By Andrew Russell
LifeAtStart.com Reporter
Fury is about the five man crew of a Sherman tank in the midst of World War II in April of 1945 as they attempt to push through German forces and deal a final blow.
Fury makes a statement about war that has not been made so well since Saving Private Ryan; the statement being that war is brutal and ugly.
When I say ugly, I mean horrific. This movie is not shy of boldly stating its theme of death in almost every scene.
It’s hard to fully take in some of it, not just because it makes you want to look away, but because of the way the characters interact with the things happening around them, as in not at all. The people in this movie are mostly shown as casual toward the things happening around them, which says how often they must see things like it and things worse than it.
This movie has one of, if not, the best casts this year. With a hard-hitter like Brad Pitt at the helm, the feelings that are meant to be portrayed definitely are. Every one of the supporting cast members plays the part and plays it well, with each of them having a distinct personality by the end of the film.
The movie does, however, slow down perhaps a little too much at one point. I’m not sure how everyone else will feel about this particular part, but you can see clear distinctions of pace in this scene compared to the rest of the movie. You could argue that it is all for character development, and I would agree, but it does take away from the movie since as it progresses, the scene becomes more and more irrelevant.
Another thing that others may have seen as a flaw is the way the characters treat the new comer to their crew. They aren’t exactly welcoming. At first you would probably just pass this off as first day hazing, but it doesn’t really stop and can make it hard to find reasons to care about these characters. I, however, don’t see this movie as character-based, even though the characters are great. I see it as a statement of war and how it can make people and change them into something that they perhaps never would’ve become otherwise.
All this being said, I’ll say Fury is Oscar worthy, if not for acting, then at least for special effects. Those are just great.
Contact Andrew at: [email protected]