Reviews

Fury starring Brad Pitt film review in Bristol

Posted on: 2014-10-27

It's a thrilling, tense, emotionally tumultuous ride into the very nexus of war's gritty dark heart, and true testament to Collier's own growling observation that

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There's no doubt that Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan shifted the look and feel of the World War II storytelling dynamic. Drenched in uber-real, ultra-violent, hyper-pumped visuals and combat re-enactment, there's been a slew of imitators that haven't even come close to the bearded guru's gut-wrenchingly emotional masterpiece. And while director David Ayer's Fury doesn't quite have the same, visceral 'war as hell' impact, it's certainly not far off.  

Kicking off in the tail-end of the Second World War, it follows a group of American GI's in an M4 Sherman tank as they rumble their way closer to an inevitable collision course with Hitler's troops en route to Berlin. Led by Brad Pitt's Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier, battle-fatigued and war-weary, it's also an in-at-the-deep-end initiation for new recruit US Army typist, Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman), who slowly transitions from war loathing to blood-sating soldier.  

Practically every scene pulsates with palpable intensity and an air of all-consuming doom. Like the soldiers, you're always on the look-out, constantly on your guard for that unsuspecting Nazi fire or incoming grenade. Ayer chorerographs the battle scenes with aplomb, sizing the steel beasts against each other in a flurry of firepower, red-hot cannons and creaking, crunching machinery. 

Bullets fly, bones splinter, and heads explode with the impact of a well-timed cannon blast, and the body count racks up to near-incalculable numbers across the smoke-shrouded, limb-strewn fields. 

But amidst all the carnage there are moments of much-needed respite, as the soldiers hunker down in their claustrophobic steel sanctuary to bond and get to grips with their increasingly desperate situation. Some of the dialogue, good as it is, occasionally veers on the contrived (and some religious rhetoric is irritating), but there's no denying the lines are given extra kudos and gravitas by some great supporting performances, notably Shia LeBeouf and an under-used Jason Isaacs.  

Pitt is superb, leading his troops from one seemingly random location to the next, without rhyme nor reason nor posted on any particular, crucial mission, but with the simple, driving modus operandi to slaughter as many Nazis as they possibly can. He's by turns brutal, charming, unpredictable, unnerving and charismatic. 

At its core, the epic canvas and historical scope of World War II plays out the timeless character ticks of violent men in violent circumstances doing everything they can and must to survive. It's at times brutal and unflinching - the cannon of their steel mothership daubed with the word 'Fury' blasting out fiery retribution - grinding them faithfully on to their next bullet-ridden, bloodthirsty location. 

Ayer steers everything with confident, masterly strokes, helped admirably by Roman Vasyanov's cinematography - sometimes evocatively poetic, more often face-to-the-mud grim - and Steven Price's dramatic score. 

True, the lines between historical accuracy and fiction are often blurred in favour of a Nazi-thrashing, gung-ho, Boys Own bombast, but there's also a jarring, emotional contemporary prescience to soldiers thrust into the line of fire of often faceless enemies and the inescapable, harrowing consequences.  

It's a thrilling, tense, emotionally tumultuous ride into the very nexus of war's gritty dark heart, and true testament to Collier's own growling observation that "Ideals are peaceful, history's violent". 

4.5/5

Reviewed by Jamie Caddick for 365Bristol

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