Tanks for the Memories!!!

Rating: 8/10 (26 October 2014)

War is undeniably hell in writer & director David Ayer's "Fury," a grim but electrifying World War II saga about tanks. Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal are thoroughly repellent as the battle-scarred crew of a U.S. Army Sherman M4A3E8 tank that tangles with a monstrous German 131 Tiger tank. For the record, the 33-ton Sherman tank came armed with a 75mm gun, but this was no match for the ferocious 54-ton Tiger tank. German Tigers boasted not only an 88mm gun, but also bore 3.9 inches of armor. Incredibly, Sherman tank shells often bounced off Tigers. Nevertheless, Tigers couldn't match a Sherman's rate of fire. Moreover, Tigers were vulnerable to shots fired at their rear compartments, and they consumed far more fuel than the Shermans. Unlike the Sherman tanks that their colleagues cruise around in, Pitt commands a modified Firefly Sherman tank equipped with a more powerful, 17-pound, super-velocity, anti-tank gun. The rugged combat sequence between three Shermans and a lone Tiger marks the high point of this blistering blood, guts, and testosterone-laced actioneer.
"Fury" takes place in 1945, after the Allies have crossed the Rhine River into Hitler's Fatherland. Although our heroes belong to the U.S. 2nd Armored division, Ayer provides few details about where the action is actually happening. This may frustrate some armchair World War II scholars who thrive on such minute details. Indeed, nobody drops the names of prominent generals on either side or mentions historic battles. All we know is that our heroes started killing Germans in North Africa, and they have been pursuing them across Northern Europe with a terrible vengeance. Essentially, "Fury" is a World War II variation on the mud and blood splattered, World War I classic "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1930) but told from the perspective of the newest member of a Sherman tank's crew. Typically, most World War II movies pass off Korean War era tanks for Shermans and Tigers, but all the "Fury" tanks are authentic. The producers borrowed the last remaining Tiger tank from the Bovington Tank Museum in Dorset, England.
"Fury" opens with hard-bitten Sergeant Don 'Wardaddy' Collier (Brad Pitt of "Killing Them Softly") leaping like a savage Apache warrior onto an unsuspecting Nazi SS Officer on a white horse riding through a battlefield and stabbing him to death. Collier's Mexican-American tank driver, Trini 'Gordo' Garcia (Michael Peña of "End of Watch"), cranks up their Sherman tank nicknamed 'Fury,' and they trundle off to a nearby Allied supply camp. Collier isn't happy because one of the original members of his five-man crew died in combat. As it turns out, Collier lands the worst of all possible replacements, Private Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman of "The Three Musketeers"), a green, wet-behind-the-ears, teenager with neither the appropriate training nor combat experience. Cherub-faced Norman is a clerk typist who can bang out 60 words-a-minute. He knows nothing about tanks and he has never shot anybody. Collier and his unsavory crew terrify and toughen-up poor Norman so he can handle the pressures of combat. Collier forces Norman to shoot an unarmed S.S. soldier in the back. Collier, it seems, hates the S.S. with a virulent passion. The SS constituted the most brutal component of the Third Reich. Murdering civilians and unarmed prisoners-of-war constituted their stock-in-trade. Anyway, a young, inexperienced lieutenant orders Collier and two Sherman tanks to follow him into combat. The officer doesn't last long. An S.S. trooper with an anti-tank missile turns the lieutenant's tank in an inferno, and the lieutenant shoots himself before the flames roast him. Collier receives new orders from Captain Waggoner (Jason Isaacs of "Windtalkers") to rescue G.I.s who have been cut off from their unit. No sooner have the Shermans embarked on their mission than Collier spots a Tiger. Our heroes find themselves in a life and death struggle to dodge the Tiger's screaming shells. Gradually, young Norman becomes as psychotic about killing the enemy as his companions. The real trial by combat occurs when the Fury strikes a German land mine and breaks down at a crossroads. Collier refuses to abandon the Fury, even after Norman spots about 300 SS troops marching their way, proudly warbling a Nazi song.
Naturally, comparisons between Brad Pitt's Sergeant Collier in "Fury" and his Lieutenant Aldo Raine in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds" are inevitable. Personally, I deplored "Inglourious Basterds," while at the same time I admired Tarantino's tongue-in-cheek spin on World War II heroics. Like his ridiculously redneck officer in Tarantino's tale, Pitt lives to exterminate Nazis. However, Pitt doesn't try to be funny in "Fury," and he is more convincing, especially during his dour moments when he coerces Norman, the epitome of innocence, to have sex with a German civilian. Unfortunately, writer & director David Ayer doesn't sketch in a backstory to explain Collier's hatred of the enemy. Meantime, Collier's crew looks straight out of a World War II propaganda movie. Hollywood combat movies made during the 1940s emphasized America's melting pot demographics. Collier's driver is an Hispanic-American, while his shell loader, obnoxious Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal of "The Walking Dead"), is a raging Cajun. The gunner of the bunch, Boyd 'Bible' Swan (Shia LaBeouf of "Transformers") is a scripture-spouting, religious fanatic. All of them harass, humiliate and humble Norman until he becomes as cruel as they are. Nevertheless, Ayers spares us of usual banter about the girls back home, mom's apple pies, and favorite baseball teams. The final set-piece at the crossroads looks like a World War II version of the Alamo with our heroes battling the Nazi horde as if they were Audie Murphy. These Nazi warriors are essentially anonymous villains who lack the intelligence to wield their anti-tank missiles with the same accuracy that they did earlier in the film. Despite its lethargic 135 minutes and its bleak but predictable script, "Fury" remains tenaciously gripping, perhaps even more so during its quiet moments than its explosive ones.