A brilliant war drama

Rating: 8/10 (5 November 2014)

(Please remember this is an opinion and not an objective review) Fury comes in a very long line of war movies. But David Ayer manages to transform a good but not perfect screenplay into a near perfect piece of art.
The acting is great. Look at the list on the casting. The rhythm is flawless. From quiet silence or talking moments to gut-wrenching action.
I've really liked David Ayer's visceral movie style since the beginning. Violence, brotherhood, have been his central themes. And it feels like he found a perfect subject in this movie.
The character study is powerful. Fury is built around an initiation process that reveals all of the characters' background and complex personality. A brutal, terrifying initiation. The first scene is a clear indication of the tone of the movie : harsh, almost silent, Grey.
The violence is terrible. Blown up bodies, pieces of flesh. I was shocked more than a few times. as the end credit beautifully portrays it, there is a total sense of realism and brutality that transpires through this. It is packed in an relentless death and carnage, to demonstrate how it physically and morally destroys those who face it. All of them.
Now what I liked most is a ballsy move by the director : when the final scene begins, and a seemingly hopeless and endless violence starts, he moves from day to night shooting. It is a quite surprising and bet-it-all move. And in my opinion, it works brilliantly. It becomes hauntingly beautiful, colored in red and orange, and shows to me, that this is the kind of director I like. One that takes position and tries things.
As the main character, we start the movie all clean and shaved, and finish it with mud, blood and despair all over us. There is no escape.