When I first heard there would be another World War II film starring Brad Pitt coming to theaters, it was hard not to make an Inglorious Bastards connection, and from there wonder if we needed another WWII film starring Brad Pitt (or for that matter, another WWII film), but those thoughts drifted from me rather quickly, and I'm glad they did, because Fury is one of the best WWII films I've seen, and it's by far one of the best films to come out all year.
Fury puts a new spin on the perspective of the WWII movie, this one is told from the eyes of the men living beneath the metal walls of an American tank on the ground in Germany in 1945, right at the edge of the war's end. The film doesn't pull punches when it comes to violence. We're greeted to severed faces, bodies crushed, and it's all done in a way that feels normal in the world created here—a world that was real to men like this just 69 years ago.
Of course, as in any war film, the key to the audience caring about the violence and the deaths on screen is getting them to care about the characters this violence is happening to, which the film succeeds at almost from the start. The cast, headlined by the good as ever Brad Pitt, does a phenomenal job of portraying both the inner torture that war brings to men, as well as the outward insanity this torture can manifest itself as.
Fury is a welcome entry to the WWII film pantheon, and will likely find its way on the ballot in the coming Oscar season. My money's on Brad Pitt for a best actor nod and a Shia Labeouff for a best supporting actor nod, both of whom bring heart to the dread and doom that is the world of Fury.