Fury

There's lots of bullets and blood flying around in Fury. Let's see if the sound that goes with it means something.

April 1945, the last month of the War in Europe. Hitler orders everybody in Germany to take up arms against the invading Allies. And the crew of the Sherman Tank Fury, which consists of Sergeant "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt), "Bible" Swan (Shia LaBeouf), "Gordo" Garcia (Michael Pena) and Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal), are more than willing to fight them.

Their newest recruit is typist Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman). Norman is completely unprepared for the carnage of war. Wardaddy and co. try to teach Norman how to be a man. Norman tries to stay sane. Their trek across Germany lets them see just how fanatical the Nazi cause can be.

(That just about sums it up.)

Writer/Director David Ayer, known for contemporary crime dramas such as End of Watch, goes back in time for this one. Ayer does a good job exemplifying that War is not Nice. There's a lot of blood and body-parts flying around in the battle scenes, even a flattened corpse in the mud. It's kind of like Saving Private Ryan except without the emotional impact. We mainly get blood and guts and not accompanying terror.

The standout sequence was Fury and its Ally Tanks dueling an indestructible Nazi tank. No matter what they do, the Nazi tank keeps on going and blasts the Ally Tanks. Only when Fury gets close enough do they blast the crew. 

The rest of the 134 minute runtime certainly takes its sweet time. The main plot doesn't kick in until the second half; that leads directly to the overly-extended climax. Meanwhile, we have to endure the Fury's veteran crew treating Norman harshly. Wardaddy redeems himself by showing some dignity later on. Grady, meanwhile, is unbelievably rude and not in a lovable way. The film treats Grady's eventual death with sadness; no wet eyes from me.

The tanks in Fury are actual surviving tanks from the war. That should get the attention of a few War aficionados more than the lingering story. Other than that, this is an average war film. In the meantime, we're two months away before another World War II drama, Unbroken, is released. That should get much more attention.