Fury

Movies about World War Two are a dime a dozen...or a Dirty Dozen. But... Movies that center around a tank crew and take place mostly in the tank? Not as popular. Fury decides to break that trend. This movie was barely on my radar until Brad Pitt signed on and it became one of the only movies ever to use a real Tiger Tank (and the last operational Tiger) in its production. When trailers were revealed it became less of a might see and more of a must see.

Fury picks up in April, 1945 near the end of the Great War. A tank crew who have been fighting together from Africa to Germany has just lost one of their comrade and is sent a greenhorn typist as a replacement. Someone who has never even seen the inside of a tank. He's never seen action let alone kill somebody. His skill set is typing 60 words per minute which is pretty useless on the front lines. "Just wait till you see it..." warns one tank member, "What a man can do to another man." And see it he does... The hell that is war. The animalistic nature men adopt when faced with war. There are no heroes here, only soldiers. 

Audiences are showed the hell that is war along with the greenhorn Norman. Unlike Brad Pitts other WWII movie, war and violence are not glorified here. There is nothing cool about stabbing another human being in the face or watching your comrades burn alive. "Ideals are peaceful, History is violent." Says Wardaddy. Fury perfectly captures that without reveling in it. And despite an ending that I thought copped-out, Fury holds up as one of the greatest war movies of recent years.  A