Phooey

Rating: 5/10 (21 February 2015)

This film has the best recreation of WW2 tank warfare you will ever see, but to my mind, it captures roughly the same level of truth about combat in WW2 as "The Dirty Dozen" or "Inglorious Basterds".
I think the guys who manned those tanks in WW2 deserved a better homage than this.
Much of the film revolves around veteran tank sergeant, Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt), 'blooding' replacement Pvt. Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) in the ways of war and Nazi-hating. He does this with techniques such as making the 'newbie' shoot an unarmed prisoner in the back and scaring defenceless German women as they 'liberate' their town. Before long 'Wardaddy' has Norman joyfully creating the red mist around many of the Herrenvolk before most of the crew go out in a blaze of glory.
For a while now, filmmakers have revelled in showing 'how war really is' with plenty of the stuff the old Hollywood Production Code used to stop. But in "Fury", the US Troops are so badass that it wouldn't have been a surprise to see the Germans head for the Russian lines to surrender because they thought they would stand a better chance of survival.
There are some odd touches in "Fury". 'Wardaddy' cruises around with a far too modern haircut, and about the same level of authority as George S Patton - he also makes nearly as many speeches as 'Ol Blood 'n' Guts'. It actually comes as a surprise when we see him taking orders from an officer.
With the exception of Norman, the guys in the tank crew are played in a rather dumbed-down way. However, that doesn't stop them from also making speeches - there are more before-battle speeches here than in Henry V or John Wayne's "The Alamo".
Even when a film isn't based on a specific historical event, the expectation is that it will attempt to capture a feeling for the time it portrays. Although "Fury" captures the look, I'm not so sure about the feeling.
Was executing prisoners the norm? Credulity is stretched to breaking point in that scene where 'Wardaddy' teaches Norman how to whack Germans, especially when it was done in front of such a large audience. What, no officers around to have 'Wardaddy' arrested and sent for a court martial or most probably a Section 8? Or even any Army Intelligence guys who needed prisoners for interrogation? It would be naïve to think US and allied forces didn't kill prisoners in the heat of battle during the war in Europe, but some of the scenes in "Fury" seem informed by the fact and fiction of all the other wars the US has fought since WW2.
Without the touches of nastiness and the brilliantly-staged battle scenes, the storyline of "Fury" is decidedly routine, not much above an episode of the old "Combat" TV series, and in my opinion, falls way short of other portrayals of WW2 such as "Band of Brothers" or Carl Foreman's "The Victors".
Millions of people around the world will see "Fury"; most won't have a keen knowledge of history; they probably won't differentiate that much between wars - a bit like the people who actually made the film - and if that is the impression they get of the US army, then the job of the modern-day soldier is made just that much harder.