This is an impressive war movie that brings viewers right into the fray, allowing us to see what war really must be like. It’s about an armored tank unit in WWII during the final days of the war, when the Americans have penetrated deep into enemy lines in Germany. Victory is close, but that doesn’t change a thing for the five guys inside Fury, which is what they’ve christened their vehicle/weapon/ home. The name describes what they feel not only toward the enemy, but also toward life as they know it: an endless massacre of friend and foe. We get a glimpse of what the war-hardened men, led by Sgt. Collier (Brad Pitt), might have been like before four years of fighting in the figure of new recruit Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), who thinks he’s in Germany to be a clerk-typist, but gets assigned to Pitt’s unit as an assistant driver. Reality sinks in quickly as he learns to ‘do his job’: kill Germans.
Fury is riveting and sad, but also offers a glimmer of hope for the future. The sound and visual effects from tank fire are much more realistic than I remember in other war movies, and Brad Pitt has created an endearing and memorable hero.
Should You See It? Yes. —D.W.
Viewed at The Moolah Theatre & Lounge
