Fury (Blu-ray Review)

April, 1945. As the Allies make their final push in the European Theatre, a battle-hardened army sergeant named Wardaddy (Brad Pitt) commands a Sherman tank and her five-man crew on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Outnumbered and outgunned, and with a rookie soldier thrust into their platoon, Wardaddy and his men face overwhelming odds in their heroic attempts to strike at the heart of Nazi Germany.

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Film 

David Ayer must be one of the hardest working writer-directors of recent times. He had TWO films released in 2014 – the brutal and unforgiving Sabotage and the brutal and unforgiving Fury. Fury is the tale of a few soldiers – brothers in arms and brothers in war as they navigate the tail end of WWII in their trusty Sherman tank-killing machine. “Wardaddy” (Brad Pitt) leads his men to wherever the mission takes him. Wardaddy has seen his share of death and destruction and has been desensitized to it all. Whether he and his team make it out alive is of little consequence, because all that matters are the missions at hand.

As I mentioned before, Wardaddy’s crew is comprised of Boyd (Shia LaBeouf), Trini (Michael Peña), Grady (Jon Bernthal), and the obligatory rookie named Norman (Logan Lerman). Norman is the rookie that has to be looked after, because the boy has zero battle experience and any moment of hesitation and weakness can cause the death of his fellow tank-men. This bit in the film reminded me of the typist character that they made tag along with Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan. It’s a bit predictable that at first Norman would be a pest before graduating into a killer towards the end. No, that’s not a spoiler, but it’s been done before.

Fury as a whole is quite stellar and admirable in terms of scale and scope. Ayer is let loosed and fills every frame with epic dogfights, tanks and explosive gun battles. It’s also quite unnerving that you will be introduced to a scene of graphic ultra violence and gore within the first 3-5 minutes of the film’s opening. I saw Fury in theaters and it was a sold-out show and the collective audience gasp at this piece of gore was intense. It’s as if folks were expecting something scaled back, because “pretty boy” Brad Pitt starred. I should point out that his character is neither “pretty” nor scaled back. Let us also say that he’s no Aldo Rain from his portrayal in Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds.

The majority of the battle scenes do take place in the cramped quarters of a Sherman tank and these scenes to bring a level of claustrophobia to what we’re watching due to how tight everyone is packed into one of these heaps. I don’t think there’s ever been a film that has portrayed tank warfare like this before stateside. There was a film that was made in Israel and was actually heavily praised by David Cronenberg (it actually inspired the way he shot Cosmopolis) called Lebanon that was released a few years ago that comes close. That film relied on a pair of soldiers and the POV of the tank. Fury has more than just being in a tank. It’s exhausting when you’re in there but things slowly return to normal, if you can call it normal, once the men get to stretch their legs a bit.

I do think David Ayer has crafted a unique and not-so-typical depiction of war – and having it focus on tank warfare is an educational experience altogether. We’ve seen films that tackle battalions, aerial dogfights, bombings, infiltrations, snipers, etc., but now we get a film that focuses on the warhorses and the brave men that rode them into battle. It’s also one of the current war films (insert editorial remark) that doesn’t go for jingoism in its depictions of war. That seems to be in a lot of films dealing with war and gets very tiresome. I’m glad that Fury stands as an educational piece and retains its epic entertainment value. It’s a damn good film!

 

 

Video 

Encoding: AVC MPEG-4

Resolution: 1080p

Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1

Size: 50GB Dual-Layer

Clarity/Detail: Lets not dilly-dally. Fury looks phenomenal in high definition. Contrast and sharpness levels don’t look to have been messed with in post – that’s just the gloomy English countryside doubling for Germany.

Depth: There’s a very healthy layer of grain throughout – yes, it was shot on film, so that will be very pleasing to the eye. You’ll be the sixth crewmember in that Sherman tank once you pop this Blu-ray into your player.

Black Levels: There are several scenes that take place in complete darkness and in darkly lit interiors. Crush was absent and all of those levels were deep and inky and free from compression artifacts.

Color Reproduction: There is only one sequence on the film that adds “color” to the film’s very muted color wheel and that happens when the boys drive into town and meet up with some town folks. Outside of that Fury has an almost sepia tone throughout.

Flesh Tones: Everyone looks bruised and battered and that is the intention.

Noise/Artifacts: Yes, the film is “noisy” in terms of sound but not in terms of print quality. Noise, artifacts, debris, etc., were not detected.

 

 

Audio 

Audio Format(s): English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, French DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles: English, English SDH, French, Spanish

Dynamics: Let the cannons of war roar! This lossless surround sound track is what high definition dreams are made of. You will be knee deep in battle and you will witness first hand the casualties of war and its destruction.

Low Frequency Extension: The LFE channel put in some serious overtime on this Blu-ray as it added deep low-end bass to just about everything you see on screen. Bombings, cannons, building collapsing, etc., were all accentuated with some serious bass. It was heaven.

Surround Sound Presentation: Duck for cover! You will hear bullets zip by your head, and you will feel artillery shells buzz and whirl throughout the rear channels as if things were just falling right behind you. There’s so much going on in this soundtrack that it was a relief that none of the channels ever became muddle or distorted.

Dialogue Reproduction: Dialogue is clean and crisp and easily heard through all the madness depicted. I did mention that this was also a reference track, right?

 

 

Extras 

What’s this – a fully loaded special edition Blu-ray? Okay, so they skimped out on a David Ayer commentary but I’ll give them a pass. I hope they release a longer cut of the film, with a director’s commentary at some point in the future. What we do get on this Blu-ray special edition is several interview and featurette segments in addition to 50-minutes of deleted and extended scenes.

BLU-RAY EXCLUSIVES

• Over 50 Minutes of Deleted & Extended Scenes (HD) – Yes, you read that correctly. 50 minutes were cut and/or trimmed from the final film. Here’s hoping that an extended cut of the film, a commentary hits the market in the future. The deleted/extended scenes are presented in high definition.

• Director’s Combat Journal (HD) – I guess is the closest we will get o an actual commentary on this Blu-ray edition. Director David Ayer documented what he had to go through in staging the massive action scenes, set pieces, and getting the actors to do their job proper. Ayer is ex-military, so he does not take crap from anyone.

• Armored Warriors: The Real Men Inside the Shermans (HD) – This featurette focuses on some of the real men that fought in the war in these tanks.

• Training the Beasts: How to Drive, Fire and Shoot Inside a 30-Ton Tank (HD) – Real tanks were used and this featurette covers the actors training in them along with the upkeep of the heavy machinery.

• Photo Gallery (HD) – A photo gallery of the actors on set – presented in high definition.

ALSO INCLUDES

• Blood Brothers: Cast and Crew discuss the harrowing experience of filming in a tank together (HD) – This is the more standard and generic featurette of them all and it shows what the principal actors and crew went through and how they worked with each other to bring authenticity to the film.

• DIGITAL HD – UltraViolet Copy of the film.

 

 

Summary 

Fury was great. It had awesome performances by the cast, great action, and great drama. The Blu-ray is demo-worthy, so get ready to duck for cover during the raining of shells, because it kicks hard! The special features are more than adequate and I’ll go so far as to say that this is one of the best Blu-ray releases of 2015. It’s been a while since a non-specialty studio put in a lot of effort into a Blu-ray. Fury HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

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Bring home Fury on Blu-ray January 27th!

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ORDER NOW!