Most Realistic War Movie Since Saving Private Ryan

Rating: 8/10 (6 October 2016)

Pleasantly surprised by the realism of the film. Fury does not shy away from the horror of war which I found refreshing as many war films tend to go down the glory road. The action is intense and actually makes you feel tense (the film states in the opening credits that the American tanks where inferior to the German tanks and this adds to the sense of dread and tension during the battle scenes). I find the quiet 20 minutes in the middle of the film drag and feels too long but it does have some pretty haunting dialogue which stuck with me. The dialogue as a whole is consistently good and ranges from moving to funny to sad. I still remember the foreboding line spoken by Shia LeBouf in the beginning of the film to green as grass recruit Norman "Wait until you see it. What a man can do to another man." Fury has some great cinematography which will turn even the strongest stomach, from decomposing bodies in the mud to piles of dead soldiers being pushed out the way by a bulldozer to hundreds of German POW's staring sorrowfully at Brad Pitt's character WarDaddy. One of my favourite scenes is of a beautiful German refugee Girl staring at Norman and he smiles back. I really got the feeling that rather than staring because she was attracted to him, she was just shocked at how young he was for a soldier and this really left an impression me. Fury does not try to paint the Americans as all good hero's and neither paints the Germans as evil (apart from the SS which Fury makes a point of showing are hated by the American soldiers above all else.)The character of Norman (played by Logan Lerman) is very relatable and it's easy to put yourself in his shoes, especially earlier in the film when he's practically mad with fear during his first combat encounters. I would definitely recommend this film as it is a welcome break from stereotypical war films that stick to the usual flag waving formula or war films that just plain aren't violent enough and hide away from the horrors of way.