First and foremost, the action and violence that are on display in “Fury” and equally riveting and revolting. It’s been a good long while since a film really captured the horror of war and put it front and center. When coupled with great set design, realistic effects and beautiful cinematography, this film provides a haunting window into the reality of driving down a road in Nazi Germany.
The film’s success in putting the visceral nature of war so intimately on display also leads to the film’s greatest shortcoming. War films are often like sports films. If you had a football movie that depicts a regular season without an X-factor i.e. playing for the championship, playing with a young, inexperienced team or something similar then the sports action is just that, sports action. A war movie without a greater purpose, i.e. having to find and save Private Ryan or having to escape Mogadishu, leads to war-themed action for action’s sake. While “Fury” professes to have an X-factor, it falls flat.
In this reviewer’s opinion, this was a time budgeting issue. There’s a very fine line between knowing the men in the tank and caring about their survival and knowing the reason they’re in the tank in the first place. I clearly understand what “Fury” was trying to do. To the average Joe on the front lines, the job would be to survive and fight another day until the war is over. While that’s an admirable story element to include, if not handled properly it can lead to the overall drive of the film feeling a little shapeless. It’s much harder for a film to feel purposeful when its characters are less-than-enamored or even cynical about their own purpose.
As I mentioned before, I understand, and praise, the intent. Furthermore, I am in no way advocating for film to take the safer, more easily understood route. I am simply stating that as the difficulty of the design goes up, so to does the difficulty of the execution. “Fury” planned a routine with a very high degree of difficulty and both performed very admirably and failed to stick the landing.
All said, “Fury” is an imposing cinematic experience that certainly isn’t for the feint of heart.
5 of 6 stars