For better or worse, there has been an innumerable amount of films based around World War II, so much so that it even has its own sub-genre, and its source doesn’t seem to be drying up anytime soon.
“Fury,” premiering Friday and set in the last year of the war, is another drop pumped out of the cinematic well.
Starring Brad Pitt as the hilariously named “Wardaddy” and Shia LaBeouf, among others, “Fury” is the “outmanned and outgunned” type of film about a small U.S. platoon going beyond the green pastures of allied territory into the heart of the abyss, Nazi Germany.
Brought to us by David Ayer, the man behind “Training Day,” the film is highly reminiscent of other like-minded World War II films such as “The Dirty Dozen” and “The Thin Red Line”.
Though it will most likely not even come close to breathing the same air as the former landmark films, “Fury” seems like a competent, well-produced iteration in the World War II canon (no pun intended).
That’s surprising, considering it’s directed by the writer of “The Fast and the Furious.”
Even more surprising? Shia Labeouf actually looks like he’s acting for once in his career, which is not a bad change of pace from the abominable “Transformers” trilogy.
The film “Fury” associates with is Steven Spielberg’s 1998 masterwork, and his last great film, “Saving Private Ryan.”
Spielberg’s modern classic portrayed the gritty, hellish landscape of death and war through the eyes of a few, as evidenced by the iconically scarring Normandy Invasion sequence.
Yet it also displayed the sincere, raw and heart-wrenching humanity of those affected by the loss of hardened soldiers, both inside and outside of the danger zones.
“The Thin Red Line,” another timeless war film by the incomparable Terrence Malik, is yet another example Ayers’ film aims to reference.
Placed on the other side of the spectrum from Spielberg’s 1998 movie, “The Thin Red Line” instead delved into the philosophical and the spiritual, showcasing soldiers trying to subsist the vicious realities of war and internal struggle, the areas of right and wrong turning to gray.
“Fury,” although promising, seems more like a reminder of the aforementioned films, only weighted by melodrama and cliches, rather than being a film independent of others.
Then again, it is an unjust assessment, because trying to stand out as a needle in a sea of needles doesn’t seem like a walk in the park.
