Ignite Change In Your Heart!

Fury (2014)
A Review By Ben Hunter
5 Out Of 5 Stars

GET TO THE POINT BEN!

Let the reality of war help you to ignite change in your heart!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Brutality and carnage, bloodshed and butchery, the dehumanizing of one’s character, man’s inhumanity towards other men such as with women, spiritual redemption in the face of certain calamity, … death in all its gore, … the call … of duty.  Writer/director David Ayer (writer of Training Day, director of End of Watch) shares his realistic depiction with today’s innovations of the reality of war in Fury. 

Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Brad Pitt) commands a tank crew in Europe during WWII, a tank they all named “Fury”.  A crew of blunt, manly in the traditional sense, rough around the edges type of characters, brilliantly meshed together by the acting talents of Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal.  After a crewmember’s passing in battle, his replacement is typist Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) who hasn’t the slightest idea of what really goes on in war. Norman is just a kid caught in the middle of a bigger situation he knows nothing about.  He’s terrified at the sight of death.  I literally saw the remains of the skin of a soldier’s face on the ground with the body nowhere in sight.  So a scared, helpless kid is thrown in the midst of all of this.  It’s during the course of their time together that Norman, as well as the rest of us experiencing this with him, comes to grasp with the happenings of war while unexpectedly breaking away from the conditions of normal society.  

By gosh was this film so real!  The realistic depictions of what this time must have been like to the best of our knowledge gave me such an incredible discernment of hostility.  The actuality and authenticity of how Norman was slowly mind melded into the psyche of war.  Witnessing death in front of his very eyes, just inches away, loosing someone loved, pleading for the end of it all even if it means loosing his own life, this film was so real!  The chemistry between the character portrayals confirmedly contributed to this feeling I received about Norman’s transition.  This is another great example of a film really taking me there but not going too far with its savagery.  I didn’t want it to end because it was too much; I wanted it to continue because it was just enough.  A great sign of a great film!

I loved how the different themes of war were acutely addressed, in particular spirituality before death.  There’s a scene where the delivery of the lines from Shia LaBeouf’s character, Boyd “Bible” Swan, prays with a dying soldier on the battlefield, simply overtook me with sentimental emotion.  If there is something that ever so lightly yet triumphantly moves me, it would be this.  The concept or the actual reality of death is something that gets one thinking about his or her spirituality and connection to life in a deeper manner than just the tangible everyday manners we construct ourselves within, to help grow our character and the world we affect for the better.  Fury is a film that does just that in my book.  It had me thinking of how I affect the world around me for the better.  To realize that the kindness and goodness of my heart is all it takes for change to ignite. 

Fury
War, 134 Minutes, R
Written & Directed by: David Ayer
Cast: Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Logan Lerman, Michael Peña, Jon Bernthal

Comments

Popular Posts