For an unpolished, realistic and harsh look at WW2 from the trenches, look no further than FURY.
Brad Pitt stars as Don "WarDaddy" Collier, a tough, smart tank commander who has chased Nazi's across many countries before arriving at the film's beginning, 1945 in the final days of the war.
The Nazi's are defeated but not surrendering and Collier must lead his tank crew against a seemingly unending supply of Germans in the last battle for their lives.
His team is an eclectic bunch, Boyd "Bible" Swan (Shia LaBeouf a very long way from Transformers here), "Gordo" Garcia (the reliably good Michael Pena) and the vile and disgusting Grady "Coon-Ass" Travis, played for every drop of revulsion by "The Walking Dead"s Jon Bernthal.
When one of their crew is killed, he is replaced by a very young Norman, who is prepared to type but not fire a gun.
The film details WarDaddy's attempts to indoctrinate Norman to the horrors of war in order to make sure he survives, but there are moments in the film in which Norman is as terrorized by his own team as he is the Nazis.
The first half hour of the film is very slow and nearly lost me, but the characters grow on you and Brad Pitt is terrific, showing many facets to a tough leader that you only think you know. Pitt is a long way from his portrayal of Lt. Aldo Raine in "Inglorious Basterds". Raine and Wardaddy may have similar tasks at the same time in history, but there are no light moments here.
The war scenes are graphic, gory and very realistic, with no attempt to hide any brutality of the moment.
It nearly bored me into submission the first half hour, but by the film's conclusion, Wardaddy and his men have earned your attention and you'll be cheering for their survival. The battle scenes are exciting and special effects flawless.
FURY is a tough, different perspective of WW2 that gets a B.
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