Review of Fury (2014) by Kermitlaphroaig — 16 Oct 2014

Finally, the tank gets its own movie. Long the unheralded workhorse of war, the tank has been largely neglected by Hollywood, probably due to the technical complexity and expense of trying to depict tank warfare. "Fury" attempts to make up for this in spades by reproducing in elaborate detail the everyday grunge, grease and gears of tank warfare in World War II.

The look and feel of "Fury" is reminiscent of "Saving Private Ryan", but is even more accurate and real-to-life. The dirt, the ill-fitting uniforms, the rust, the scars of life are all lovingly recreated. Especially notable are the costumes, which depict civilian and military dress at the time far more accurately than any movie ever made previously. The wardrobe department must have worked from thousands of contemporary photographs and had an army of seamstresses and designers slaving away to faithfully conjure up every emblem and button and ribbon. The scenes depicting German POWs in a holding camp and a marching column of panzer grenadiers are absolute masterpieces of technical accuracy and wardrobe fidelity. The only limitation on this display of virtuosity is the sheer panoply of styles--sometimes they show so many different uniforms and costumes within a single unit that is unrealistic because a real unit would not have so great a range of dress.

The hardware in the movie is equally realistic. Real tanks have been fully reconstructed to show exactly how they were during the war, paint chips, donkey baskets, dents and all. Pistols, ammo, machine guns and other accessories all are correct down to the click of the slide and cock of the hammer. Even civilian goods are rescued from ye olde antique shop: bottles of wine, wash basins, armoires, rugs, tea kettles, china--all straight out of pre-war Germany.

The real shining star of the movie is the battle scenes, though. These artillery explosions, armor piercing rounds and .50-caliber fire are not your father's SFX squibs and witches brew burnoffs; they are hyper realistic recreations of the actual sights and sounds of real warfare. The whine of high-velocity fire really sets your hairs on end. The only flaw is that the action is compressed, the combatants being too close to each other, but this is obviously necessary so that everything is visible. The producers went to great lengths to show actual combat tactics, so you see infantry support, dug in AT, bore-sighted ambushes, panzer faust and all kinds of other realistic tactics from actual warfare.

The weakness of the movie is its script, which is full of anachronistic modern language and implausible situations with people talking and acting like 1990 east LA toughs instead of real 1940s soldiers. The final battle scene is also completely absurd, with dozens of elite Nazis throwing themselves in front a helpless tanks gun's. It's like those old cowboy and Indian movies in which the Indians deliberately ride in front of cavalry soldiers so they can get shot down. There is also a weird romance/rape scene that tries to split the difference between gang rape, wartime prostitution and cross-cultural dating and ends up in a very awkward place.

All-in-all, if you are war buff or gear head you will love this movie, but don't expect too much from the dramatic side of it.