26 Nov Fury
(2014) In April of 1945, the crew of a Sherman tank named “Fury” fight their way through Nazi Germany. The commander, played by Brad Pitt, is a father figure to the newest member of the crew, a young typist who was sent to the front and had never even been in a tank.
I’ve watched a lot of WWII movies but not many about tanks. In Sahara (1943) Humphrey Bogart drives a tank across the desert. According to TCM, The Tanks are Coming (1952) was “the only feature film to focus on the wartime accomplishments of the 3rd Armored Division (to which Elvis Presley would be assigned in 1958.)”
Fury, of course, could never have been made back then. It is much too fierce, too graphic, too real. I don’t remember ever seeing a movie that transported me right into the inside of the claustrophobic steel orb of the tank.
Even though I had to hide my eyes two or three times I understood the camaraderie of the crew, their allegiance toward each other.
There were plenty of opportunities for the men to see the enemy. As they drove through one town there was a row of young German boys, hung by the SS officers for not being brave enough to fight.
Just like my father’s B-17 crew, though, these men were fighting for each other.
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