War Has Never Looked This Uneasy and Horrific!

Rating: 7/10 (19 October 2014)

In David Ayer's Fury, you will not find the Malick-like romanticism of war or vague, beautifully symbolic shots of war's ravage. No, Fury seeks to paint as ugly of a literal portrait of war as possible with this latest WW2 film. Cinematographer Roman Vasyanov's remorseless navigation through innumerable mutilated, flattened corpses and exploding heads, as well as the total distressing destruction on display, makes the viewer feel all kinds of unpleasantness, especially in view of the purely morose and gritty color palette. Steven Price's effectively mournful score never ceases its emotional impact as viewers squirm and helplessly witness never-ending death and repugnant human behavior.
After narrowly surviving a vicious battle against the superior German tanks and being left out to dry among countless American dead bodies, weary and downcast Don Collier (Brad Pitt) and his brutish crew are handed a young, inexperienced, and sensitive kid, Norman (Logan Lerman), who's just another one of the draft's victims—required to quickly transition from a relatively calming desk job to a mercilessly exhaustive position on the battlefield that forcefully strips all of your morals away. "I can't do it!" Norman finally yells after being slapped around and taunted in the face of having to shoot a Nazi, otherwise a father with two kids and a loving wife. The amount of horrific, gory sights and the expectation to kill and kill some more is even greater than unbearable for this innocent man as he vomits and weeps, knowing full well he's a changing man. He will never return to the normal, comforting world he thought he knew.
Paralleling the fierce war the story guides us through, we see Norman's gradual desensitization at the hands of unforgiving crew members: a pensive, pious man of God (Shia LaBeouf); the obnoxious, hostile big guy (Jon Bernthal); and the humorous one who goes on tirades in Spanish every now and then (Michael Peña). A soldier's virtue here is to act solely as a killing machine and end the day with the duty accomplished; tear through the meat and only leave the Germans' bones to rot behind. The violence we see on-screen is brutally realistic and disheartening in its portrayal—sometimes less theatrical than expected and sometimes just incredibly graphic. Whether it's a body crushed under tank treads or a man's left leg blown right off by a machine gun, the audience is in for an excruciatingly difficult glimpse into grueling and revengeful warfare. David Ayer brings his unvarnished style to the war genre; after exhibiting the raw ferocity of police work, his next focus is on an even more perilous task with a larger scope: combat itself—the largest war of all time.
The aspect I was most torn on though was Logan Lerman's whole character arc. The runtime of this picture wasn't nearly adequate enough to convincingly show a fulfilling evolution of his character, ending up more rushed and artificial than anything. It takes a matter of scenes for him to suddenly foul his mouth and dramatically increase that pulse for ruthless killing. It's like that good kid in school who makes friends with and starts hanging around the naughty ones as he quickly (superficially) starts acting like he's one of them even though everyone around can tell the personality doesn't quite suit the kid yet. I wouldn't go so far as to blame Lerman's performance itself, but more so place that blame on the way his character was written and utilized. The first half of the plot features a heartbreaking, gut- wrenching look at his jarring introduction to combat, providing most of the compelling thematic material of the movie. That angle is unfortunately abandoned about an hour into the movie.
All in all, the film carries neither the thematic complexity nor the narrative memorability some of the best war movies benefit from. The story is also not daring enough to depict the familial/civilian atrocities that transpired during the time as well—the abuse—as none of the American soldiers seem to cross the moral boundary to deranged extremes. The characters have hints of moral grayness to them but not enough to detract from its apparent glorification of the "Oorah!" comradeship that forms under war, and this is where the film's agenda becomes somewhat mixed. Is it blatantly anti-war or more sentimental and simply patriotic in its messages like Lone Survivor or Saving Private Ryan? With that being said, Fury still manages to remain compelling and technically impressive throughout. We get several tense tank showdowns, entertaining character interactions between these loud personalities, and a real poignant climax.