Review: Fury

War is not for the weak-minded, soft-hearted or thin-skinned as Norman Ellis (Logan Lerman) soon learns when he's assigned to be an assistant driver for the M4 Sherman tank nicknamed "Fury." Practically just out of his mama's womb, his greenness is a danger to the safety of Fury's crew and he's forced to shoot a captured SS officer by his tank commander Sgt. Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt).

Wardaddy has been fighting the Germans from Africa to the Netherlands and he has two things on his mind: kill the Germans and keep his crew alive. The odds seem stacked against him and the rest of the soldiers fighting in the war: the American tanks are outgunned and out-armoured by the more superior German tanks, resulting in a staggering number of lives lost. Indeed, as Fury makes its way from one town to another, from one makeshift base camp to the next, they're welcomed by the bodies of their fallen brothers, the wails of the wounded, and the weary bravado of those still standing.

The Americans' effort to carry out their missions - rescuing a platoon, capturing a Nazi stronghold - are fraught with threats of sniper gunfire or, in one instance, a camouflaged German setting one of the American tanks on fire, leading one immolating Yank to shoot himself in the head. One nailbiting sequence has Fury and three other tanks exposed on the battlefield - the tanks are duly destroyed one by one until only Fury is left to somehow defeat the lone German Tiger tank. Fury may not have the level of urgency and versimilitude as the battle scenes in Saving Private Ryan, but the film is effective in showing the carnage of war - body parts are blown off with stomach-churning frequency - as well as its emotional toll.

The best sequence of the film occurs off the battlefield. The Americans have secured a town and have bought themselves a bit of time for rest and revelry. Wardaddy and Norman come upon an apartment in which a mother (Anamaria Marinca) and her daughter Emma (Alicia von Rittberg) reside. The men lay down their arms, the women's fear abates, Wardaddy offers them food, Norman plays the piano, Emma sings along, Wardaddy encourages the two to take time for themselves in the bedroom, then the quartet sit down for a meal.

Then Fury's other crew members arrive: the religious gunner Boyd "Bible" Swan (Shia LaBeouf, the best he's been in a long time), Mexican driver Trini "Gordo" Garcia (Michael Peña), and volatile hillbilly loader Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis (Jon Bernthal). It's abundantly clear that none of these men would associate with one another in real life but on the battlefield, inside the confines of Fury, they are a brotherhood. This entire passage contains fear, desire, danger, uncertainty, barely controlled violence - and very much stands as a powerful representation of war in all its complexities and contradictions.

Fury

Directed by: David Ayer

Written by: David Ayer

Starring: Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal, Jason Isaacs, Anamaria Marinca, Alicia von Rittberg