“Fury,” a WWII film, is based on a collection of stories from ‘tankers’ (teams of tank drivers). It is a gritty, realistic film recreating the horrors of war into a visually pleasing cinematic two hours and 15 minutes.
This movie is beautifully shot, with the colors dimmed to give the whole film an overcast look to it. The story is pretty simple, starring Brad Pitt as Sergeant Don “Wardaddy” Collier, who leads a team of tankers who have to deal with a rookie thrown onto their team while they fight off Nazis. Other familiar faces include Shia Labeouf, Logan Lerman, Micheal Pena and Jon Bernthal.
This movie is violent and bloody. It is a war movie after all, and nothing is held back. But while it is brutal and harsh, there are moments where its soft side shows.
Just like its lead character, Collier, “Fury” can be rough at times, but there are moments when you really see and understand that these soldiers are people too. They care about those around them and have feelings. Collier becomes a father figure of sorts for Logan Lerman, who plays the aforementioned rookie of the team.
All the actors, mainly Collier’s tanker team, do a superb job in their roles, adding feeling and heart to their characters, albeit Jon Berthal’s character is the cliché army jarhead considered to be a bully.
To prepare for these roles and get the real feeling of it, many WWII tank drivers were interviewed and their personal stories were used as inspiration to recreate the life inside a tank.
The camera work included many close-ups from inside the tank, making you feel like you were actually in the cramped confines of the cockpit. The cinematography of the whole film was artistically ravishing, with creative camera-work and dim colors combined to create the gritty imagery of war.
The battle scenes were especially great to watch and probably the film’s strongest point besides the acting. The way the bullets were lit up was cool to see (granted sometimes they looked like lasers). It added a nice effect to the battles, especially with camera angles used during the tank battles.
The soundtrack, composed by Steven Price, brings a grand dramatic sound to the movie, with a chilling choral sound, which was subtle during tense moments of the movie.
Overall, there was nothing outstanding about the plot. It was rather simple, with the characters being the main driving point that pushed the movie along. If anything, I’d say the plot is the weakest part of the movie, but the movie was so well done in every other aspect that it is easy to forgive.
David Ayer does a great job directing and writing the script, but the movie would have had a better impact if it had more of a plot. At the same time, did “Fury” need an amazing story to begin with? While it’s no “Saving Private Ryan,” “Fury” is just fine the way it is, having it revolve more around the well-written characters and the tense action than the story.
