Modern Hollywood WW II, not the real one.

Rating: 1/10 (5 November 2014)

I recently saw the new movie "Fury" with Brad Pitt, and keep reading how "realistic" it is supposed to be. Here is my take on this movie (SPOILERS): Brad Pitt plays a psychotic tank platoon sergeant who kills an unarmed, clearly surrendering POW to teach a new tank crew member "how to kill". No officers or senior NCOs make any effort to stop him. His company commander next gives him an important mission for his tank platoon. On this mission, thru poor crew discipline, poor road march discipline, and very bad tank tactics ends up getting his entire platoon wiped out. If you look closely, this movie is just a very cynical version of "Saving Private Ryan" with some "Cross of Iron" thrown in. It reminds me of those "Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos" comic books of the 60's, and the end is very similar to the "Ghost Tank" story lines in that comic book. In fact, I suspect strongly that this scrip started out as a film script version of that comic book. The vast majority of the real members of the 2nd Armored Division were not psychopaths, and by April 1945 they had very good discipline and knowledge of tank tactics. Despite the hype, this is another case of Hollywood WW II, not the real one. Brad Pitt's character needs to be given a Section 8.