Fury

Hollywood has and still has an amazing love affair with war films. I could list them, but suffice it to say, the list would be a bazillion. And I must admit, I do enjoy the genre especially when it is crafted with the right amount of integrity, realism and accuracy. I have to say that when I saw my first trailer on "Fury", I thought it would be an incredible film on several levels and after viewing it, my first impressions were founded.

April 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Don 'Wardaddy' Collier (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank with his loyal, mighty crew, Boyd 'Bible' Swan (Shia LeBeouf), Trini 'Gordo' Garcia (Michael Pena), Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis (Jon Bernthal) and newcomer, Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the hearts of Nazi Germany.
In Wardaddy's eyes, things don't get any better when one of his men is killed so he's replaced by Norman, an office clerk who's never seen battle. Norman feels so out-of-water in this new endeavor that Wardaddy, although knows he will learn, thinks their odds are even worse in combating the Nazis. This definitely becomes a huge right of passage for Norman as he cowers, trips up and blunders his way to, not only to survive, but to be accepted as a peer by the other men.

Others to round out the cast are Jim Parrack as Sgt. Binkowski, Brad Henke as Sgt. Davis, Kevin Vance as Sgt. Peterson, Xavier Samuel as Lt. Parker, Jason Isaacs as Capt. Waggoner, Anamaria Marinca as Irma, Alicia von Rittberg as Emma, Scott Eastwood as Sgt. Miles, Laurence Spellman as Sgt. Dillard and Daniel Betts as Burgermeister.

This was directed with incredible intensity and grit by David Ayer ("Harsh Times" '05, "Street Kings" '08, "End of Watch" '12, "Sabotage" '14). As with his past films, this film was treated with situations that definitely made its audience think--what would you do given the same situation. This guy just gets better with each project he's involved with. It was also written by Ayer ("U-571" 2000, "The Fast & the Furious" '01, "Training Day" '01, "Dark Blue" '02, "S.W.A.T." '03, "Harsh Times" '05, "End of Watch" '12, "Sabotage" '14), which, by his very resume,  is where he even excels more at. His scripts simply flow and the characters are richly developed. Each and every one of these characters were extremely different, however their comraderie was amazing in that when it's time to get the job done, they will watch each other's backs at all costs. Ayer can keep writing scripts for a long time to come, considering that there are so many mediocre screenwriters out there today. The cast had great chemistry as the crew--you felt that these guys had known each other for years.

Whether you like the genre of war or not, this is a great character study in how people can stick together in spite of the insurmountable odds handed them. And this is something we all can take from this film.

Out of 4 Stars: 4                                 Rated: R                               134mins.