REVIEW #146 Fury (2014)

Fury is a War/Action film directed by David Ayer and follows Tank commander Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, along with his 4 crew members as they embark on a mission which puts all of their lives in danger. With the odds stacked against them they still set a plan of attack against the Nazi forces.

CAST & THE ACTING 

Fury has an absolutely outstanding cast, Brad Pitt leads as Wardaddy but his supporting cast are just as impressive. Made up of Shia LaBeouf, Jon Berthnal, Michael Peña and Logan Lerman, each and every one of them deliver fantastic performances. What really shines through though, is the chemistry between the 5 actors, they create an authentic brotherhood that the audience can really buy into. That chemistry was vital for the storyline of the film, something that I will go into further in the next category. The one who surprised me the most was Michael Peña because the others I knew would be impressive in a dramatic role but Peña I had only really watched in comedies before this, but he more than earned his place amongst these big names. It’s hard to pick my favourite performance because each actor brings a different dynamic to the film but that difficulty I have speaks volumes for the high level acting that is displayed throughout this film.  

THE STORYLINE

The film follows the crew members of a tank nicknamed ‘Fury’ which is part of the 2nd Armoured division in World War 2. Fury certainly has its fair share of action but the best part about the plot, for me, is the brotherhood dynamic between the crew. Tank regiments are constantly in close proximity and they know their fellow crew members inside and out, something which the cast mentioned benefited them as they were filming. I said earlier in the review how important the chemistry between the actors is in creating an authentic experience for the audience. It not only sells the storyline but it also gets the audience invested in the characters, for any war film this is vital because there is bound to be deaths so those deaths need to make as big of an impact on the audience as possible. 

I think the film does well to establish the characters early on. Their personality traits are evident and clear, David Ayer highlights the positives and the negatives which works well because it’s not glorifying these characters. As a result they’re more relatable, they have flaws and by making these soldiers every day people, the huge finale has a larger impact on the audience. Tragedy plays a big role in the finale, something I rate highly. With storylines such as this, a happy ending would simply not work as well. The middle act does suffer from pacing issues, It was just more of what we saw in the first act. However the final 40 minutes is really exciting with brilliant action sequences so you forget that pretty quickly.

CINEMATOGRAPHY & SPECIAL EFFECTS 

David Ayer and Roman Vasyanov the cinematographer created a visually stunning film, setting an incredible tone that was maintained from start to finish. The grey scale colour pallets was symbolic of the mood during war time, war is hell and this film certainly brought that theme to the forefront. I think the best cinematography come at the finale, it was the first time we saw bursts of colour. The flames and surrounding destruction lit the scene with flares of orange and yellow, creating beautiful silhouettes that made the action even more exciting as well as creating some great visuals. The action sequences in general were always impressive, captured really nicely. What’s impressive is how they created the sets for inside the tank, they did have a real tank to use but getting a camera crew inside such cramped quarters would be impossible so they basically built exact replicas of the inside using multiple tank enthusiasts to make it as authentic as possible! 

OVERALL (9/10)

Fury is definitely one of my favourite war films, it has some of my favourite actors in and the chemistry between that cast is fantastic, as are their performances. Granted the core storyline doesn’t exactly push new boundaries for war films but I did like the fact it’s set out of one tank in World War 2, it makes it feel more intimate. The cinematography is excellent, showcasing beautiful visuals and some really exciting action sequences. The middle act does suffer from pacing issues but the final 40 minutes is exhilarating! I would 100% recommend this film to anyone, especially if you’re a fan of War films but even if you’re not usually interested in them, I still think there’s plenty you will like about it. 

Thanks for reading.

Callan