Great tank battles and tank crew story

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2014)

April 1945, Nazi Germany. Don Collier leads his tank Fury's crew Bible, Gordo, and Grady after an ambush wipes out the rest of their platoon, killing his assistant driver. At the base, Don, speaking German himself, takes the liberty to crudely interrogate a Nazi POW on the spot. A young soldier Norman Ellison is assigned to replace the fallen driver, to the reluctance of Fury's crew. When Fury and four others convoy at a forest's edge, Norman spots a kid in Nazi uniform with a gun but hesitates to shoot, and the lead tank gets hit. The soldiers manage to retaliate, and Don smacks Norman, stating the soldiers' deaths are Norman's fault for not shooting. The remaining tanks then go to rescue soldiers in a field. When a fight breaks out, again Norman doubts to shoot. As the Americans win, Don holds Norman forcing him to kill a Nazi POW. Norman confronts Don about it. Don states Norman endangers Fury's crew by not doing his job, whereas Don promised to keep them alive.
The tanks go to secure a town. A battle breaks out. The crew fires incendiaries, burning alive two Nazis, which Norman shoots. Gordo tells him he should've let them burn. A civilian informs the soldiers of surrendering Nazis and they agree to it. An SS officer appears and Don orders a soldier to kill him, after confirming this officer hanged civilians refusing to fight for the Nazis. As the soldiers celebrate, Don and Norman see a girl and go there. Don asks the older woman there to prepare food and water, and gives Norman a chance to be alone with the younger woman Emma. The rest of Fury's crew arrive, disappointed they weren't invited. They then go for the next mission. Artillery barrages the town, killing Emma. Don then takes the tanks to secure a crossroads from an advancing unknown number of Nazis. On their way, a superior Tiger tank kills off one of them. The remaining three tries to maneuver at it as their guns can't pierce its armor. The Tiger manages to kill the other two but Fury manages to shoot at its rear, it's only weak point.
Fury reaches the crossroads but is immobilized as it triggers a land mine. As the crew fix the tracks, Don sends Norman as a lookout. Norman rushes back to Fury, informing the crew of hundreds of Nazis heading their way. The other men wants to flee but as Don refuses to do so, they eventually rejoin him for one last battle. They prepare guns and ammo and pass time talking. The Nazis come closing in, assuming the tank's busted. The crew opens fire, killing many. Norman runs out of ammo and the crew fights on to retrieve exterior mounted guns and ammo. One by one the crew is killed. Don is eventually shot several times by a sniper and he retreats inside Fury. Norman tells Don that he's scared and wants to surrender. Don tells him to escape through the bottom hatch. As Norman does so, Don is killed by the German grenades. A Nazi soldier crouches and finds Norman under the tank but he didn't say a word. As the morning comes, advancing US troops find Norman and retrieve him, stating he is a hero.
The story pits the moral contradictions in a war in such high extremes. Moreover, it shows that in such a situation of kill or be killed, often times there won't be enough time to choose, let alone to think. Failure to act can result in getting killed, or getting someone else killed. And after going through such hardships, having escaped and evaded death at times, one will surely find it hard to hold on his principles. One might even find it hard to stay sane.
The movie's vast reference to the Holy Bible somehow looks like it's trying to be such an ironic thing. It has gone well beyond the classic paradox of "Thou shalt not kill' versus a soldier's duty of kill or be killed. The references are there, subtly and also distinctively, at the grand theme of reaffirming a soldier's cause to fight, and therefore to kill, by saying that it's the will of God, which builds on the said classic paradox. Thereference include the many scripture quotes, the direct nick-naming of Bible for Boyd Swan character, and also the ultimate reaffirming of the last shot's bird's eye angle.
The action is really nice, especially as there are less high profile movies focused on World War II tank crew. After having only The beast (1988) as a significant movie on tanks for quite a while, and that's not even entirely a war film, it's very nice to see great tank battle here in Fury. What's great about the action, particularly is the two tank battle sequences. They don't feature massive tank-on-tank all out shelling, but the real war situations where tanks are used mainly to cover for infantry movements.
For me the acting is a great job. The big names in the cast list really knows how to make the contrast of actions within the screenplay come out. Brad Pitt did a great job on being strict and harsh, and added in the nice accent play. Logan Lerman nicely depicts the fears, doubts and hesitations a newbie soldier has in the face of war atrocities, adequately balancing Brad Pitt's acting. Shia Lebouf really developed his acting and got out of his Sam Witwicky character nicely, playing his soldier role well. Michael Pena and Jon Bernthal not only complete the real tank crew structure but they also provide contrasting characters that give the crew ensemble great potential for internal conflicts.
Fury (2014) is indeed a movie worthy of an 8 out of 10 score for me and a quick nod at recommendations. An entertainment it surely is, and a great new breath of fresh air for the focus on tank crews.