Brad Pitt and his tank crew single-handedly win World War II in the new action-drama film Fury.
Someone had to do it.
Writer-director David Ayer (Training Day) draws on nearly 70 years of World War II movies, and the latest special effects, to render a conventional but engaging story about a determined sergeant and his men.
By their nature, war movies are usually grim. Fury is grimmer than most. The special effects enable Ayer to show a head being blown off, a face lying on the tank floor, legs split asunder by a passing bullet, and other unmentionables. The effects also capture the tracers from the frighteningly fast bullets. Saving Private Ryan did this, but Fury advances the technique.
Ayer’s narrative picks up the story of the title tank, Fury, and its four-man crew. The men have been together since Africa, have fought through France and Belgium, and have just entered the German heartland where soldiers continue their losing cause. Against his will, the shy, untrained Norman (Logan Lerman) enters this tight group.
As in any war film featuring the integration of a new soldier (which is most of them), the new man fights the resentment of his crewmates: cocky Gordo (Michael Pena), strutting and staggering Travis (Jon Bernthal), and Bible-quoting Swan (Shia LaBeouf). The broadly painted group fights under their top sergeant, “Wardaddy” Collier (Pitt), called Top by all.
Top takes the reluctant Norman under his wing and makes the young man the only dynamic character. By the end, the war-ravaged Norman no longer resembles the formerly timid soldier he once was. But for their part, the others remain the same: jaded, yet realistic.
Top and his boys travel across Germany with an accompanying battalion. They are soon reduced to the single tank. A superior officer (Jason Isaacs) then sends them on a near-suicidal mission that provides the film its final act, a thrilling, prolonged sequence that borders on the absurd.
Pitt’s Top may not change much but he becomes the film’s focus and its most fascinating character, showing a disturbing bloodlust and a sadistic side, but with a surprising humanitarian streak somehow found in conflict.
Cinematographer Roman Vasyanov’s battle scenes remain shrouded in smoke and fire, as they probably are in all-out war. And Steven Price’s relentless music score becomes so thunderous, it can be heard even above the mayhem.
Overall, Fury delivers a few hours of solid entertainment, however familiar.
BOO ALLEN is an award-winning film critic who has worked for the Denton Record-Chronicle for more than 20 years. He lives in Dallas.
MOVIE RATING
Fury
***
Rated R, 135 minutes.
Opens Friday.
