Review: Fury

Fury starring Brad Pitt and Shia LaBeouf- I did not like it. It’s as if Hollywood is trying to do to the WWII American warrior what they’ve done to the American warriors of Vietnam and Iraq – which is to make the exception the rule.

What I mean is, in these “serious” movies the American warrior/soldier is more often than not portrayed as morally bankrupt, lust-driven, alcohol soaked, knuckle-dragger, willing and eager to commit atrocities – and they usually throw in a naive, vexed, bible-toting young man, who loses his faith, to take a stab at Christians. (Although, in this story, LaBeouf’s character seems to hold on to his.)  American soldiers are depicted as jingoistic (not patriotic).

There’s a lot of moral equivocation – no ones right or wrong. We’ve all been thrown into this so let’s commit an atrocity against Nazi before he commits one against us. Nothing about the evil that was the Nazi ideology or Hitler’s regime – just American soldiers making proclamations that are dubious in the uninformed watchers mind in light of the previous scene of that (Brad Pitt) American soldier committing a war crime that was just as bad at the SS hanging fellow Germans. In the end there’s a half ounce of redemption when a Nazi soldier has mercy on a surviving American soldier. Therefore if you are a clueless 18 – 35-year-old you are lead to believe, yet again, like a meditation mantra, America is just as bad as any other nation’s notions.

These same Hollywood types wax with such sentiment over Native Americans telling old stories of brave warriors. Our military has even named helicopters and missiles after them. Hollywood celebrates the legends, the myths but mostly diminishes the atrocities of the Native Americans in movies over the years. It’s often the cavalry charging in murdering women and children. That’s what Hollywood loves to show.

Are we not allowed to take pride in defeating the Nazi war machine anymore? Will Hollywood allow for me to take pride in my grandfather? I have a reason, whether they grant it in their movies or not. Are we not allowed to take pride in at least the noble notion of saving the european continent from the Nazis (National Socialism of Germany)? Save your money on Fury if you are looking for a level-headed war story. It’s the cliché Hollywood treatment of war. Watch Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, Lone Survivor, Tears of the Sun or When We Were Soldiers if you are as tired of this as I am.

Lastly, I found it hard to believe that these American soldiers, portrayed as they were in Fury, would have had the moral muscle to do the heroic deed they did at the end.