Review of Fury (2014) by Ahnehnois — 20 Oct 2014

Where this movie succeeds is in making you feel like you're in a tank. Technically wonderful, with a lot of grit, energetic and scary battle scenes, and a thunderous score. The characters aren't particularly original, but by and large they feel like real soldiers. There's a bleak, unsentimental quality to most of the actions. Of course there's a lot of violence, but the movie isn't afraid to let a recognizable star get shot in the face. I won't say which one.

It's short of being a great movie though, for a few reasons. For one, the stakes and action are ramped up, and even though many Hollywood conventions are successfully avoided, the jeopardy and brutality can feel gratuitous. Particularly given that they were winning the war, it seems they should proceed more conservatively.

Another issue is a sequence in the middle where the the crew shacks up with some German civilian women. It's muddled and confused, and seems to equivocate on the definition of rape in war. It also muddles the soldiers' code, particularly their leader, who would be hard pressed to justify why he draws the line where he does. Beyond that, the whole thing drags and ends up going nowhere. It seems like it was written just so some of the movie would be outside of a tank, but the subject matter calls for a better written interlude.

Indeed, the writer/director claims to have written in in one quick burst, and I think that's the movie's strength and its weakness. It feels raw and natural, but maybe could have used a rewrite so some character decisions and plot points would make more sense. That being said, even if this isn't quite on the level of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers and The Pacific, it's still an entertaining movie that says something new about the well-trod subject matter. And if you see it in the right theater, you'll really feel those tanks blasting.