Citizen Rules...Cinemaesque Chat-n-Review

I've never heard of Black Angel, but it sounds like a good movie. I haven't seen many movies with Dan Duryea, but I like Peter Lorre, so it's definitely a movie that I'll add to my watchlist.

Fury (2014)

Director: David Ayer
Writer: David Ayer
Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal
Genre: Action War
Length: 2 hours 14 minutes

Premise: It's WWII, April 1945 and the U.S. has entered Nazi Germany. The fighting is intense. A tough as nails sergeant (Brad Pitt) commands a five men Sherman Tank group. When one member is killed they're assigned a young nervous kid, who's never been in battle before.

Review: Fury has been called a realistic war film. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fury works as a thrilling, action adventure film but don't look for reality. As Fury is about WWII it needed to have a realistic story and action, but with director/writer David Ayer, realism is out the window. Sadly this seems to be a trend with Hollywood block buster films. Instead of anything resembling realism, the movie takes on the feel of a video game. Not surprising as many of the movie goers will be part of the video gaming generation.

What we get with Fury is American soldiers portrayed as blood thirsty savages, while the Nazi's are stumbling idiots, who can't seem to shoot straight. The first scene starts with a surrealist looking battlefield, among the smoke and darkness of night lay the smoldering ruins of many destroyed tanks. Out of a tank pops the hero, Brad Pitt locked in hand to hand combat with a German soldier. Pitt takes his fighting knife in hand and thrust it into the forehead of the German. Very video game like...That scene tells you what you need to know about the next 2 hours and 14 minutes.

One of the 'realistic' parts of the film is the tank in this photo. It's the only running German Tiger tank in existences. It should have got top billing! Unfortunately the tracer rounds that are fired in the movie glow with over zealous CG look. I thought the tanks were firing lasers!



One of the most disturbing scenes was when the young Norman was forced to murder a German prisoner who had surrendered and was begging for his life. Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) forces poor Norman to murder the prisoner.



Not only does Wardaddy terrorize the new guy, so does the rest of the tank crew. I expected to see this conflict come to a boiling point, that would have been interesting...but no, latter on this becomes a buddy film and all pass wrongs are some how forgotten.

I could over analyze all the tank battle scenes as they aren't believable as the Germans have the advantage in the encounters yet miss almost every single time. But lets cut to the chase...

The end scene is stupefied. The lone Sherman tank is driving down a road when it hits a land mine, blowing it's track off. The tank is stranded. The young guy Norman is sent to a top of a hill as a look out. He spots a battalion of 200-300 Waffen SS soldiers marching towards the tank, many of them are caring Panzerfaust anti-tank rocket launchers.


Do the SS use their anti tank bazookas before reaching the tank that blocks their path, no. Do they take cover and send a few men to examine the tank, no. Instead they happily march up to the tank so that the Americans can mow them down, like shooting fish in the barrel.

Did I mention the scene with the face of a dead solder laying on the tank sidewall. Yes, it was a slice of a face with a nose and eyeball, just laying there. Or how about the scene where they go into a German town, battle...then start dancing, drinking and partying in the street...But wait, no one cleared the buildings of enemy snipers.

If you want a fun shoot 'em up, over the top action war film, then Fury is for you. If you want more realism along with a haunting story line try Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line.

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hey Citizen, have you ever seen the film "The Scarlet and the Black"... I seen the dvd the other day and I remembered how good that film was.. and I havent seen it in over 30 years... if you havent seen it.. check it out!!

I have no interest in Fury, but my father-in-law likes war movies and he wants to see it. Based on your review, I doubt it's his type of movie.

Hopefully I'll find the DVD for him for about $3 or less at a garage sale or flea market.

Thanks for the recommendation. My library actually has it! So I requested it. Gregory Peck should make a convincing Monsignor.


If you father in law is a war film buff he might like seeing the actual German Tiger tank, but might not buy the unbelievable fighting. Just tell him it's mainly an action film and he might like it.

I agree completely with Fury. It's a shame the way it ended because I liked everything leading up to it, for the most part.

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[ J ] - [ S ] - [ F ]

The ending was ridiculous...

You just reminded me of that scene. I remember in the cinema thinking, "NO WAY!"...

I felt very similarly about Fury, and didn't really get the hype. I had major issues with the moral stance of the film and/or its characters who I thought were all pretty despicable, and the ending felt like an unrealistic cop out. Here's my review if you want to take a look - click.

I haven't been active recently, so I'll have missed out on a load of reviews in this and many others thread. I'll probably go back through and leave a few more comments on other reviews too, always good to read your posts.

Edit: Nice review of The Hurt Locker. I haven't seen it but I own it on Blu-ray and have been meaning to watch it for ages.

Disappointed to see you didn't like Django Unchained, but I can see why it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. It's probably Tarantino's most cartoonish and ridiculous films, and I've probably seen it about five times in full now which makes me notice and think about certain elements more, but I don't think these detract from the pure comic book style feel of the film, Tarantino is having fun and he wants us to as well.

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Hey Daniel, thanks for the link. I had already read your review and liked it. You were the only MoFo reviewer who felt the same way I did about the film.

You know I was actually cheering for the Germans to kill the American tank crew. I know that sounds bad, but that's just how despicable the tank crew was.

Yeah, I guess I could say the same. But the extended final battle scene was so formulaic that I knew there would only be once outcome. My friend who went with me to see it enjoyed the film, and I think a lot of people are happy to lap up the kind of anti-Nazi propaganda without thinking deeper about the war being more than just something played out like a video game as you describe. Norman was the only character with any real arch or redeeming qualities, but it was obvious what he was there for from the start. You mentioned Saving Private Ryan, which although still pro-American, I thought was more balanced and offered greater contrasting characters that weren't all despicable. If there was one film I'd tell people to watch in contrast to this though, I'd probably say Das Boot.

How so? The film was about Saving Private Ryan an American and a group of Americans went out to save him. Nothing pro American about it. And it was an American film made for American audiences. The Germans in the film were portrayed as soldiers, not as blood thirsty monsters, so it was more than fair to the German army of WWII.

If you remember in Saving Private Ryan, an angry American soldier executes a German prisoner of war in cold blood. Tom Hank's character is outraged by this action. So clearly that didn't show all Americans as being completely good. It's not a pro-American film, it just might seem that way to those in other countries.

I didn't really mean it in a negative way like that, but I think it still has slightly certain pro-American elements, although this happens naturally when telling such a story. The beginning and the end scenes seem to reinforce this, but yeah, I was saying more that although it's based on the American side, and shown to remember those Americans that died during the war, it's still a very fair film with interesting conflicting characters.

No problem, there are LOTS of Pro American silly flag waving war films out there. We could probably do a thread on them

I'm not overly excited to see Fury, but I do want to see it. I'm not surprised you didn't like it based on what I have heard. I really enjoyed the mostly hated Sabatoge and Harsh Times from this director, while being disappointed in his most popular film, End of Watch. I feel like Fury could go either way for me. Great review!

I haven't heard of any of those films, but if you want a thrilling graphic action film, then yah Fury works.

When I was writing the review I wanted to know the exact names of the bazookas the SS carried....I found this excellent information site that is part of IMDB. Check it out.
http://www.imfdb.org/wiki/Fury_%282014%29

I have a collection of vintage military weapons and it's cool to see them on that page and to see them used in the movie too....Darn I need me a M1 Tommy gun or Grease gun.

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Jon Favreau being in this is more than enough to put me off. Can't stand him. When he's dating Monica in Friends it was so hard to watch without cringing.

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5-time MoFo Award winner.

Thanks to Captain Spaulding for recommending Chef on my 2014 movie thread.

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=40428

Wow, he was in Friends. I seen a lot of that show but don't remember him. Did he looks the same, if so I doubt he have a shot at Monica.