Best job I ever had*
by chuckofish
While my dual personality got into the spirit of Halloween (pun intended), I watched a completely unrelated movie. Well, actually, last night I tried to watch “The Woman in Black” on Netflix, but it was too scary so I switched to something else. Anyway, surprise, surprise! I went to see Brad Pitt’s “Fury” — and — drum roll — really liked it.
Brad, grim and exhausted
Okay, I did have a few complaints. Shall we get those out of the way first? When the film starts, a tank team, headed by Mr. Pitt, pulls into camp and unloads the corpse of one of its members, who just got killed in battle. There’s a similar scene in “12 o’clock High” only in that movie they don’t show the clean up in the plane afterwards. Logan Lerman, who looks like a 14 year old choir boy (and a very cute one, I might add), is the new replacement, but he’s freaked out and can’t kill because he was “trained to be a typist”. Brad then forces him to shoot a German prisoner in cold blood. So, NO, that doesn’t fly, especially since it’s 1945. I mean, what kid growing up during WWII would ever say the things that Lerman says — out loud in front of veterans? And, of course, “the cure” is ridiculous, too. But once we get past that, the movie is really quite good.
“Pretty soon, killing Germans will not make you feel sick!”
What was good about it? Despite all the hype about the ultra-violence, this film was actually very restrained. The director lets one or two icky shots cue the viewer in to the realities of war so that he does not have to bathe us in blood for the whole movie. The action scenes are extremely well done, often dark, and not overly gory (unless I’m just jaded). And there’s NO SHAKY CAM! Nor does the the movie really fall prey to the usual cliches; however, it does capture soldiers’ fatigue, filth (which is not overdone), anger, despair, and grim resignation.
Interacting with German civilians — so tricky
There are real characters, who develop or reveal themselves, AND some of them believe in God (gasp). In fact, toward the end of the movie, Shia LaBeouf’s character says, “Here’s a Bible verse I think about sometimes. Many times. It goes: ‘And I heard the voice of the Lord saying: Whom shall I send and who will go for Us? And I said: Here am I , send me!'” Under the circumstances, it’s particularly effective. Anyway, much to my surprise, I give this movie two thumbs up. The direction and music were great and the performances excellent.
Stay tuned for a special Sunday post, if I can get the technology working: Merry Melville of the Green Wood (then and now). In the meantime, have a great Saturday!
*line from “Fury”
dual personalities 
That’s great to hear that about “Fury!” I didn’t think it was going to be very good judging by the commercials because the kid seemed like a total dork to me and I really can’t do war movies about unsure/weak soldiers. That always seems so overdone these days. I bet Brad Pitt had a lot to do with the subtle, manly, old-fashioned job-to-do officer. I think, relative to the rest of Hollywood, Brad is a very down to earth, normal guy. I must say I’m SHOCKED that the quote refers to killing “Germans” and not “NAZI’s!” Associating all things bad about that era with Nazi’s as if they were completely unrelated to the German people is very popular these days. As if.
Brad is a flyover boy after all.
Well, I can wait for it to come out on DVD I think. Although I am pretty amazed that they quoted from the Bible.
It’s not really your cup of tea, but worth a watch when it comes out. Maybe Brad has gotten spiritual — or maybe he just respect his material. I found it pleasing, though.
Yes, the weak, “I can’t do it” bit is overdone, but they get over it pretty fast in “Fury”, which was nice. The quote above isn’t really a quote — I made up those lines. Still, the movie is not all about Nazis, though they do single out the SS as particularly nasty, which I thought fair.
Yeah I saw it last week and really enjoyed it. The creepiness of the dinner scene was well done I thought.