Fury takes place in 1945, with the Allies now deep in the heart of Nazi Germany. Norman (Logan Lerman) is a young private trained only for clerical work. So it comes as a surprise when he's assigned to a tank unit. He's placed inside the Sherman of Sgt. Collier (Brad Pitt), a battle-hardened veteran who's been fighting with his crew since Africa. Collier takes a very small detachment of tanks and heads into enemy territory, hoping to capture towns along the way and protect the Allied advance. But Norman is far from ready for the horrors of war.
There is no lack of media depicting World War II. The question for Fury is what exactly it adds to the conversation. The answer is a little unclear. In moments, it projects a sense of realism, refusing to turn away from the abject lack of humanity on the battlefield. On the other hand, it trades in stock characters and genre clichés, in the end abandoning the themes in favor of a big action finale. The pleasures are ample in this movie, but its unclear if that's a good thing in the end.
The first half of the movie is bracingly unromantic about warfare. It makes it clear just how awful all of it is, how goodness has no place in the fighting. The primary conflict at the onset involves the need for Norman to get over his conscience, for him to become as brutal as the battlefield requires him to be. He needs to be every bit as violent as the SS soldiers he's facing, who have no qualms about hanging children for refusing to fight.
And then the film moves into its second half, where it seems to back away from the grit. Norman's conflict stops being an issue, as he's never really faced with a strong moral dilemma ever again. And whatever realism the film was clinging to is all but lost in the climax, which stages a ludicrous fight that seems to contradict the ideas put forth in the first half. Whereas the earlier portions of the film seem to subvert the very idea of heroism in conflict, the back half seems intent on making classical heroes out of these characters.
Regardless of which half of the movie ultimately wins out, one has to acknowledge how well done it all is. The battles are particularly compelling, the movie shooting much of the conflict from inside the cramped space of the tank. The film just puts the audience in there, making them feel the rattling of the engine, and every burst of the cannon. It takes pains to capture a particular rhythm of life present within that cramped space. The acting is all pretty good as well, the cast elevating much of the writing. They may all be playing types, but the chemistry between Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal creates something more interesting along the way.
Fury feels a little thin in the end. It just never seems certain about what it wants to do. It starts out feeling like a criticism of how war is often portrayed in media, and then it turns around and does all the things it shouldn’t be doing. It doesn’t end up saying much in the long run, in spite of its serious leanings. Given that, it’s still a pretty captivating movie at points. If nothing else, the movie gives us one of the best depictions of a tank battle ever committed to screen. That alone might make it worth it.
My Rating:
