Movie Review - Fury

Fury **** (out of 5) (R) For those old enough to remember it, this movie has nothing to do with the identically-titled warm, fuzzy 1950s TV series about the adventures of a horse and the humans who loved him. This Fury is a tank in WW II that’s been home to Brad Pitt and the rest of its crew from the North African campaign to the winter of 1945 as the Allies were making their final push through Germany. As the film opens, they’d just suffered their first fatality, causing the unwelcome addition of a green kid (Logan Lerman) to their grizzled little family. After only eight weeks in the army, during which he was trained to be a clerk, he was suddenly thrust into the role of an assistant tank gunner, learning on the fly at the spearhead of the front lines.

The film includes battle sequences rivaling the most riveting moments of Saving Private Ryan or Lone Survivor on the intensity scale. A couple of tank clashes seem unusually similar to the more familiar choreography of aerial dogfights, as depicted throughout decades of cinematic warfare. We’re told at the beginning that Germany’s Panzers were bigger and badder than our tanks; we eventually see how that worked in face-to-face showdowns.

Pitt contributes a fine performance as the battle-hardened sergeant who has not only earned the unflinching loyalty of his crew, but the respect of peers and superiors. Despite the strategic value of their experience, the body count surrounding them escalates, showing how random survival can be when armaments are flying around the troops from sources large and small, near and far. The characters and plot details run true to form for the genre, with few surprises. Lerman is OK as the newbie whose hasty end-of-war training couldn’t prepare him for this reality; Shia LaBoeuf redeems himself a bit from recent travails as the most religious member of the crew, delivering a better-than-his-usual turn. Most importantly, so many scenes are artfully paced and crafted by writer/director David Ayer, making its 130-minute running time far less onerous than it might have been, which is always appreciated. (10/17/14)