Rating summary

Movie		5.0
Video		5.0
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.5

Fury Blu-ray Movie Review

Man and war.

Reviewed by Martin Liebman January 16, 2015

The War film has undergone quite the evolution over the years. While the classic anti-war film has been a hallmark throughout the cinema experience -- films like 1930's All Quiet on the Western Front are regarded as classics and speak decidedly against the ugliness of war -- there's been a clearly defined arc in the general flow of cinema history that has seen the War movie evolve in spirit and tone. The post-war era brought with it a collection of movies that showed a spirited patriotism that didn't exactly cheer on war but that gave it something of a more glorious, gung-ho, rah-rah, sort of mass appeal, not to mention a "clean" and "watered down" depiction of war, understandable in the wake of the bloodiest war the world had ever seen. Following the Vietnam conflict, filmmakers like Oliver Stone and Stanley Kubrick positioned their cameras to depict war as a negative to both the individual and to the greater human condition, an unsurprising turn of events considering the cultural shift of the 1960s and the broad popular opposition to the conflict by its end in the 1970s. The tone shifted with the 1998 release of Saving Private Ryan, a film that portrayed war with unflinching realism and that was followed by similarly gritty, ultra-realistic films like Black Hawk Down and the recent Lone Survivor that didn't cheer on war or dismiss war outright but that instead transformed the theater into a virtual battleground that would be, thankfully and more than likely, as close as most anyone will ever get to true, devastating war.

Fast-forward to 2014, a year following the Lone Survivor release. Writer/Director David Ayer's (Sabotage) Fury once again marks a clear demarcation in the war film lineage. The story of a tank crew rolling deep into German territory at the tail end of the war in Europe makes for not only a harrowing, realistically violent motion picture, but one that pushes further than any move before it. It portrays a world in which there are no heroes but only people performing a task, a task which has made them almost numb to anything but the lifeblood that runs through their veins and the veins of those who share the tough yet fragile steel death trap they call "home:" the inside of a Sherman tank. These are men who have had the humanity largely wiped clean from them, men to whom war has scraped away the heart and degraded the soul. The only instinct that pushes them onward, it seems, is the will to live, which for them means destroying other people who have likely been similarly destroyed from the inside out in a war that superfically sees men finished off from the outside in. Whether in the heat of battle with tracers zipping overhead and shells ricocheting off the tanks' steel bodies or tucked away in a moment of reprieve in the relative safety and silence of an occupied home, the war tears at them, determined to rip away every last bit of them that makes them human. In Fury, war takes a tangible, destructive toll on men, but as the film ultimately shows, it does something else: it brings them closer together, closer in that huddled belly of armor and gunpowder in which they may have largely lost themselves but that together rediscover the best man has to offer -- toughness, duty, honor, respect, friendship -- even when those things have otherwise been removed from their very cores.

Into hell.

The film's story is little more than a frame through which the terrors of war, as they are inflicted on man, may be portrayed. A Sherman tank crew, one that's been together through many battles, has just lost one of its key members. The replacement is a young, completely green typist named Norman Ellison (Logan Lerman) whose hours of tank experience are equal to the number of times it looks like he's shaved in his life: zero. The veteran tank crew -- Don Collier (Brad Pitt), Boyd Swan (Shia LaBeouf), Trini Garcia (Michael Peña), and Grady Travis (Jon Bernthal) -- is largely unwelcoming to the fresh recruit, fearing his inexperience will cost lives. The men partake in several clashes with the enemy while pushing deeper into German territory where they face the consequences of Hitler's "total war" strategy that sees his best SS troops, as well as forcibly recruited men, women, and children, putting up a final resistance against the surging allied forced pushing East towards Berlin.

The base story isn't significant or novel, really. Fury feeds off of the basic "new recruit" sort of vibe that's a staple of many War pictures, pitting the fresh, green newbie against grizzled veterans who have seen it all before. It's what the movie does with the dynamic that sets it apart. Rather than simply serve as a necessary and generic vehicle meant to replicate a sense of drama in between battle scenes, it's instead a core factor in shaping what Fury has to say about the deepest casualty of war: a man's soul. Norman doesn't understand the world into which he enters when he's assigned to the tank, and neither do the men understand him. He retains his humanity while they have largely lost theirs, and while they share the same uniform and basic heritage, they couldn't be more distant. The war has transformed the men, hardened them, made them immune to any concept greater than the bond they share and the common goal of survival, a goal that depends on all of them not only working together, but being on the same emotionally void plane where pushing forward and slaughtering the enemy is all that matters. Norman essentially upsets the status quo, and the men quickly, and outright, dismiss every notion of goodwill to men, combat with honor, and humanity he brings into the tank. Their many trials by fire have seen unforgettable images etched into their memories and scorched onto their souls. Their absence of humanity is their lifeblood, the one thing that keeps them alive throughout their journey across hell on Earth. The only questions that remain, then, are whether Norman will get them killed, if they will kill him, or if his soul, too, will make the jump from man to war machine, from an individual to one with his crew and tank.

For the men of Fury, then, the tank represents their only safe haven even as it's a machine designed to kill and, more than likely, be killed. It is, in essence, both a womb and a tomb, a nurturing safe haven, the only place they know and the only place in which they can exist, and likely their final resting place, too. Even as the war -- essentially, for them, their experiences in that tank -- has erased everything that made them human, it's oddly inside the tank where they retain their last shreds of humanity, where they decide to fight for one another, for something greater than themselves or their self-preservation, understanding that to live outside the tank may be a fate worse than death inside of it. It's become a permeant part of their life, a comfort, a purpose where none exists beyond its raw, rough body, its stale air, and the stink of oil, gunpowder, exhaust, and death they smell and breathe. The movie's middle stretch sees a significant slow-down in pace between the furious battle scenes, but it's actually the most critical part of the film. After taking a town, the crew disembarks and celebrates. Norman and Don, the former of whom has yet to be fully desensitized by war and the latter of whom still maintains a shred of humanity when away from anyone hostile towards him, make themselves guests of a woman and her younger, attractive cousin. Norman and the younger girl make love, and the older woman prepares eggs for them, the ingredients for which Don supplies. Grady, Trini, and Boyd crash the party. They're rude to excess, their friendship and understanding of one another on a personal level all but evaporated even as they're mere feet away from the tank, separated from it by only a few walls and a bit of dirt and debris. Yet they are, essentially, worlds away from the decorum they should demonstrate right there in that room and which they often share with one another in the tank. This lengthy sequence makes the movie, the truest depiction of war in the film even beyond the terrifyingly realistic and entertainingly thrilling action sequences scattered throughout it, including a final battle (and the build-up to it) that reinforces the idea that their shared experience is all they have left.

The movie's dramatic intensity and deep, contemplative study of war through the eyes of the men who fight is assuredly brilliant, but so too is the film's critical supportive infrastructure. David Ayer's film is polished and precise, a technical marvel of wartime recreation in which every bullet fired, each tank shell launched, all the bits of dirt and mud stirred, and every man killed is a symphony of lifelike terror that only accentuates the deeper, and darker, themes that run parallel. The movie is made of largely all practical effects, using real, vintage, museum-housed authentic World War II tanks for nearly everything other than their destruction, in which case replicas were understandably inserted in their place. Beyond tracer fire, ricochetting shells, and maybe some smoke, every bit of the production's visuals appear practical, a welcome reprieve from the incessant barrage of clumsy digital effects that might look good and may be cheaper to produce but that offer no tangible platform for authenticity that a film such as Fury so desperately requires. The performances, too, are terrific. Brad Pitt, who is sometimes overlooked as a man whose success has been a product of his looks rather than his talent, demonstrates a range and ability well beyond the reach of the vast majority of his contemporaries, developing and portraying a character who is outwardly simple -- a man completely focused on the task of destroying the enemy and preserving his life and the lives of his men -- but significantly more complex on the inside. Lerman, too, is outstanding as the new blood whose trial by fire is at the center of the movie's core story and deeper themes alike, and he handles the challenges with a grace, purposefulness, and completeness that's amongst the finest performances in wartime pictures, sharing parallels with Actor Jeremy Davies whose similar character evolution and performance in Saving Private Ryan was, like this one, wrongly missed come awards season.

Fury Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Fury, photographed on film and presented on Blu-ray in a "Mastered in 4K" 1080p presentation, looks stunning. Aside from a shot or two in which black levels struggle with depth and accuracy, the image is striking, even considering its primarily bleak, cold, gray-dominant appearance. The image reveals any number of accurate, lifelike, tactile details, not only on worn, rough, scarred, and grimy human faces but also in the battered, rusted, muddy, and bullet-riddled tank exteriors and interiors alike. The image is meticulously representative of the murky, unwelcoming wartime landscape, down to the finest uniform wear and tear, worn bluing on firearms, and bits of gore. Colors are largely drained, save for a somewhat livelier middle stretch in which the men interact with a couple of women in their German home where cheerier primaries prevail over the gray-heavy palette that shapes the rest of the movie. Flesh tones appear accurate and reflective of the way source light influences them. Very light grain accentuates the image. No wear and no major compression issues plague the release. This is a stellar presentation from Sony.

Fury Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Fury's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack is unsurprisingly spectacular. The track opens with light radio chatter that effortlessly maneuvers through the stage, grows in intensity, and is followed by natural, immersive breezes and light musical notes that play in perfect balance and with precision clarity. Light ambient effects are heard throughout, often in the form of background, distant gunfire and explosions as well as the effortless yet potent rumbles and rattles heard and felt as the tank rolls across Germany. The little details of movement are strikingly natural and place the listener in the middle of the machine. Of course, it's in battle where the track shines brightest. Bullets rip through the stage with fast, precise movement. Impacts on dirt, in flesh, and most obviously on the tank's metal surfaces are amazingly heavy and rich with fine little details springing up all around. Explosions are thunderous and often metallic, sending a heavy wave through the stage, followed frequently by dirt and debris crashing all around. The audio recreations are legitimately frightening and fully immersive, true reference material of clarity, surround, and bass combined in one. The track also features clear, immaculately reproduced dialogue to round a perfect listening experience into tip-top shape.

Fury Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Fury contains several featurettes and a large number of deleted/extended scenes. A UV digital copy voucher is also included in the Blu-ray case.

• Deleted & Extended Scenes (1080p): Alternate Camp Entrance (7:58), Giving a Hand (3:51), Bonding on the Way (3:18), D-Ration (2:39), Killing a Man (2:48), Nervous Soldier (4:29), Chocolate Bar (1:00), Cuddling (0:54), The Life Line (2:24), Shooting Horses (9:09), Taken By Surprise (0:48), Rose (3:29), Rose-Extneded (9:04), A Close Call (2:23), Warning Wardaddy (3:04), and Burn Out (0:34).
• Blood Brothers (1080p, 11:08): An examination of the film's authenticity, including the actors' meeting with veterans, the timeframe depicted in the film, the reality of war, and the actors' physical preparations for their roles and the camaraderie gained from the experience.
• Director's Combat Journal (1080p, 17:32): A quality overview piece that looks at life and work on a challenging set, David Ayer's direction, the film's interplay between action and characterization, editing, the film's authenticity, technical details of the shoot, and crafting various action scenes.
• Armored Warriors: The Real Men Inside the Shermans (1080p, 12:11): A piece featuring several real World War II veterans discussing their experiences in the war.
• Taming the Beasts: How to Drive, Fire & Shoot Inside a 30 Ton Tank (1080p, 12:48): Securing real World War II tanks for the shoot, including an authentic German Tiger tank; maintaining the tanks; and the actors' interactions with the tanks.
• Photo Gallery (1080p): Images for cast and crew, tanks, and veterans.
• Previews: Additional Sony titles.

Fury Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Fury is a terrific film that, perhaps better than any movie before it, captures the horror of war from the inside out. It's as emotionally graphic as it is outwardly graphic, a difficult film that studies the destruction of man's soul in the midst of his destruction of one another. The story is tight and complete, the visuals are astounding, and the acting is stellar. It's criminal that Fury received no Oscar nominations in the recently announced contender's list. Certainly the film seemed at least a shoe-in nominee for its audio engineering, but it's good enough to warrant thoughtful consideration for some of the top prizes, including the performances turned in by Brad Pitt and Logan Lerman, and not to mention Best Picture and Best Director. Nevertheless, the film will certainly earn a top stop on this reviewer's "best of 2015" end-year Blu-ray list. Sony's high definition release of Fury offers stellar picture, reference sound, and a satisfying collection of extras that would have been better with a commentary track or two, perhaps even with some of the veterans interviewed for one of the included extras. Still, Fury earns my highest recommendation.