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Boyd 'Bible' Swan: Here's a Bible verse I think about sometimes. Manytimes.
It goes: And I heard the voice of Lord saying: Whom shall I send and who will
go for Us? And... I said: Here am I , send me!
Wardaddy: It will end, soon. But before it does, a lot more people have to die.
Wardaddy: I had the best gunner in the entire United Army in that seat. Now
I have you.
Wardaddy: Wars are not going anywhere, Sir.
April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a
battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a
Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines.
Outnumbered and outgunned, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds
in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany. Written by Sony
Pictures Entertainment
When I hear arm chair military analysts on network or cable news shows like
ABCs This Week, NBCs Meet The Press or MSNBCs Morning Joe
say that President Obama cant defeat the terrorists ISIL in Syria and Iraq
without sending in lots of U.S. ground troops they from have not seen Fury.
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart
When neo-cons, Tea Baggers, Right Wing bloggers and almost all of Fox
News watchers think we should not pull our troops get out of Afghanistan and
should still have a large force of American troops in Iraq have not seen Fury.
When Millennials and even many Gen-Xers think intense and realistic
warfare are on next-generation console video games like Halo 4, Destiny or
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare then they also have not seen Fury.
Warfare rarely gets as simple, honest and brutal than when one watches
director David Ayers Fury. I wish films like Red Tails (2008) was as realistic
and powerful as Fury. The problem with a Red Tails or Pearl Harbor (2001) is
that they are shot like a traditional Hollywood World War II film were death
is a scorecard. The more Nazis or Japanese fighters are killed on screen the
more and audience thinks we are easily winning the war. And everyone on the
Allies side dies cleanly or with an honorable self-sacrifice to save a mission.
But there are non-traditional action based World War II films like Wolfgang
Petersons classic submarine thriller Das Boot (1981), an equally great and
somber The Railway Man (2013) and even the LA EigaFest 2014 short film
masterpiece Suicide Volunteers that are compelling dramas that really push
viewers to examine the powerful psychological and emotional toll on soldiers.
we are told that the Germans have now mobilized everyone from women and
children to take up arms to defend the Fatherland. Unlike the Japanese who
were forced to surrender and end their war machine after we dropped the
A-bomb on Nagasaki. Furys film motto is War never ends quietly. These
are truly the bitter dog days of WWII because with the end so near no one
really wants to die. But for Brad Pitts steely-eyed and even tempered Don
"Wardaddy" Collier he devotedly believes his Fury 5-man tank crews
purpose in life is to kill any SS and all Nazis until there are none left. So when
Fury gets a new baby face crew member Norman Ellison, played by Logan
Lerman, David Ayer turns your stomach and flips the notion of any World
War II film when you see Norman being forced to clean up the blood and guts
off his seat in the tank. Ayer pulls no punches with Fury and shows Norman
literally picking up the blown off face of his replacement. This also reinforces
how grisly and bloody reminder that tank warfare is like no other warfare.
Tanks are rolling deaths because they can inflict lots of death, but also there is
hardly any way to escape death if one is badly wounded. And if one is killed
inside the tank than it may be several hours or even days before the tank crew
can clean away your blood and guts in your cramped and tight section in the
tank. There is nowhere to hide if one gets scared or has doubts you are going
to survive facing off against the superior made German tanks that can destroy
three to five U.S. made tanks in every combat encounter. When you have
killed thousands and repeatedly survived death than Wardaddy can seem
robotic and emotionless, but watching Fury you realize each crew member has
a personal code or quirk to deal with their almost inevitable deaths in combat.
after we saw them. I thought Ayers wanted the German women to represent
a glimmer of hope and sanity for Norman. And when they are ironically
blown up by their own German forces--we see the last bit of innocence drain
away from Norman, so now he can become a more focused and fearless Fury
fighter. Hollywood can get corny and loves to use death as a motivator to
make a lead character complete a mission or goal. Or death can be an excuse
to be heroic. I truly thought Ayer could have let the women live and still get
Norman to find another less contrived plot point to make him as dedicated,
hard fighting, focused, somber and loyal Fury member as Wardaddy,
Bible, Coon-Ass and Gordo. The only other thing I did not like in the
Fury was accidental way Norman was allowed to escape the films final Fury
battle scene when a young German solider has pity on him and lets him live. I
know this is another way Ayer is trying to make a statement that not all
Germans were bad or predictable evil socio-paths. I wish Norman could have
found a more innovative way on his own to secure his own freedom rather
rely on a random charitable moment from a German soldier. Maybe Norman
could have slipped on dead German soldiers jacket or uniform that was by
Fury and then snuck away. I would have really preferred to see that scene.
This bond between Norman and Wardaddy becomes stronger after capturing
a small German town, where Wardaddy and Norman meet a German woman,
Irma, and her cousin, named Emma. Norman (presumably) has sex with
Emma, then joins Wardaddy and Emma's cousin for breakfast, during which
time Norman discovers that Wardaddy has sustained horrific burn scars on
his back at some point. However, the rest of the crew barge in and cause
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart
David L. $Money Train$ Watts FuTurXTV HHBMedia.com info@hhbmedia.com www.hhbmedia.com David Velo Stewart