NEWS
EVENTS
Fury (2014, dir. David Ayer)
Wednesday 5th November 2014 | Lee
Many are of the opinion that war movies are easy to make once you’ve got the setting fixed and a narrative secured. In some ways though, this is a ridiculous statement considering the poor quality of many works from this genre. Although a number of war films are masterpieces, some are simply thrill-rides, and others are complete generic nonsense.
Fortunately for Fury, it’s as close to the first category as anything this century has seen thus far. I expected to enjoy this, but probably in just an entertaining, explosive, potentially forgettable manne. There is such a distinction to Ayer’s film here my optimism couldn’t predict. The film opens with the cold cinematography so crucial to war cinema, immediately portraying the punishment of war on not only the dead, but those who battle through it.
Ayer is challenging something extraordinary here, manifesting in his own way the most devastating elements of war: it’s bad, it hurts, it’s not pretty. He’s not particularly subtle with it early on as we witness Pitt’s authority testing his sanity - he’s on the verge of tears initially - and a parted comrade who won’t be physically let go by his team, but perhaps what Ayer is explaining needs to be prominent; it can’t be held back or drawn in.
Not only does the pain of war damage these experienced men, he focuses a lot of Fury on analysing the growth of Logan Lerman’s young typist-turned unexpected soldier. To me, one of the scariest things war can invoke is the loss of the innocence of youth. Ayer knows this and battles with the theme all throughout, documenting the growth of a kid who can’t even stomach the presence of blood initially to a soldier who earns the nickname “machine” in the final stages of the film. Lerman handles the difficulty of his character expertly, showing maturity beyond his years. It’s an immaculate performance, one which rivals Pitt’s precision work here.
He’s an actor growing better with age, turning in performance after performance of immense accuracy whereby picking out a specific crowning work is proving to be a challenge. Fury might not topple The Assassination of Jesse James or Fight Club, but it’s yet another example of the vast acting talents of someone who is so much more than his celebrity status might have you perceive. Lerman personifies such brutality in his performance, channeling the suffering of war and playing off the support from LaBeouf, Bernthal and Pena astutely.
Fury, despite positivity in reviews, is unlikely to go down as a culturally historic example of war filmmaking to some, which is a shame because David Ayer’s film is one of the finest genre pieces in years and a testament to the director’s abilities.
