Fury

[Rich46yo]

They had two hours to tell a story. Not 10 or 20 like a mini-series could. SPR could be called just as one dimensional. Again, how much story can you tell in two hours? How much did you really learn about the SPR characters?

The point of both movies is the impact of state sponsored violence on young men and civilians. And it is destructive. Even to the survivors it is destructive, you are never the same after seeing and being involved in such things. In both movies the ones who started off as cowards ended up surviving and end up being the ones who have to carry the weight and keep the memorys. And the guilt maybe, over surviving.

Maybe it could have been added in "Fury" that the German people werent all that keen on continuing the fight that late into the war. Some maybe but the truth is after the July '44 attempt on Hitlers life the Nazi party was given more and more power over ANY decisions of defense of the Reich. It was the Gaulieters that held real power in those last desperate months and anyone who wanted to give up without a fight were pretty much dead. The final stand of Germany was pretty much ran by party hacks and functionary's, almost all of whom seemed to find a way to stay out of the fighting themselves.

It was asked in the movie, "why dont they just give up"? The answer was they were citizens of a totalitarian state that wouldnt allow them to. It was a choice between a bullet from the allies or a bullet from your own. The east was a little different cause there was no doubt what revenge the Reds had planned but in the west I think most Germans simply wanted to give up. Many did. Many small town leaders gave up in organized surrenders.

[GScholz]

SPR could be called just as one dimensional. Again, how much story can you tell in two hours? How much did you really learn about the SPR characters?

No. SPR is miles ahead in character development. We got to know a lot of their personalities and emotions, their pre-war lives; that they were from all walks of life. Ryan was a farm boy who lost his brothers... We even got to see his mother receiving the bad news. Captain Miller was a school teacher and I suppose that's were he got his leadership abilities. His sergeant was his buddy through the whole war and saved a piece of dirt from every country he'd been to. A real stand-up guy he could trust and confide in. The medic who got shot through the liver was a city boy raised by a single mom and felt bad about how he'd pretend he was asleep when his mother got home from work. And that's just from the top of my head from a film I haven't seen in years. We don't know anything about the characters in Fury. Not one damn thing.

[Arlo]

No. SPR is miles ahead in character development. We got to know a lot of their personalities and emotions, their pre-war lives; that they were from all walks of life. Ryan was a farm boy who lost his brothers... We even got to see his mother receiving the bad news. Captain Miller was a school teacher and I suppose that's were he got his leadership abilities. His sergeant was his buddy through the whole war and saved a piece of dirt from every country he'd been to. A real stand-up guy he could trust and confide in. The medic who got shot through the liver was a city boy raised by a single mom and felt bad about how he'd pretend he was asleep when his mother got home from work. And that's just from the top of my head from a film I haven't seen in years. We don't know anything about the characters in Fury. Not one damn thing.

You know as much as you do about the characters in 12 O'Clock High. Another 'one dimensional' film adored and appreciated by many. Oh  yeah, Hollywood was different then. It wasn't the practice of revealing in-depth biographical details to 'make the characters more interesting.' I think that was eventually added as a gimmick to appease the wives and girlfriends. 

[The Fugitive]

No. SPR is miles ahead in character development. We got to know a lot of their personalities and emotions, their pre-war lives; that they were from all walks of life. Ryan was a farm boy who lost his brothers... We even got to see his mother receiving the bad news. Captain Miller was a school teacher and I suppose that's were he got his leadership abilities. His sergeant was his buddy through the whole war and saved a piece of dirt from every country he'd been to. A real stand-up guy he could trust and confide in. The medic who got shot through the liver was a city boy raised by a single mom and felt bad about how he'd pretend he was asleep when his mother got home from work. And that's just from the top of my head from a film I haven't seen in years. We don't know anything about the characters in Fury. Not one damn thing.

I just love you guys who seem to enjoy over analyzing movies. Maybe they were going for a more generic character group to make it seem like this could be anybody driving this tank, or gunning that gun instead of a specific person. It's a movie and it was made for entertainment. Were you not entertained?  

Personally, I went with my father and we both enjoyed the movie and both thought it was very intense. To us the movie was hard nosed and in your face the whole way through. A 2 hour movie in 20 minutes. Good entertainment.

[GScholz]

20 minutes in I was wishing for them all to just die. I bet guys like you also found Red Tails entertaining too. What a masterpiece of film making that was... 

[Arlo]

20 minutes in I was wishing for them all to just die.

Must be a German thing.

[GScholz]

Must be a German thing.

Naw, I think it is fairly universal.

[Arlo]

Naw, I think it is fairly universal.

Not from the looks of this thread.

[GScholz]

Not from the looks of this thread.

...considering I'm not German.

[Arlo]

...considering I'm not German.

You'll do. 

[Bodhi]

You guys just need to remember that Gscholtz is the authority on everything and that his opinion is the only one that matters....  lol

As for the movie, I was glad to see the Tiger in it.  The scene was lacking a bit, but I think it got the point across that the Tigers had to be overwhelmed.  Could it have been better, I am sure, but I am also sure there were technical limitations as far as the usage of the vehicles.  Frankly, you aren't going to beat the crap out of vehicles that can not be replaced.  As for the rest, I thought that the brutality of war was ever present and never romanticized.  That's a good thing, because people need to realize that.  There was also portrayals of Americans in less poor behavior and that's something that rarely sees play.

I believe the lack of character development is intentional in a way.  As someone else mentioned, it kind of allows the placement of nearly anyone into the role.

[GScholz]

From all over the world... Even from your little flag waving corner.

Fury has one of those "the only good morality in wartime is no morality" themes. I admired the sound effects in the battle scenes. They'll probably win an award for those. But I hated the script and the dialog and gave up on it altogether after about 40 minutes. It lacks class. It is in many ways the opposite of Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers, which were about redemption through suffering and sacrifice under extreme duress. Fury was about degeneracy becoming the new righteousness. Ugly, and maybe even downright revisionist and historically inaccurate. Almost like a pornographic comic book version of history designed to appeal to adolescent boys raised on Game of Thrones episodes and Grand Theft Auto video games. As somome who actually spent a couple of years as a cavalry scout in the army, I can also say that the battle scenes lacked authenticity. Particularly in the amateurish way the troops talked to each other and moved during combat. Again, much more like a dumbed down and superficial comic book or a video game than something trying to simulate historical reality.

I only went to see this because my friend wanted to see it, I'm not a Brad Pitt fan, he is a horrible actor and I never enjoyed any of his movies, and the same with this one, the violence is gratuitous and certain scenes were overacted, and again I couldn't feel anything to any of the characters, they were bland and unlikeable. I really wanted my money back..what a waste of my time. There are much worthier war movies out there......like The Black Book, or Schindler's list....or just watch some of the old good war movies from the 50's and 60's. Apocalypse Now, Platoon or one of the best, Saving Private Ryan, the performances of Tom Hanks and Matt Damon were amazing. So, save your money and watch it on TV when it becomes available.

This movie was horribly disappointing. I read many reviews before going to see it tonight and was positively inclined to be impressed. It is as if the positive online comments were put there by PR agents of the movie company. They would not do that, would they? I was very disappointed. There is not a single uplifting aspect to it at all. Brad is a brutal actor. He gets away with a lot because of his good looks, that big chin of his and those lovely muscular shoulders. Acting is not something that comes easy to him. Yet he is making a very nice living with millions more in his bank account each year. Angelina is not giving him pocket money...yet. I could not recommend this movie to anyone. Wait for it to come out on TV and then have another one on stand by because you will not watch it all the way to the end unless you are a masochist. Sorry guys. I am a very positive upbeat person but this was an absolute disaster.

I have heard that Fury is based on a number of true stories from World War II. If that is the case, the collection of stories seem awfully disjointed, and lacking in continuity. Every movie about WWII had a mission to complete. In Saving Private Ryan, the soldiers try to recover a missing soldier, in the Great Escape, a group of allied POW's try to escape a Nazi POW camp, In Stalag 17, the allies try to uncover a Nazi spy in their midst, and probably the best of these is Band of Brothers, which follows the exploits of Easy Company the first parachute infantry regiment during World War II. There is no mission here, no cohesive story, the soldiers just hop from mission to mission, with seemingly no rhyme or reason. It's supposed to be a character study, but the characters are paper thin. Pitt is the leader of the group, but why do these soldiers follow him around through the whole war, and why are they willing to lay their lives on the line for him. The rest of the characters are little more than stereotypes, Swan spouts scripture at every turn, which is an insult to a true Christian. Garcia is a loutish Hispanic character, Grady Travis is the stereotypical Hollywood redneck, which is an insult to Southern people. And Lehrman is the new guy being put through the requisite amount of hazing before being accepted by the group. To top it off, the ending is shockingly unrealistic. If it wanted to concentrate on how muddy, and filthy and bloody war is they succeeded, but again, what kind of story do they want to tell, a heroic war story or a gritty anti-war war movie? The length of the movie, is far too long, and one scene, where the soldiers hold two women prisoner, encapsulates the problem. The scene goes on and on, and doesn't provide any insight to these men, or why they behave they way they do. 2 hours and 14 minutes is horrendously long for a movie with seemingly no point.

The acting is underwhelming. Pitt gives a dull, listless performance, and expects the audience to follow him regardless. It's like he's saying, "I'm a star, that's why you should spend 2+ hours watching me." Sorry, that's not good enough. After two lackluster performances in 12 Years A Slave, and World War Z, I'm beginning to have serious doubts about Pitt's acting ability. He is capable of giving a good performance, he did give a great performance in Inglorious Basterds, ironically a World War II movie. Logan Lehrman gives the best performance, but the character is so hackneyed and clichéd, that it's hard to appreciate his performance. Shia La Bouf easily gives the most insincere performance of his life as a Bible thumping evangelical, and Michael Pena should be ashamed of the lines he has to say. If I want a sermon, I'll go to church, if I want a negative Latino stereotype, I'll watch John Leguizamo.

It is hard to put into words just how loathsome a movie 'Fury' is. The self hating writer/director must have correctly calculated that any WWII veteran of the European Theater must be in his or her's late eighties by now, thus avoiding the real potential of one of them slapping the living scheisse out of him for this atrocity. It begins with a ridiculous scene, is of the war movie genre that demands German soldiers running upright and without cover toward machine guns so our anti-heroes can mow them down conveniently, and consistently opts for opportunities to shove the new hip narrative that lovingly depicts American soldiers as murderous, war crime committing, raping thugs. See: 'Inglorious Basterds.' Much of it is hard to watch, especially after 'Saving Private Ryan' which set a high bar for any war movie following, the rest is drivel. And, not even good drivel at that. High marks (pardon the pun) though, for the German soldiers surrounding the tank, who stop firing for inexplicable reasons, but which coincide with long discussions on war and friendship by the tank crew.

Fury doesn't have a plot but is a road trip, compromised of a series of battles and the occasional pit stop for male bonding. Brad Pitt stars as Don "Wardaddy" Collier" the leader of a five man Sherman tank vehicle named "Fury". Wardaddy believes in the kill or be killed rules of war. The other characters in Ayer's own original script are lazy stereotypes. Shia LaBeouf is Boyd "Bible" Swan who, would you know it, quotes passages from the Bible. Michael Pena from Ayer's last film End of Watch, which was about the friendship between two police officers, features as Trini "Gordo" Garcia but his role makes little use of his charisma. The most unlikable part is reserved for Jon Bernthal as Grady, a knuckle-dragging brute, who might have been too unpleasant for the Dirty Dozen. There is almost no backstory, aside from the original tank crew being together since Africa and their dialogue is primarily inane, blokey conversations, compromised of homophobic slurs and primitive views of women. Some of this material is inaudible due to the slurred, mumbling line deliveries.

And here is the 10,000 character limit...

[Arlo]

Holy hump-fest, Batman. We get it. We get it, already! 

[GScholz]

Now you don't! You only pretend you do! 

[Arlo]

Thank you, Kreskin.