Quite possibly vying to be the biggest surprise of Oscar season, “Fury” is a driven movie capable of evoking strong emotions in any viewer. 

At first glance it might seem to be another rudimentary war film, cookie cut with a star-studded cast and dazzling special effects; however, it was far more developed than that. 

Brad Pitt gave us exactly what we would expect from Brad Pitt: a strong performance from a Hollywood icon bent on making an early Oscar push. But the highlight of the film (despite misleading posters and trailers) is not Brad Pitt whatsoever; it is the breakout performance from Logan Lerman, who plays a skittish, young soldier whose only experience has been typewriting in the neutral zone. 

The film begins with Lerman’s character, Norman Ellison, thrust into the heat of battle with no forthright desire to fire a gun in the first place. 

Throughout the trials and tribulations of the film we see a strong connection develop between Norman and the other members of Pitt’s character’s, Don “Wardaddy” Collier, tank. 

A stellar performance by Jon Bernthal, who delivers his marquee sadistic and twisted attitude to an already sadistic and twisted situation, as well as by Michael Pena, who unsurprisingly delivered a majority of the film’s comic relief. 

Shia LaBeouf also provided what I felt to be the most complex and intricate performances of his career. He did away with the larger than life persona that was visible in the “Transformers” blockbusters, and provided a more human approach to a movie that needed such a presence.

The part of this film that struck me as being the most impressive was quite simply the storyline and the heavy subject matter. Being in no way a fan of the typical war movie, I was immersed from the very opening act of the film. They did away with the undesirable exposition and showed us the development of our lead characters from the start. 

It was dark and heart-wrenching from the first shot to the last. Coupled with knockout performances all around, there is no denying the emotional, evoking power of this film.  

Violence would be an understatement, but “Fury” takes the situation at hand and tells it how it is.

I always enjoy when a movie takes a common historical event and tells it from a unique perspective. 

In “Fury,” we never actually leave Germany, and we never get more than a few dozen yards from the tank in which the movie takes place. It is a war story told about the end of the European Theatre in World War II, an episode that prior filmmakers may have found dull and lacking in substance. It is historically accurate to the bone and fleshes out all of the realities of an apocalyptic war zone being cleared out one last time. 

Depressing, as an adjective, does not even do the film justice in its own right. This film is a testament to the violence of war and the bonds of brotherhood that are built up only to be torn down moments later. 

In “Fury,” we do not see a film that simply leaves us with morbid images in our minds walking out of the theater, but a film that truly makes us wonder what could make two cultures so relentlessly hell-bent on eradicating one another. 

“Fury” was an exceptional film that surprised me from start to finish. It showed a side of war that I have rarely seen in such a film. I certify “Fury” with a resounding PASS.

My Rating: 8.1/10

Current IMDb Rating: 8.4/10

Jack is a sophomore in Media. He can be reached at [email protected].