movie critique

Robert Deleon

Robert Bombay

Humanities 101

8/12/15

A True War movie

 

War is often glorified in Hollywood without really showing the gruesome realities of it. Case in point Saving Private Ryan in when Tom Hanks gives the speech of why they are going to sacrifice his unit for one soldier. I am not going to talk about those movies in this critic. I am instead going to talk about the move Fury directed by David Ayer. This movie is a truer depiction of the lack of humanity that there really is during war time. Through the use of: props, special effects, and script, the reality of war is truly shown through in this film.

The movie takes place in World War II in the heart of Germany in the final push for Berlin. Brad Pitt plays Wardaddy who is a tank commander who is a veteran since the beginning of the war in North Africa. North Africa is notorious for its tank battles. Logan Lerman plays Norman Ellison, a brand new private who is not a tanker, but a typist who got re-assigned to fill a slot of a gunner recently killed in Wardaddy’s tank. His inexperience is depicted when Ellison vomits after he is instructed to clean the blood out of the tank of his predecessor.

The lack of humanity is shown through the use of props in several parts of the movie. First the tank, “Fury”, is driven on a dirt road when it rolls over the already flattened corpse of a German soldier previously killed. It is flattened to demonstrate that it has been driven on several times and that it no longer resembles the person of its formal self but just bio matter. In the second scene in the movie there is a mound of dead German soldiers that a bulldozer is pushing into a giant ditch that appears to be a mass grave. This without any signs that they are going to mark who is buried at that particular site. Toward the end of the movie they use a German corpse to decorate their tank, which has been incapacitated, to make it appear that it has been destroyed for a long time.

The use of special effects is used throughout the movie to show gore in a realistic context. Gun wounds appear real, not to bloody but just bloody enough. At one point a machine gun at 10 meters kills a line of troops ripping off one of the soldier’s legs. The force of the rifle would in fact rip off a person’s leg. Another example is the main gun of a German tank fires, misses the tank but hits the tank commander on top of the tank, ripping his entire upper body from the rest of his body. There is also an instance when a tank round sends a human body flying through the air in a lifeless corpse from just the sheer force of the round.

The thing about the movie that really shines through in demonstrating the realities of the war is the script, or same could be true for the lack of script. There is no long winded speech before the battle. There is no dramatized revenge killing spree that is unrealistic. Just conversations between soldiers and acting that shows real emotion you would see of soldiers under extreme stress. Norman being a new soldier is told by his tank crew that you follow Wardaddy and he will be alright, despite Wardaddy showing disgust that he got a soldier of subpar training. When the unit comes under attack, a tank is destroyed due to Norman not wanting to kill kids despite the kids being the ones who attack the tanks. Wardaddy makes Norman get out of the tank to show him what kids can do to another human being.

Farther along into the movie, after a successful battle, to teach Norman an important lesson in war he is forced to kill a prisoner of war. The scene was designed not to glorify the protagonist as many war movies do. It also does not make him an anti-hero. It is truly designed to show that death in war is a reality no matter what side of the conflict you are on. This is reinforced when Wardaddy says, “Ideals are peaceful, war is messy.” In war, if you are a soldier, you have to get your hands dirty. There is no place for ideals unless you want to get your unit and yourself killed.

There are many more examples of Ayers use of all three tools to demonstrate the realities of war. I have just demonstrate a few. Currently less than 1% of the population in the United States has served in the military. People often talk about war in terms of ideals rarely in terms of reality. The closest to reality most people get to the reality of war is the number of wounded or killed, or the loss of a loved one who has served. While I do not think this film we get any awards for best picture or music. This film demonstrates the monster that we must all become in order to be a successful soldier. If you want to see what it takes to become the monster, then this is the movie to watch.  

Works Cited

Ayer, D. (Director). (2014). Fury [Motion Picture].