A moving epic of brotherhood and valor

Rating: 9/10 (23 July 2015)

I have read the many vicious negative reviews for this film, and I must say that I am at a loss to understand most of the complaints.
Many condemned the film as unrealistic. I find this hard to believe, since I have seen almost every WW2 film ever made, including documentaries that used actual war footage, and I found this film to be perhaps the most exciting and realistic one that has ever been made.
Consider: This is the only film to ever use an actual, working tiger tank, as well as actual, working Sherman's. In addition, the cast was trained by navy seals and army rangers in an 8-week boot-camp. The main cast was also trained in how to operate, drive, and fire the main Sherman, dubbed "Fury." In many scenes the actors themselves were actually operating a real Sherman tank during the live filming. The cast was also coached by four actual surviving WW2 2nd armored division veterans in their 90s to find out what actually being in combat was like, and to what lengths some of them had to go under extreme wartime conditions. Watch the special features on the blu-ray edition, and you will see how much painstaking care was taken by the production crew to present a realistic image of WW2 combat conditions.
I'm assuming that most of the negative reviewers are not actual WW2 2nd armored division veterans, since there are only the 4 who consulted on this film still living; yet they posture themselves as experts. I can only assume that these people are armchair, primarily book-informed ideologues who think too much of their own second-hand expertise.
Some reviewers complained about the language and behavior of the characters in the film, as if WW2 soldiers did not use profanity or vulgar innuendo, did not have illicit sex with European women, never shot prisoners, and were all Christian, god-fearing, faithful husbands. From all the evidences that I have ever considered on this war, their assertions simply do not hold water, and seem to deny any semblance of reality. Just because they were the greatest generation does not mean that they were all sainted, tee-totaling, Bible quoting, refined gentlemen.
The Don "Wardaddy" Collier character was a chain-gang prisoner who was given the option of hard labor in prison or fighting and dying for his country. It is conclusive that many actual soldiers were in fact from such a background, and it is hard to imagine such people not using profanity, and engaging in many unethical activities under the extreme duress experienced during actual wartime.
The tank battle scene was perhaps somewhat unrealistic, but when one considers the fact that there were only a hand-full of tigers left by the stage of the war depicted in this film, and that Germany had run out of experienced tank soldiers and would have been manning tanks with teenagers and even perhaps young girls, the idea that a tiger would not be able to destroy all the Sherman's, which was the usual outcome throughout most of the war, is not so far-fetched after all. Besides, the Fury's crew were portrayed as being highly experienced in fighting German tanks back to the battles in Northern Africa, so again, the idea that they would be able to at least narrowly survive such an encounter with a tiger while sustaining substantial damages, is really not so unrealistic as some reviewers assume.
I do admit that I was a bit troubled by the fact that the SS battalion was initially presented as marching toward the Fury carrying what were obviously many anti-tank weapons, yet when they actually began fighting the Fury's crew it seemed to take the Germans a long time to resort to actually using these bazookas against the Fury. But I suppose some license had to be allowed for to make for an exciting final conflict, and for that I cannot fault the filmmakers too much. Perhaps the Germans were so surprised and scattered by the ruse used by the Fury's crew that they had no time to coordinate such an attack? Whatever the excuse, the final battle is one of the most poignant and moving battle scenes ever filmed, in my extensive experience of watching many other WW2 films.
Some reviewers found the ending, where Norman survives even though he is discovered by an SS soldier who then inexplicably never reports finding him, preposterous. But I personally do not. I imagine that there were many reluctant recruits in the German army and even in the SS during this very late stage of the war; and, realizing that such a survivor was worthy of some deference for the courage of mounting such a suicidal defense of that strategic crossroads, decided mercifully not to reveal his whereabouts.
All-in-all, I find the observations of the negative reviewers less than compelling, while the film itself I find enormously compelling from start to finish.
Fury will forever hold a lasting, memorable place in my experiences of WW2 films; and I highly recommend it!
So there!