Fury

Well-acted and cleverly visualised, this important film shows the naked truth of war

This is a World War II movie that shows how war brutalises soldiers. Saving Private Ryan (1998) was probably the last important Hollywood movie in this genre. That was largely about the infantry division as it was mowed down on Omaha Beach. Fury is about a tank commander and his crew, right in the heart of Germany, as the US Army is fighting tooth and nail to capture each town and village from the Germans who are ready to die for their fatherland.

This is not General Patton’s panoramic sweep to Berlin. It is about the American working class drafted into a horrifying war that is capable of turning otherwise funny laidback guys into ruthless survivors. Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (Brad Pitt) is the veteran commander—he started off in North Africa and he wants to end it here in the Nazi homeland. The other guys in the tank follow him with devotion, because he keeps them safe with his brilliant manoeuvres.

Like the moves on a chessboard, a tank leader’s planning and strategy keeps the tank rolling, capable of protecting the infantry behind and marking out new territory to capture. The best scenes in the film are shot from a combination of two angles—the perspective of the gunner inside the vehicle, and of the Commander when he sticks his head out. Getting the lumbering armoured machine, nicknamed Fury, into an ideal position for a target is the key, and director David Ayer visualises this for you very cleverly.

The other good scene in the film is when a new recruit (Logan Lerman) is assigned to the tank. He is a typist—60 words a minute, he claims—not a soldier. ‘Wardaddy’ has to initiate him into murder and romance, when they encounter two German girls.

Not once do we see the German war perspective, but then, according to the Allied Forces, they didn’t have one worth recording. Winners take it all in this brutal movie about the institutionalised mass murder that war is.

About The Author

Ajit Duara