Review of Fury (2014) by Patrick C — 11 Jun 2015

David Ayer has come a long way. His career started as a screenwriter of such machismo fare as U-571, The Fast & the Furious and Training Day - which won Denzel Washington his second Oscar. In 2012, he earned his first critical accolades as a director with the Jake Gyllenhaal cop drama End of Watch. Fury represents his graduation to the majors.

A film of uncompromising brutality and authenticity, it's a war cocktail some critics have described as equal parts Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line and Glory. And it's all those things, with it's WWII greatest-generation-band-of-brothers trudging across a magnificent war landscape to sacrifice all if necessary to defeat the Nazis. But for me, it was the splash of Platoon that earned this film my 4 star rating. The stark moral conflicts faced by the principle characters are hard core, unrelenting, and unrepentant portraits of men in war.

Brad Pitt is spectacular as Wardaddy, the tank commander who mercilessly slaughters the enemy and teaches his new charge - fantastic Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) - to do the same. Lerman's transformation into a hardened soldier of war is difficult and entirely necessary. The Walking Dead's Jon Berthal is a standout. This guy is the next big thing. And Shia LaBeouf gives his best performance to date as the heart and soul of the tank crew doling out biblical quotations and weary tears. On a political side note, it's simply amazing how potent and true those verses are in the right hands compared to how modern politicos pervert them for their own means today.

Prepare yourselves for war at it's bloody best and production values to garner award attention. And check out Ayer, directing the hell out of it all and giving Brad Pitt an unforgettable role.