Five years after Inglourious Basterds, Brad Pitt returns to the big screen killing Nazis in David Ayer’s war drama “Fury”. This time the actor plays Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier, the leader of an American tank crew fighting across Germany during the bloody spring of 1945. The movie – two hours and fifteen minutes of World War II action directed by David Ayer – will be released today in the US.
We join the fight, and Wardaddy’s Sherman tank in April 1945, during their deadly mission behind enemy lines. The five man crew crammed into a moving metal cage – outnumbered, outgunned, and with a rookie crammed into their midst – must face the overwhelming odds of their attempt to strike the heart of Nazi Germany. Sounds fun, right? Well, the movie is rated R for strong sequences of war violence, some grisly images, and language throughout, and presents the gruesome reality of war, the changes people undergo during the fight and the terror of a former clerk, totally unprepared for the horrors he is bound to see inside the tank called “Fury”.
The movie was generally well received by critics, mostly for its visual style and the performance of its cast. The “Tomatometer” at Rotten Tomatoes gives “Fury” a score of 76%, while the audience has rated the movie 4.2/5. Although the movie “does not live up to its hard hitting title”, as one review says, “it is a well acted, suitably raw description of the horrors of war”.
David Ayer might not be a very experienced director – he was at the helm of only five movies until now, including titles like “Street Kings” and “Sabotage” – but his name might sound familiar for moviegoers, as he wrote the screenplays for titles like U-571, Training Day, S.W.A.T. and The Fast and the Furious. Based on its current ratings and the audiences’ reviews, “Fury” is a great movie – especially if you have an affinity for war.