Amazing war film that doesn't hold back

Rating: 9/10 (20 November 2014)

Fury: I have seen at least two dozen different WWII movies in my life and with the exception of Saving Private Ryan, Fury is the best WWII film I have ever seen. Sergeant Wardaddy says "Ideals are peaceful, history is violent." This film is not for the faint of heart because it is not afraid to hold back on the brutality and utter gruesomeness that war brings to the world. Some of the images are horrifying to watch but are necessary to establish the theme of the film. I rarely see a film like this one. With ingeniously-crafted intense war scenes, strong acting across the board, and a new somewhat claustrophobic setting, a tank, Fury has become the best war film of the past five years.
I had to think really hard about what I would have changed for this movie. Aside from a somewhat laughable moment where they had to find an excuse to have Brad Pitt take his shirt off, I could not find anything to criticize. Some people say this film suffers from a plot that does not seem to go anywhere, but I thought it knew exactly where it wanted to go. A soldiers life does not have a clear-cut path that he has to follow. The plot follows as such a soldier's life would go-in all directions.
From what I have heard since I have never been in a war, Fury is very realistic. It does the opposite of holding back. It shows gives you the horrors of war and how soldiers have to respond to them. It has you like a character one second showing you how great they are, then shows you the character dead in a pile of rubble. It's not glorifying the Americans at all times either. It shows the pure hatred the Americans had for Germans. This is something we would all feel though and shows how one day of war can bring that hatred out of someone. The tank is also something I have never seen before. Fury is the first film to use a genuine Tiger I tank in the making of a WWII film. The tank called "Fury" serves as the main setting throughout the film and it is amazing the type of shots their were able to capture inside an actual tank. Outside of a couple of scenes from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade, no other director has even come close to the scenes captured in this movie. Hats off to David Ayer!
The people that served in WWII were never the same because of the experiences that had. It is very hard to actually convey this type of emotion and character in acting, but I surprised that everyone involved in the film did an incredible job. They were all perfectly casted. I know a lot of you are thinking right now "even Shia Labeouf was good?" Yes, as much as it pains me to say it, he had the strongest acting in the film. Even a little better than Brad Pitt which is really hard more me to say. Brad Pitt stills did a great job, and Logan Lerman easily had the best performance of his career along with Jon Bernthal and Michael Pena. Suffice to say, this movie has no shortage of outstanding acting.
If you can handle some very intense war scenes and also love incredible films, I highly recommend Fury as your first choice going into the theater.
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