Fury
Director: David Ayer
Talent: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña
Release Date: 17th October 2014
Set during the Allies’ final push through Nazi Germany in 1945, Fury stars Brad Pitt as tank commander Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier. All southern drawl and hidden scars, Pitt serves as patriarch of a platoon of war movie clichés, with Logan Lerman’s typist involuntarily sent to the front functioning as an embodiment of conflict’s power to corrupt the seemingly virtuous and transform them into war heroes. Much like Ayer’s End of Watch, Fury seems immune to subtlety. Its macho dialogue is often cringeworthy, particularly in an awkward domestic dinner table scene which intends to shock, but instead seems to drag on endlessly. On the plus side, Ayer utilises the claustrophobic design of a tank to provide intensity for action sequences, and a dog-fight between the eponymous Fury and a Nazi Panzer is one of the most white-knuckle scenes of the year. Overall, Fury aims at an existential and theological questioning of war, but achieves merely empty thrills.
Words: Stephen McCabe
