This film takes you on a devastatingly brutal journey through a tank soldier’s experiences of the last days of World War II. It is dark, gritty, emotional and overall, remarkably well made in many ways.

The film opens with 4 tank operators working to make their way to rejoin their comrades after they came under heavy fire. The body of their fifth member lies in the tank next to them.

Once back, they are assigned a replacement for that fifth member, their assistant tank driver. The replacement, named Norman, is a brand new recruit to the army, and was originally training to be a typist clerk. Norman is sickened by the idea of violence, in sharp contrast to the crew he has been thrust into, who are all battle tested veterans, and extremely jaded.

Over the course of the first half of the film, Norman struggles to stick to his morals, trying to remain an idealist. But as the enemy kills those around and in front of him, and as he comes under heavy anti-tank fire while trapped in a metal machine, he too learns to hate the Nazi forces against him.

This film really focused in on the personal level of solders who didn’t really care about lofty ideals, but just wanted to survive. They feared and hated the enemy that was trying to kill them and had already killed their friends.

In many ways Fury was a case study of what war does to a man. We start with this fresh recruit, who just joined the army 6 or 8 weeks ago. He has a strict moral code and he is determined to stick to it. But by the end, he has become just as jaded as his fellow crew members were, due to the unrelenting brutality that he experiences in such a brief amount of time.

It reminded me of the film 1917, due largely to the short time in which this narrative unfolded. It seems to be a common, yet compelling, way to present a down to earth look at the individual soldiers in war: providing a snapshot of their experience, without given them extensive backstories. It allows the viewer to more easily imagine themselves alongside these individuals.

There was also no high handed monologuing and none of the characters felt terribly one-dimensional. Well, for the most part – I did think that Trini Garcia (played by Michael Pena) was perhaps the least interesting of the crew members. And, in fairness, Shia LaBeouf’s character (Boyd Swan) slowly and solemnly shed a single tear from his right eye on several occasions. It was moving the first time, and became distracting by the second.

The interactions between the members of the crew felt like they could have really happened, and the film overall was fairly realistic – for the most part. This particular criticism requires temporarily delving a bit into a spoiler, but I thought the final battle, as cool as it was, was the least realistic portion of the film. I always struggle to really believe that 5 men can hold out against so many for so long, but in fairness, they were in an armored tank.

Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman delivered great acting performances. I had never seen Logan Lerman in a film before this, and was quite impressed. Brad Pitt was solid, as per usual. I have been finding myself coincidentally watching a good number of Brad Pitt films recently. We’ll see if that trend continues.

Ironically, I started out really disliking Brad Pitt’s character, Don Collier. I found him to be unnecessary hard on Norman. But, the scene in the town, which took place right around the middle of the film, changed my mind on this.

As a bit of an interesting sidenote about that scene, one of the two cousins that Don and Norman encounter in the town – Irma – is played by Anamaria Marinca, who struck me as vaguely familiar. Turns out, a year before appearing in Fury, she played Rosa Dasque in Europa Report, a very well made indie film, which I reviewed almost a year ago. I have also seen her in an episode of the TV series, “Wallander.”

And I never liked the other crew member, Grady Travis, who was played by Jon Bernthal. He very much came across as an immoral man who was simply using the circumstances and savagery of war as an excuse to justify his cruelty.

From a technical perspective, I thought everything was quite well done. The cinematography really placed the viewer inside the tight space of a tank cab. The sound design provided what you need for a war movie. Unfortunately, I did find the score of the film to be – by no means bad – but rather forgettable.

And there were some interesting facts I found about the production of this film. Firstly, the filmmakers were able to use a real Tiger 131 in the film, which is significant, because it was the first time a real Tiger I tank was used in a war film since 1950. And, secondly, according to an article in Express, the director David Ayer, really put the cast of this film through the ringer. He forced them to spar with one another in the weeks leading up to filming, even to the point of drawing blood. And he made them live in the tank for an extended period of time.

Was this a very well made war movie? Absolutely. The best? No. But very good. Would I recommend watching it? Yes, but with the warning that it is by no means an uplifting film. So come prepared.