Skip to footer

'Fury' is a solid World War II movie throwback

( R ) ( Monitor Movie Guide )

'Fury' actor Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances as a tank commander.

|
Giles Keyte/Sony Pictures Entertainment/AP
Brad Pitt (l.) as Wardaddy, and Shia LaBeouf as Boyd 'Bible' Swan, are shown in a scene from the film 'Fury.'
  • By Peter Rainer Film critic

“Fury,” written and directed by David Ayer, is an impressively solid World War II movie of the kind they don’t make anymore. Stylistically and dramatically, it’s a throwback to the war movies of the 1940s and '50s – it’s even shot on film, a rarity these days.

Brad Pitt gives one of his best performances as Sgt. Don “Wardaddy” Collier, a tank commander with a passion for killing Nazis. His men aboard the “Fury,” the nickname painted on the gun barrel of their M4 Sherman tank, are gunner Boyd (Shia LaBeouf), a thoughtful sort who knows his Bible; loader Grady (Jon Bernthal), a leering hillbilly badly in need of some dental work; and driver Trini (Michael Peña, who was so good in Ayer’s “End of Watch”). Joining them is Norman (Logan Lerman), a raw recruit trained as a typist, who find himself encased in the tank as an assistant driver. Don has to teach this shivering, frightened kid how to kill.

In the film’s best scene, Don and Norman, having secured a German town, decamp in an apartment occupied by a mother (Anamaria Marinca) and her teenage daughter (Alicia von Rittberg). The levels of fear and tension and desire in this scene are palpable, especially when the three other men from the tank barge in. It’s like a scene in a Tarantino movie minus all the smart-aleckiness. Grade: B+ (Rated R for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout.)

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to 'Fury' is a solid World War II movie throwback
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Movies/2014/1017/Fury-is-a-solid-World-War-II-movie-throwback
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe