Fury. Rated MA15+ (strong war themes, violence, blood
and gore and coarse language). 134 minutes. Written and Directed by David Ayer.
Verdict: A
gruelling saga about the horrors of tank warfare.
Fury begins as
World War 2 enters its increasingly urgent final stages, the Allies are now
deep inside Germany on the march to Berlin, and its stark opening sequence
gives absolutely nothing away about what is to come.
A battle has
obviously been fought, but it’s impossible to know who might have won. A
fatigued Sherman tank commander ‘Wardaddy’ (Brad Pitt) appears from within a
smouldering tank, Fury’, and kills a dazed survivor who is riding past on his
white horse by plunging a knife into his eye. It is a brutally efficient
moment, full of intense hate, with which Ayer signals that his film is not
going to be an easy ride. Ever.
Returning to a
makeshift command centre, Wardaddy and his crew Boyd (Shia LaBeouf), Grady (Jon
Bernthal) and Trini (Michael Peña), report that Fury’s gunner has been killed.
Replacing him is a recently enlisted, young administration assistant Norman (a
superb Logan Lerman), who will soon find himself trapped in an unrecognisable
world that will change him forever.
In precisely the
same manner in which Steven Spielberg took us deep within the Normandy Landings
in Saving Private Ryan (1998), Ayer’s forensic examination of the horrors of
tank warfare refuses to do us any favours whatsoever. The relentless battle set
pieces are astonishingly realistic, and the exceptional performances from a
cast who are obviously deeply engaged with the uncompromising material, are
almost obsessively captured from every possible angle.
Fury is a deeply
unsettling, chaotic film to watch. Just how difficult it becomes to experience
will simply be a question of whether or not you have the stamina.
This review was
commissioned by the West Australian Newspaper Group.
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