The David Ayer movie is just another war movie if you look at it that way. Most of the scenes are clichéd, and dialogues are muffled in various American accents. It is tense and has some exciting scenes, which shows research on tank warfare. It is a good movie on many aspects.
Bikini Plot: American tank platoons go in deep inside Germany in 1945. They name their tanks, same way you have seen the movies on fighter planes (tank being centre of a movie is only second time in my memory, after The Beast., and one of the tank is, obviously, Fury). Brad Pitt is in command, and his team has lost their first member since 1941. Unbelievable - Africa, France, Belgium and now Germany. Surviving Rommel, possible - might have been with Patton. Surviving Normandy, possible (in a Bob De Niro way). Surviving Belgium - come on, man. Yet, that is the story. They fight their way inside the enemy territory where the Germans fight total war. The SS is making last ditch effort to suicide in German way.
Movie has a few really high points - it condenses a million soldiers into 5 characters who become burdened with carrying diverse point of views. It becomes clichéd when it tries to englamour the characters. It shows how war affects people. Losing sanity. Losing virginity. Ayer has a wry sense of humour! The tank battle on field is excellently shot and for first time, the armoured becomes glamorous. Those who admire Guderian and Patton as commanders would love this movie. Those who despise war will hate this movie. Those who think they are immune to ugliness of war will throw random words at this movie. And yet, I think this movie wanted just the same reaction from all of these individuals. The camera work is superb for most part, showing the greyness of cold to perfection. The scenes inside of tank had some misses, especially towards the end where the cinematographer wanted the emotions to be captured and it felt cut off from the tone of rest of the reels. Sadly, the Fury can't match the score of Black Hawk Down or Thin Red Line. A very dramatic last stand dialogue sequence just made me lose all the mojo of the movie built up till then.
Brad Pitt is his usual in this movie. An actor whom I hated in his early movies, then grew more and more commanding in his screen presence, until the Jesse James movie just made me love him. Shia LeBouf is very nice in his bespectacled role. He is nicknamed the Bible for quoting from Bible (The De Niro bob). Then there are other two Lerman and Bernthal who portray two ends of spectrum, each doing justice to their roles. Scenes which could have been worth a tear have been made so raw that you feel that actors had to have it while shooting. Micheal Pena has his own portion of the movie all to himself - where his face is not scene at all, but his voice gives more than others on screen. The shooting of a horse is an act of no valour.
I did not feel moved by this movie. I could not find fault with this movie either. It ended up in two fold thoughts - a) why do I forget so much on world war, and how could I miss Ypres! and b) What happens to people in war? Or are they always like this. War is ugly. Young die young. Still, there is humanity. Humanity survives with the victory, because most of the people are humane. People do lose it. The ones who regain them without losing themselves are the lucky lot.
