2014
Happy new year film fans, OK so it's somewhat belated but still. I hope you all had a good holiday regardless of your persuasion. Do you make new years' resolutions? Honestly, I don't bother because I'm awful at sticking to them. But I do want to write more this year. And without further fuss, here's my first, and who knows; quite possibly most important review of the new year. Indeed it is my film of the year 2014 also.
Without wanting to fawn all over Brad Pitt, or the film, I will just come out and say I feel as if this was the role Pitt was born to play. Now I'm hardly an expert in war films, in fact I tend to steer clear of them. Aside from some of the classics Full Metal Jacket, Saving Private Ryan, Apocalypse Now ET AL, I can't exactly call myself a veteran in viewing all things WW2 (other wars have occurred). But, I have the facts, and I have a partner who has so many facts that the mind boggles.
I feel like it's important to mention that this is a 'tank' film (his words) of course, that shouldn't in any way skew the viewing of this veritable masterpiece, but you should know (if you don't already) that tank warfare the way they portray it anyway, is brutal and unrelenting. The edge of my seat at the cinema (yep, saw it in a 'take 2' showing at Cineworld) was the only part of it that was warm. It's a good job I was wearing a scarf because I spent much of the film clutching it until my fingers could have lead people out of the cinema in an emergency. If the very feel of material in my mouth didn't make me want to vomit I'd have probably choked myself with it, such was the level of tension in this film.
The stellar cast consisted of a war-hardened sergeant Don 'Wardaddy' Collier (Pitt) who commands a Sherman tank. It's 1945 and the war is almost over. Terrified of what is imminent, Hitler launches one terrifying last attack where no one escapes the call to fight. Not even women and children. Wardaddy's squad consists of bible-quoting Boyd 'Bible' Swan played by Shia LeBeouf, who's role is played perfectly, another career defining moment for the young actor.
Trini 'Gordo' Garcia is played by Michael Peña who drives the tank. Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis (John Bernthal) is pretty much the same character as Shane in The Walking Dead, the only difference being that he actually feels emotions other than anger. Finally, dumped into the midst of the chaos is typing clerk Norman Ellison played by baby-faced Logan Lerman. Who later earns the nickname 'Machine' as his confidence and desire to destroy every SS soldier in sight finally kicks in and he becomes an integral part of the crew.
Sent on several last-ditch missions by Captain Waggoner (Jason Issacs), they face terrible adversity and overcome obstacles that had many viewers in the cinema gasping. The terrible truth of what war was really like (in terms of casualties, and the final battle aside) isn't held back. Norman's first task it to clean out the remains of his predecessor, and unsurprisingly, the gruesome remains of the man's face have him scrabbling out of the tank to lose the last thing he ate.
Wardaddy takes Norman under his wing, as they storm a field and destroy Nazi tanks, a straggling SS soldier breaks free, begging for his life. It's harrowing to watch as Wardaddy literally forces Norman to shoot the soldier. This seems to be somewhat of a turning point for the typing clerk who yells what is probably my favourite quote from the film "I am trained to type 60 words a minute, not trained to machine gun dead bodies."
The tank (called Fury) is now the head of a small squad of 4 Shermans faced with a sole Nazi Panza in a terrifying and gripping stand-off. 3 of the tanks are picked off one by one as the allies realise that their weapons are useless against the Panza, it's only weakness is at the rear, which the crew of Fury manage to destroy just after I'd chewed my nails all the way down to bloody stumps.
They are then sent on a final mission, to secure a crossroads. Norman is sent to a post in a line of trees up ahead to stand guard as the remainder of the crew stop to try and fix Fury which had just ran over a landmine. When the bomb went off quite a few people lost some popcorn, because it was so unexpected. For a short while everything is quiet, and so while Norman takes a short break and the guys try to fix the tank I will change the subject.
I wanted to mention one of my very favourite things about this film, and that's the audio. Obviously, being in the cinema makes for excellent surround sound and the such like, but it's rare that films put much emphasis on pushing the boundaries of sound. It has come along in recent years but the changes in tone, and the aural depth of field changes depending on whether the conversation is coming directly from someone's mouth, through the microphones around people's necks or Wardaddy talking on the speaker system. Also there is constant dull sounds of warfare, along with a constant stream of information coming through the radio system that you are immersed visually and aurally into what war was truly like.
Another thing that made this film true-to-life was the way the soldiers spoke, their lines were laced with homophobic and racial slurs, such was the norm back then. Obviously it isn't hard to put a bit of dirt on an actors face to give them a war-weary look but it was done subtly, and I'm not sure if Pitt really does have a scar above his lip, or if it was accentuated or put there deliberately but it served as another subtle nod to the gravity of war.
Oh look, here come the Germans! Norman, you better leg it like your life depends on it (oh right, it DOES) back to the crew and warn them. While he's doing that, there is just one more thing I want to talk about before we get back to the final, harrowing scenes of the film. Everyone we meet in this film has a role to play, right down to the characters that have their lives extinguished moments after their entrance into the scene. Obviously there are a lot of bodies that get shot down but the use of actors with lines (apart from the crew) are sparse, which further served to fully immerse you into the plot.
During one scene Wardaddy and Norman have entered a building in a town they have just taken where two terrified women offer them food, drink and hot water. Obviously we catch a glimpse of Pitt's bod, because let's face facts here, it was bound to happen. And yes, for the record, it's worth it. I'm probably going to be guessing forever if Norman and the petite Emma did the dirty in the bedroom but it was done tastefully and Norman doesn't kiss and tell despite the drunk crew bustling in as he's doing up his shirt.
Unfortunately, just as their about to mount up and move out, artillery goes off everywhere and the building Emma and her cousin were in is (somewhat predictably) blasted to pieces. Norman is beside himself, but this is specifically placed to help him on his path to the screaming, confident SS-soldier-destroying Machine during the final fight.
On that note, Norman has made it back to the tank. Phew! Given the fact that he was barely a mile up the road he manages to run back and warn them and then the remainder of the day passes by while the crew one by one join Wardaddy in a final Mexican standoff against the never ending line of SS soldiers who arrive some 6 days later (or so it feels).
Needless to say in true American gung-ho style, they decide they can take on the soldiers with only the one tank. Waiting until they are surrounded by soldiers, and the hatch is opened, all hell breaks loose. In about 2 minutes it has gone from one dead soldier in broad daylight to night-time and the bodies are piling up faster than the crew can re-load their guns. Now I don't want to ruin the end of this film because it is a little predictable but non the less it is sublime. I particularly enjoyed the fact that Pitt could speak German in the film, and when an SS soldier yells 'we will skin you alive!' he amusingly retorts 'shut up and send me more pigs to kill',
The final scene is an aerial shot of the now blasted and on-fire Fury, as the camera zooms out we get to see just what five extremely brave soldiers can do with the grace of god and a .50 caliber machine gun. No question, the most poignant scene of the whole film, queue lights, a quick wipe-away of the tears in my eyes and a visit to the nearest booze emporium to get something to calm me down enough to sleep.
The only flaw (for me) was the fact that I couldn't make out some of what was being said from time to time, and the scene where there are two smoking soldiers who are glowing because of the phosphorus from the tank shell which I'm reliably informed wasn't available back then. Of course there were some tiny inaccuracies but if you take the film at face value (which being a self-proclaimed noob at all things war related I did) then you cannot fail to appreciate the sheer magnitude of this masterpiece.
2015 has some serious competition
Twelfteen out of ten.
Until next time film fans.
