“Fury” was written and directed by David Ayer. It stars Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal.
Fans of another recent David Ayer film End of Watch will likely be taken by Fury. Despite the difference in setting, the thematic concerns are largely the same: brotherhood, courage, and masculinity. They are both tough, gritty films with moments of pain and moments of triumph, and a real respect for the men in uniform they depict.
Fury shares many of Watch’s strengths, and while that film fell a bit flat for me, it’s impossible to deny its appeal. Fury, perhaps even more so than Watch, is a bona fide crowd-pleaser. One of Ayer’s greatest strengths is his ability to get you to care about his characters. This is what makes Fury work so well in its best moments. The characters feel real, and we see them develop throughout the film.
Some characters are fleshed out a bit more successfully than others. Of the five main characters, Pitt’s, Lerman’s, and Bernthal’s are the most fully realized. LaBeouf and Peña work well with the material provided, but are simply given less memorable, distinctive personalities. The performances are all solid. The stern and caring father-figure Pitt plays is not much of a stretch for him, but he really is perfectly cast. Lerman, best known for his performances in numerous adaptations of YA novels, is the movie’s real lead. He has an arc, and is the one we are supposed to relate to the most. He is absolutely believable as a scared boy out of his depths, which is how his character is for most of the film. Bernthal, plays a mean, ugly, brute (like Pitt, he is playing a character pretty similar to others we’ve seen him as before) with the occasional glimmer of humanity, which doesn’t quite sell, though he does have quite a scary, imposing physical presence
Another mark in the film’s favor is its limited scope and sense of intimacy. This is the story of just five men, five human beings in the middle of a massive, horrific war. In terms of action, this movie is pretty backheavy. For the first two-thirds, there’s a pleasantly languid pace to the whole thing. There’s a scene in the home of two women, where they share a meal with the men despite the language barrier that plays for a shockingly long time. It’s the best scene in the movie. There’s an underlying tension at play, but the real pleasure of the scene is just seeing the characters interact and exist in each other’s company. This is in sharp contrast to the film’s prolonged, explosive conclusion, which will for many be the highlight of the film. It is certainly “epic,” filled with heroic moments and sacrifice and explosions, but it all hinges on a character choice I considered incredibly irresponsible, but that the film considers heroic. This ended up souring me on what should have been a satisfying ending.
“Fury” is now playing.
-Anthony Calamunci
