Fury

A really view on war through the perspective of an armored box on tracks. Ayer filmed a unique war movie where any hopes are trodden into the mud and victory just means the chance to fight another battle. No outlook for survival, no promise of a home. All tankers have long deserved such a raw, real and pure picture. Most often it’s the air force and infantry who receive praise, tanks are all too easily forgotten. Not anymore. Pitt’s Wardaddy isn’t a variation on a Tarantino-like Alda, quite the opposite. A crushed man, missing civilization, but gave it up for the good of his crew, an able commander who has been fighting too long. The whole crew is a good crew. Bernthal’s hick animal, the hated Grady, eventually turns out to be a good man in the closing moments. The grubby Shia is surprisingly adult, quotes from the Bible with such verve that he began to believe it himself. And now the main thing - hero, greenhorn Logan Lerman, one time funny kid is becoming a man and a regular killing machine in Ayer and Wardaddy’s care. As his gains respect with his crew, he gains it with the viewer, too. The entire father-son storyline works excellently and in that sewer of a war it’s the only thing to hold on to. I supported them to the last moment, I was in the tank with them and every hit, every jolt cuts you to the quick. If you read any war books when you were young and your eyes were drawn to those green monsters like Fury, this is a movie for you. Here am I, send me! (24/11/2014)

It's not entirely bad in any way, but it could have been so much better if it had decided whether it wants to be an uncompromising dirty (anti) war display of the horrors and nonsense of war and fighting, tank addiction aimed at tens of millions of World of Tanks players or a stylized action movie in a style "we are outnumbered, ikh mnogo", which is something between 300 and Soviet propaganda war movies of the fifties. And to make matters worse, Tarantino's fifteen-minute scene divides it right in the middle, which looks like a removed scene from the Inglourious Basterds. And in each of those styles, it works more or less well here, but together it doesn't do the job as a whole. Not at all. (17/11/2014)

Ayer is equally suggestive and raw in WWII as in his modern police escapades, only this time he doesn’t rely on CGI but goes nicely the old-fashioned way. This is a clearly outlined film, striking, and not pretending to be anything more than it is. It’s a solid psychological barrage with performances. There are plenty of emotions and the atmosphere and visuals are superb. Some of the dialogue passages marginally resemble Tarantino's standards, and the rest is nothing more than honest filmmaking with plenty of dirt, rotten teeth, and blown-off limbs. It's a shame about the overly grand finale, which is mandatory, but doesn't fit at all considering the film's concept. (10/02/2015)

I’d been looking forward to Fury for a long time. I’d been looking forward to this new movie by David Ayer, whose movies have convinced me what a good director he is and that we will be remembering him in the future. No movies have been made on WW2 in a long time, so I didn’t hesitate and headed out to the cinema. For an hour and a half, I got to enjoy one of the rawest WW2 movies in the past twenty years. I especially liked the ideas with the individual shots, which surprised me in Band of Brothers or in the ancient Russian movie Come and See. One shot was enough to make you feel sick. And it didn’t even involve anything too bloody. From this perspective, the movie aced it. However, a problem occurs at the end, which Brad Pitt decides to handle in his own way – in a stupid and illogical way that makes the movie end exactly the way I thought it would. The ending is heroic and very American, which pissed me off and the movie fell from five stars to four. And if it weren’t for the really good first half, it would have dropped even lower. It would’ve been best if the director had cut the movie 35 minutes shorter. (17/11/2014)

Attempting to make a Tank Patrol into a living monument to the soldiers of World War II is a lot to promise, but it falls apart when David Ayer's genres start clashing with each other. I would believe both in the invincible crew of the Fury and in tears during drunken confessions, but once these moods meet and regularly alternate, it's over. And it's a shame because Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman can effortlessly develop any smallest supporting storyline to the edge. (14/11/2014)