Directed by David Ayer - 2014 poster
I am quite willing to believe many critics and viewers found/find this movie not only authentic but exciting. I saw the 5* and 4* credits on the front of the DVD case as well as being given a personal recommendation, so I was looking forward to watching what is my penultimate film of the Great Fifty. So, why was I mildly disappointed, even on one or two occasions wanting it to get a move on? I found the beginning scenes dull (if understandable) and the wimp Norman (Logan Lerman) irritating beyond words. It reinforced my narrow-minded approach to 'wet' males! The other members of the crew may have been battle-hardened but they were really unsympathetic as characters.
Private Norman "Machine" Ellison and Sergeant Don "Wardaddy" Collier
One problem is that, although the acting and filming of the inside of a tank was realistic - getting across the sheer claustrophobia of it all - it can get rather dull rather quickly! When the scenes focused on the tank battles, particularly where the superior German SS Tiger tank outguns the other three U.S. Sherman tanks and appears impervious to their firepower, and the final scene when 'Fury' (immobilised by a landmine) inflicts heavy casualties on approaching German soldiers. I endured the rather drawn-out scene, when the three drunken tank crew (Shia LaBeouf as Boyd "Bible" Swan, Michael Pena as Trini "Gordo" Garcia, and John Bernthal as Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis) muscle in on the German women's apartment, where Norman and Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) are having a meal. It was inevitable that the one house destroyed (and both women killed) by a German air raid had to be that one. Even the last scene let drama control the timing - the German soldiers took a hell of a long time to get to the tank, after being first spotted by Norman; and their attacks on the tank itself only took place between bouts of crew dialogue!
The critics were generally favourable, but one wrote that Brad Pitt plays a watered-down version of his 'Inglourious Basterds' character in this disappointingly bland look at a World War II tank crew. Another said that much of Fury crumbles in the mind. Filming took place in Hertfordshire, Oxfordshire and various locations in the North West of England. The movie grossed $211 million worldwide against a budget of $68 million.
2015 DVD
No comments:
Post a Comment