My opinion on the film Fury
Jan 10, 2021 4:35:20 GMT -5
Post by Radrook Admin on Jan 10, 2021 4:35:20 GMT -5
My opinion on the film Fury
The film Fury, with Brad Pitt playing the tank commander, is one of the most intense WWII films I have ever seen. It very accurately conveys the total disregard for human life demanded of soldiers. In fact, the first half of the film is totally focused on this controversy by having one soldier's religious conscience against taking human life to become a serious issue.
The acting was excellent and the scenes were very accurate. The tank battles were very realistic and conveyed the tension involved and teamwork and coordination necessary under those battle conditions. The convincing relationship between members of the tank crew was achieved by having them interact with one another extensively before the filming took place so that a certain team camaraderie would become natural.
All these scenes were very believable and make the film a very special one. However, it does have certain issues that if removed, would definitely have strengthened its believability. For example, certain scenes would have been far more convincing if they had been prepared for and timed differently. The film's last scene, where the tank crew uncharacteristically decides to commit suicide, is one of them.
It is simply asking too much of us to believe that a tank crew chooses to commit suicide by trying to fend off a German unit using a seriously-damaged, immobile, tank simply because the tank's commander suddenly seemed to lose his sanity, and decided to do it.
Based on their personalities, given the choice, these crew members would have chosen to stay alive and fled towards safety. Especially since they had shown so much previous appreciation for staying alive and had boasted on how this commander had kept them all alive during previous engagements.
So if indeed they had a tendency towards being suicidal, then their strong appreciation for life should not have been so prominently mentioned prior to that final suicidal scene. A simple preparation or foreshadowing of this suicidal potential should have been introduced by perhaps having them mention death as preferable to living in that situational agony. Then their sudden decision to sacrifice their lives so flippantly would have fitted in nicely. But simply saying that they considered that tank their home the same as their gone-crazy captain, so they decided to die in it as well, just doesn't cut it.
The same applies to the sudden transformation of that extremely religiously-sensitive inexperienced soldier who had said that he preferred death rather than killing a human being. How could such a religiously-sensitive kid suddenly change into a killing machine and even declare that he was enjoying it immediately after a scene where he was vehemently refusing to kill? No, he had not become that way AFTER the Germans killed that German girl he had just had congress with and had strongly become fond of.
Instead, he is just suddenly shown calmly mowing Germans down with the tank's machine-gun immediately after he had vehemently objected to killing a captured German soldier and saying that he preferred to die rather than to do it. So that was far too quick of a personality transformation and without sufficient transitional preparation to provide a rational believable motive, unless we consider the captain's order for him to do his job the reason, and that seems rather lame.
The sad part is that this could have been very easily fixed by having him become suddenly emotionally calloused and bloodthirsty immediately AFTER losing that girl to the German artillery barrage. Then the sudden overwhelming hatred and deep sorrow experienced could have provided the believable motivating factor for that drastic change. So the mistake was a matter of inappropriate sequence of events potentially weakening an audience's suspension of disbelief.
In any case, apart from those two basic mistakes, it was a great film.
The film Fury, with Brad Pitt playing the tank commander, is one of the most intense WWII films I have ever seen. It very accurately conveys the total disregard for human life demanded of soldiers. In fact, the first half of the film is totally focused on this controversy by having one soldier's religious conscience against taking human life to become a serious issue.
The acting was excellent and the scenes were very accurate. The tank battles were very realistic and conveyed the tension involved and teamwork and coordination necessary under those battle conditions. The convincing relationship between members of the tank crew was achieved by having them interact with one another extensively before the filming took place so that a certain team camaraderie would become natural.
All these scenes were very believable and make the film a very special one. However, it does have certain issues that if removed, would definitely have strengthened its believability. For example, certain scenes would have been far more convincing if they had been prepared for and timed differently. The film's last scene, where the tank crew uncharacteristically decides to commit suicide, is one of them.
It is simply asking too much of us to believe that a tank crew chooses to commit suicide by trying to fend off a German unit using a seriously-damaged, immobile, tank simply because the tank's commander suddenly seemed to lose his sanity, and decided to do it.
Based on their personalities, given the choice, these crew members would have chosen to stay alive and fled towards safety. Especially since they had shown so much previous appreciation for staying alive and had boasted on how this commander had kept them all alive during previous engagements.
So if indeed they had a tendency towards being suicidal, then their strong appreciation for life should not have been so prominently mentioned prior to that final suicidal scene. A simple preparation or foreshadowing of this suicidal potential should have been introduced by perhaps having them mention death as preferable to living in that situational agony. Then their sudden decision to sacrifice their lives so flippantly would have fitted in nicely. But simply saying that they considered that tank their home the same as their gone-crazy captain, so they decided to die in it as well, just doesn't cut it.
The same applies to the sudden transformation of that extremely religiously-sensitive inexperienced soldier who had said that he preferred death rather than killing a human being. How could such a religiously-sensitive kid suddenly change into a killing machine and even declare that he was enjoying it immediately after a scene where he was vehemently refusing to kill? No, he had not become that way AFTER the Germans killed that German girl he had just had congress with and had strongly become fond of.
Instead, he is just suddenly shown calmly mowing Germans down with the tank's machine-gun immediately after he had vehemently objected to killing a captured German soldier and saying that he preferred to die rather than to do it. So that was far too quick of a personality transformation and without sufficient transitional preparation to provide a rational believable motive, unless we consider the captain's order for him to do his job the reason, and that seems rather lame.
The sad part is that this could have been very easily fixed by having him become suddenly emotionally calloused and bloodthirsty immediately AFTER losing that girl to the German artillery barrage. Then the sudden overwhelming hatred and deep sorrow experienced could have provided the believable motivating factor for that drastic change. So the mistake was a matter of inappropriate sequence of events potentially weakening an audience's suspension of disbelief.
In any case, apart from those two basic mistakes, it was a great film.
INFO
Below are some opinions from people at Rotten Tomatoes
In April 1945, the Allies are making their final push in the European theater. A battle-hardened Army sergeant named Don "Wardaddy" Collier (Brad Pitt), leading a Sherman tank and a five-man crew, undertakes a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Hopelessly outnumbered, outgunned and saddled with an inexperienced soldier (Logan Lerman) in their midst, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds as they move to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.
Rating: R (Some Grisly Images|Language Throughout|Strong War Violence)
Genre: History, War, Drama
Original Language: English
Director: David Ayer
Producer: Bill Block, David Ayer, Ethan Smith, John Lesher
Writer: David Ayer
Release Date (Theaters): Oct 17, 2014 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 4, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $85.8M
Runtime: 2h 14m
Production Co: QED International, Crave Films, Le Grisbi
Brad Pitt
Don "Wardaddy" Collier
Shia LaBeouf
Boyd "Bible" Swan
Logan Lerman
Norman Ellison
Michael Peña
Trini "Gordo" Garcia
Jon Bernthal
Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis
Jason Isaacs
Capt. Waggoner
www.rottentomatoes.com/m/fury_2015