(Fury (the movie)

[GaryS]

Watched it at home today. I hardly ever go to the movies, so I usually end up at least a few months behind on new movies.
That's if I bother watching them at all.

Anyway, I watched the movie and was not impressed.

At one point I thought it reminded me of "Kelly's Heroes", only without sympathetic characters, good acting, a comprehensible plot, or really believable combat sequences.

It seemed like another anti war, the Americans were no better than the bad guys movie, which seem to be all the rage these days.

I'm going to watch "American Sniper" in the next week or so. I read the book and hope the movie is as good as everyone says it is.

 

[GatorFarmer]

Fury seemed fairly realistic until the last stand at the end. If anything, the last days of the war were likely far uglier than portrayed.

 

[SouthernGirl]

If I had read the book before I saw the 'American Sniper' movie I would have probably walked out.....
However I know some loved it

 

[sigp220.45]

I saw in it in the theater, I bought the Blu-Ray, and I've watched it on demand. I think it's one of the best war movies ever made. I liked it so much I no longer hate Shia LaBouef. That's saying something.

 

[MP1983]

I wasn't real impressed with Fury either. To me, they (the producers, writers, director, whoever) took 21st Century values (and of course 21st Century actors) and just made the story up to suit their imaginations of how it might have been.

My dad was a WWII infantry vet, I have studied a good bit about WWII (and other wars), and loved the Band of Brother's HBO series. For me, Fury fell a little flat. I had hoped for more.

 

[Arik]

I don't think it's trying to make Americans as bad as the bad guys. This was war, allies or axis they were all men and do what men do in war. I don't think that in combat one side is morally better than the other although there were individual instances

 

[Absalom]

I thought it was an impressive effort at realism, but the final battle had too many issues. I wrote here in the thread about it back when I first saw it, and when I recently watched it again, it didn't change my views.

I don't normally nitpick movies too much, because after all it's only a movie, but the final battle seemed staged just because, well, war movies are supposed to have a final battle.

The whole set-up might have made some sense if they'd defended a bridge or some other chokepoint. But having a heroic battle at the intersection of a couple of dirtroads in flat country which by the looks of it could have been bypassed by going through the pasture a few hundred feet to the right or left was just silly.

And at a time when 12-year-old Hitler youth were earning the Iron Cross for taking out a half dozen tanks using Panzerfausts, it seems bizarre that a few hundred supposedly battle-hardened German soldiers would find nothing better to do than to dash around all night within the rather limited field of fire of the tank crew's weapons to get themselves slaughtered.

The film was well-made and acted otherwise, but I just can't get past that. There could have been more credible ways if they wanted to kill everybody by the end and emphasize their sacrifice.

 

[Onomea]

Saw it on an airplane. I thought it was surprisingly good.

 

[hoc9sw]

I've probably posted this. My cousin was killed in a German attack on a US tank column during the Battle of the Bulge. I managed to find a member of his unit, who had a few recollections of the day. We exchanged one email, and he passed away days after. A greatgrandson reimaged his pc, and destroyed all the notes and memories he had written. Amazing that I found him.

Tank warfare was ugly. I posted his email under the original Fury thread. I'll look for that.

 

[Rule3]

Fury was OK, nothing great. American Sniper was also good but do not think it was as good as all the reviews and hype claimed it to be.

We just rented Unbroken and found that to be excellent. It is getting harder and harder to find some really good movies on NetFlix (or in the theater)
JMO

 

[hoc9sw]

Unbroken is to some degree compromised by political constraints, but if you read it as brutally simplified for modern consumers, all is well.

My cousin was killed by a post war revenge group while in the occupation forces. If it is made in Japan, you won't find it in my house.

 

[cgn71]

I want to see it for all the inside and out views of the Sherman tank, my grandfather was a tank driver in WW2 from 1942 thru the wars end, had 5 tanks shot out from under him, got wounded in 3 of them.

 

[fordson]

Saw Fury and was unimpressed. The movie is a good tank film but the story line is unrealistic.

 

[Arik]

From my understanding American Sniper was 1/2 truth

 

[UncleEd]

Fury bore out everything my tanker brother related to me.
He was a driver who'd charged "Tigers." (Usually our guys
really didn't know necessarily a Tiger from a Panther, at least
not at the distances sometimes engaged.)


As to the crossroads final battle, something similar actually did happen though it was in a town square and is related in a couple tanker books I own.

And another brother in infantry said they didn't take German prisoners. The Germans would yell to surrender and the Americans would yell back "hande hoch." When the Germans came out, they were gunned down.

 

[BigBoy99]

I find it very unrealistic that a US GI would be using an MP43! Those guns were used on the Western front but not a lot of them. Also, he didn't have a spare magazine pouch and a ready source of ammunition was not there. Near the end of the movie, you do see him trying to take some mags. from a downed Germans body but that was the first time he worried about spare magazines after shooting for the entire previous part of the movie. I guess you have to remember this is Hollywood were reality doesn't matter.

 

[GaryS]

I got HBO in order to watch "Band of Brothers" and own the DVD. I also read the book. Without doubt it's the best WW II movie ever made. I also thought "Saving Private Ryan" was excellent.

I wasn't real impressed with Fury either. To me, they (the producers, writers, director, whoever) took 21st Century values (and of course 21st Century actors) and just made the story up to suit their imaginations of how it might have been.

My dad was a WWII infantry vet, I have studied a good bit about WWII (and other wars), and loved the Band of Brother's HBO series. For me, Fury fell a little flat. I had hoped for more.

 

[Arik]

I find it very unrealistic that a US GI would be using an MP43! Those guns were used on the Western front but not a lot of them. Also, he didn't have a spare magazine pouch and a ready source of ammunition was not there. Near the end of the movie, you do see him trying to take some mags. from a downed Germans body but that was the first time he worried about spare magazines after shooting for the entire previous part of the movie. I guess you have to remember this is Hollywood were reality doesn't matter.

One could also argue that they didn't show him sourcing ammo from before the movie started. There was almost half a million made and they were in use for 2 years during the war. There's a lot of stuff they don't show. You almost never see people going to the bathroom or even sleeping. I mean we do sleep at least a few hours a day. To be realistic the movie should last at least a week. Otherwise it's just Hollywood, where reality doesn't matter.

 

[JcMack]

Geeeeeeez! Give it a break. These movies are made as entertainment for audiences that for the most part have no real knowledge of WWII and weapons used. Hollywoods come a long way since movies like Patton where American tanks represented as German armor came swarming down the Kasserine Pass. I saw Fury months ago but it seems like the Tiger had "Zimmerit" anti magnetic mine putty all over it. Pretty good attention to detail. When the American column first set out and the Sherman was knocked out by a 12 yr old an American jumped out of the tank engulfed in flames and was able to unholster his .45, raise it to his head and shoot himself. Super human ability which could never happen. Most of the movie was pretty entertaining with a lot of attention to detail. It was not meant as a documentary. When they met the SS column at the crossroad they would have survived about 2 mins, maybe.

This is an interesting site. It includes info on Captain Wittmann the most decorated armor ace in WWII.

http://www.achtungpanzer.com/achtung-panzer-home

 

[vito]

I agree with GaryS. "Band of Brothers" is my favorite, followed by "Saving Private Ryan". Something about "Fury" just didn't seem right and while I generally enjoyed it as a nice diversion, I never felt that it had the ring of reality and truth about it.