FURY [2014]

THE TAO OF WARDADDY


2014, USA/U.K./China
David Ayer
9 // 10




Can you mix tank-porn with a bit of philosophy and get away with it? Did you have to win a beauty contest to become a tank commander during WW2? How many tanks have been harmed in making of this film? There's only one way to find out!

"War. War never changes", huh? Well, it does and it doesn't. The means of warfare, the tools, the character of the battlefield, the impact on civilians... Throughout the ages a lot has changed and yet again, in it's essence, it is still just about a human inability to just, you know, step back a little. And that's that. The part of war that never changes is simply the human being. Be it rocks, swords, muskets or cluster bombs it all boils down to the fact that people start and go to war because they simply can't do any better.

FURY is a curious film. It came and went, noticed primarily, thanks to its undeniable quality as a tank porn, by the World of Tank players. The general audience, accustomed probably to a more Hollywood-esque approach, bounced off. I guess this wasn't the Brad Pitt movie they were looking for. That's quite OK with me. But regardless of people's expectations and reception, this is a very good film. Profound and deeper than it may seem. Sure, it tells a story that is an amalgam of actual events and (anti)heroic fiction but what Ayer really concentrates on (although quietly and in a backgroundish manner) is that human condition of perpetual warmongering. Our main character's called 'Wardaddy' for a reason I guess. But there are also a few lines Brad Pitt's tank commander says that give a clue. They boil down to a simple message: war is really about people wanting to kill each other. Nothing more and nothing less. He, himself, does not stand for any higher goal, ideology anymore. For him, it's all about us and them, and us killing them / them killing us is simply what we do. As if there was no other alternative anyway.

It is a bleak and bitter film, taken in that context. Sure, particular battles, conflicts even do eventually end. But the war... well, war never changes. Humans are humans and our middle name still is: Wardaddy.