sense of doom, leaving the viewer convinced that there is no way the team is making it out alive.
Brad Pitt, still gorgeous at 50, is fantastic as the hardened sergeant. With his booming voice and grizzled good looks, he’s able to spew lines like ‘the dyings not done, the killings not done’ without seeming over the top. He is a man tired of war, but at the same time, he’s a man who doesn’t know how to live outside of war.
My biggest complaint about this movie is that there is absolutely no relief from the tension. There’s very little comedy, even when the team has down time, and after 2 hours and 15 minutes, I was pretty sure it was giving me an ulcer. I could have used something to break severity of the movie.
One thing I really liked was the accurate use of tracer rounds. In a dark movie, the only color we see is the green shots from the German tanks, and the molten pink one from the Americans. They are virtually the only colors you see in a sepia toned movie and the contrast makes a huge difference in the battle scenes.
Fury is the kind of movie that stays with you. It’s an excellent watch with well done battle scenes and a competent cast. This is not your average feel good military movie. Instead, it’s a dark depressing look at the end of the war, with very little hope thrown in. While a bleak look at war, it’s absolutely worthy of all the buzz it’s receiving.
WE GAVE IT: 4.5 Stars: Official Movie Trailer and Movie Poster Below
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