Coming Soon - Fury (Brad Pitt)

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Well officially on my never to watch list as long as Brad Pitt is involved.
 
"Fury" in theaters Friday, 17 Oct 2014.

Hopefully, this is as good as it sounds like it could be:

Fury,’ Starring Brad Pitt, a Raw Look at [WWII Tank] Warfare

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/03/movies/fury-starring-brad-pitt-a-raw-look-at-warfare.html

Excerpts:

In what promises to be one of the most daring studio movies in an awards season that will bring several World War II films, Mr. Ayer, Mr. Pitt and a band of producers backed by Sony Pictures Entertainment are poised to deliver what the popular culture has rarely seen. That is, a relentlessly authentic portrayal — one stuntman was run through with a bayonet on the set — of the extremes endured, and inflicted, by Allied troops who entered Germany in the spring of 1945.

On the personal front, “Fury” is meant to unlock the psychology of Mr. Ayer’s older relations, who fought but seldom spoke of it. And the film trades on his own military experience as a sonar operator on an attack submarine in the 1980s.

“Looking back into World War II, I could see the same family I was serving with,” Mr. Ayer said. “But what they experienced was really incomprehensible to me.”

Their problem is that of Mr. Pitt’s character, known as Wardaddy, and the four tankers — portrayed by Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal — whom he has pledged to keep alive, Mr. Ayer said.

“Nobody wants to be the last man to die in the war.”

American tank casualties during the war in Europe were horrific. The Third Armored Division landed at Normandy with 232 M4 Sherman medium tanks, the Army’s primary armored weapon. But it had 648 tanks completely destroyed, and another 700 knocked out, as replacements and those repaired were repeatedly hit.

The armor was too thin, and the tanks were prone to burn when hit even by a hand-held panzerfaust anti-tank weapon. Crews were incinerated, and often listed as missing, not killed, because they left no remains. Commanders, peering from atop the turrets, were routinely shot in the head.

As the movie opens, they are preparing to scrape the remains of a headless buddy from the bow gunner’s seat. “I sure didn’t keep him alive,” Mr. Pitt mutters.

Much of what his Wardaddy does may shock viewers who have watched American soldiers behave brutally in Vietnam War films at least since “Apocalypse Now,” but have rarely seen ugliness in the heroes of World War II.

In his harsh initiation of a new gunner, Mr. Pitt’s character crosses lines, both legal and moral. Not even Lee Marvin’s Sergeant Possum in Samuel Fuller’s “The Big Red One,” another knife killer, went quite so far.

Don Evans, a World War II tank gunner who advised Mr. Ayer, now cautions that some scenes in “Fury” are more extreme than what he witnessed in 28 months overseas. “I don’t recall anyone having to kill a buddy,” Mr. Evans said in a phone interview.

Surprisingly, Mr. Evans, who has read the script, said he was wary of the film’s thrust, adding, “I am not looking forward to seeing it.”

Yet the portrayal is grounded in years of research that left the back corners of Mr. Ayer’s office crammed with books and war memorabilia.

“He had every type of camouflage, and weapons, and uniforms,” said John Lesher, another of the film’s producers, recalling a trip to Mr. Ayer’s man cave in the Silverlake district of Los Angeles.

Through all of it, Mr. Ayer, whose grandfather was serving on a submarine at Pearl Harbor at the time of its attack and whose uncle flew B-17 missions in Europe, learned what some who had made a deep study of the so-called “Greatest Generation” already knew: American fighters were not saints.

Tom Brokaw, who wrote a book by that title, remembers being told by one veteran of the war, “After the Germans killed my brother, I never took another P.O.W. alive.”

Mainly, the film, which cost about $80 million, was shot in Britain. Access to tanks was a prime consideration. Vintage Shermans were more readily available there. Plus, the production was permitted to use a rare, working Tiger tank, lent by the Tank Museum in Bovington.

The fetish for authenticity extended to uniforms. Most were tailor made, and battered, to avoid falling back on rentals that might be familiar to those who had seen them in films stretching back to “Battle of the Bulge” (1965), but which had little connection to the real tankers’ weathered gear, or to the surprisingly sophisticated camouflage worn by the Germans.

The principal actors were considerably roughed up before filming began. Pushed by the military consultants, they spent a week on a bivouac in England — no shaves, no showers, no plumbing — learning to handle the grimy side of soldiering.

“Part of my job was to get them miserable, wet and tired,” said Mr. Vance, who supervised the boot camp.

Mr. Lerman said long sessions with Mr. Evans and other veterans brought the war’s reality home. “It was incredible to sit down with them and hear their stories directly,” he said by email.
 
When I first saw the trailer months ago I was VERY excited because I thought it was a prequel to Inglorious Basterds. But it looks now like Brad Pitt's characters aren't the same, even though he sounds and behaves very similar in the trailer, and the movies aren't related.
 
I swa the trailer in the theater yesterday in the previews before Gone Girl, and it looks pretty good.
 
I can only hope like most every Hollywood WWII film it does not fall into the realm of stupidity, video game scenes and super heroes. I do not hold out much hope as the accounting division demands it appeals to the right demographic to recoup those big production costs at the box office.
 
It looks to be a really good movie. On a side note--- Mr. Pitt bought himself a Spitfire during the filming of this movie for meager 3.3 mil---move over Tom Cruise with your Mustang
 
I think I am going to go see it...it looks pretty good to me. I am curious to see how they depict armored warfare in WWII....fro what I have read the Sherman was totally outclassed by the Panther and Tiger tanks.....the original gun might as well have been shooting spitballs at them....on the upside...it was far more reliable than the German tanks, and faster and easier to produce. I read where Patton stated that the US would never have been able to break out of France using German tanks...they were too mechanically unreliable.

there is a good book out by a guy named Belton Cooper..I think its called Death Traps...his job was to go retrieve the damaged and knocked out Shermans and repair them in the field...he had to go in and clean out the remains.....
 
Speaking of movies with WWII tanks, one of my all-time faves is "Kelly's Heroes".

Greg
 
Brad's been in some fine movies, some stinkers too. He's a pretty good actor. He's fallen firmly into a social and political circle that I despise, but I don't necessarily boycott people because of their personal views. Today's media and culture make a big deal about what actors and singers think. I think our favorite performers have always had odd beliefs, just now it's more visible. My views are just as valid (probably more) than most "famous people."
 
Speaking of movies with WWII tanks, one of my all-time faves is "Kelly's Heroes".

Greg
Yep, that's a classic. What a great sound track. The movie is filled with actors we all know and love from a genre long gone - well some of us anyway---.Ya know, with all the remakes over the years--this might be one worth doing.
 
Speaking of movies with WWII tanks, one of my all-time faves is "Kelly's Heroes".

Greg

That was one of the best "Caper" WWII movies of the late Vietnam era. Sick of war and just want to make some money! My favorite part was when Oddball (Donald Sutherland) said he didn't fix tanks, he just rides them. An easy riding motor bike hippie on a Sherman Tank, a great anachronism. Now I am ready for a tough, Fight Club-Inglorious Bastards Brad Pit taking on a real Tiger tank fresh from restoration at Bovington.
 
I think I am going to go see it...it looks pretty good to me. I am curious to see how they depict armored warfare in WWII....fro what I have read the Sherman was totally outclassed by the Panther and Tiger tanks.....the original gun might as well have been shooting spitballs at them....on the upside...it was far more reliable than the German tanks, and faster and easier to produce. I read where Patton stated that the US would never have been able to break out of France using German tanks...they were too mechanically unreliable.

there is a good book out by a guy named Belton Cooper..I think its called Death Traps...his job was to go retrieve the damaged and knocked out Shermans and repair them in the field...he had to go in and clean out the remains.....
That book "Death Traps" was one of the ones used by the author of this film's script. The consultant used sounds like there may be some exaggeration:

"Don Evans, a World War II tank gunner who advised Mr. Ayer, now cautions that some scenes in “Fury” are more extreme than what he witnessed in 28 months overseas."

However, it's better to have some exaggeration than the sanitized, "Oh, you got me!" bloodless garbage mostly prevalent prior to "Saving Private Ryan." They'll be using ten different Shermans in the film and the only working Tiger I still around.

It'll be a real disappointment if this film turns out to be a dog, but even if it is, its subject matter will be a refreshing change for what I think was one of the worst movie years in a while. I'm waiting for a few films (Godzilla for one) to show up in Redboxes, but I think "Fury" is something worth seeing in a theater no matter how bad it is.

One of the encounters covered in the book "Death Traps," the only encounter between a Super Pershing and a King Tiger. It's anticlimactic, unfortunately:

DUEL AT DESSAU
on April 21, 1945
A Spearhead One-on-One Tank Victory

https://www.3ad.com/history/news/super.pershing.1.htm
 
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Well officially on my never to watch list as long as Brad Pitt is involved.

+1000 on that. It upsets me greatly that Brad Pitt brings his poor acting to the War Genre. Doesn't help that Shia LeBouf is also in it. The idiot took a knife and cut his face for realism . . . wish he had put a pistol in his mouth ad pulled the trigger . . . that would be realism.
 
Speaking of movies with WWII tanks, one of my all-time faves is "Kelly's Heroes".

Greg

Will you stop with the negative waves? There's going to be a big beautiful bridge there!

Oddball just kills me in that movie!
 
Something that I learned this morning ...

As we all know, Sir Winston Churchill was the great PM of the UK during WWII. What I didn't know is that he was a prolific painter, with over 500 paintings to his credit, painting both before and after WWII. But during WWII Churchill painted only once. That painting was made after the Casablanca Conference with President Roosevelt et. al, where they decided the timing of D-Day among other things. That particular painting can be viewed if you are in the Atlanta GA area.

https://www.myajc.com/news/events/h...gs-get-exclusi/nhYmr/#3558ab8f.3476366.735507




That one painting by Churchill during WWII is owned by ... Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.

And now you know the rest of the story.

Greg
 
Outstanding post Greg. I love TRF ! Can't decide about the movie though. My younger self would have eaten this stuff up. Nowadays I need less reminding that war is hell on earth. But seeing a real Tiger in (make-believe) action would be cool.
 
I remember watching a show on “The History Channel” about U.S. Tanks in Germany.
The Sherman’s 75mm gun was inadequate for the German tanks forward armor so we developed a tactic for dealing with that.

Three Sherman tanks would be deployed in single file with one tank ranging somewhat ahead of the other two. When a German Panzer fired at the lead tank the remaining two would begin maneuvering towards its flanks and rear.

Usually one of the Sherman Tanks would reach a vantage where it could fire upon the Panzer from a venerable angle.

Basically they were sacrificing one or two Sherman tanks to kill one German Tank this was deemed acceptable because by this time the U.S. could out build Germany 10 to 1 in tanks. Not sure how the crews of said tanks thought of this statagy.

Many argue and with good reason, that the Russians built the best Tanks of WWII but sadly they never developed a sound doctrine for using them nor much in the way of training. The joke was that the factory workers that tightened the final bolt then got into the tank and drove it to the front to fight.
 
I am going to see it, maybe even in the theater. I live tank stuff. I wouldn't miss it.
 
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