Summary And Analysis Of Fury - The WWII Combat Film

Fury, a film by David Ayer embodies the description disclosed by Jeanine Basinger in the article “The World War II Combat Film: Definition”. This film includes many critical elements of the World War II Combat Film, including soldiers that have unrelated types of socioeconomic backgrounds but come together as a cohesive fighting unit, an unsuspecting hero, important goal or military objective, a last stand against the enemy, the enemy’s presence is indicated, conflict breaks out within the group itself and is resolved through external conflict, members of the group die, a climactic battle takes place, women are in the film as a love interest and the situation is resolved. All of these characteristics make this film classic. There were not many ways in which Fury fails to subscribe to Basinger’s definition of a Combat Film, however a couple that could be argued are that rituals are not enacted from the present, and leadership wasn’t forced in dire circumstances. Through the usage of these characteristics, the viewers come to feel war as more than just a film, but an experience of coming together.

This film is set covering an Allied forces tank crew in April 1945 when the they are making a last pull into Nazi (Germany) territory. The tank, nicknamed Fury includes a crew of four veteran combat soldiers, and a clerk typist turned recruit named Norman. Very soon in the film Normans inexperience not only becomes obvious, but dangerous. This comes to fruition through his lack of judgement in failing to kill Nazi soldiers who ambushed and killed the commanding officers crew. Norman faces the repercussions of this error in judgement when Don, the staff sergeant forces him to kill a Nazi prisoner, traumatizing him. The tanks then take a German town, and both Don and Norman search for food, and find a woman and her cousin, and they bond and make dinner. The rest of the crew finds them, and barges into the apartment belligerent, making rude comments to the women. After they are moved out for a mission, the German Artillery bombards the town and the woman are killed. The mission included capturing a territory to better protect the divisions fighting, but on the way they are caught off guard and attacked by the Germans. After defeating them, Fury is the only tank left. They continue alone, but later are immobilized by a landmine. Norman scouts out a hill near where they stopped, discovering a Waffen-SS battalion on the road coming their way. Initially, they plan to flee the area, but Don pleads with his crew to stay and fight. They decide to stay and fight, and disguise the Fury tank to be out of service, hiding inside. While they were waiting for the SS battalion to get closer, the group has a sort of pow wow, where they accept Norman, nicknaming him “Machine. ” Soon after, the Germans arrive and the crew ambushes them. There are many casualties, including the four veteran soldiers. Before he died, Don told Norman to get out through the hatch before the Germans dropped grenades in the tank. The next morning, Norman discovers Don’s body in the tank, and is then rescued by the American soldiers. The Americans praised Norman as a hero, and the film closes with the image of hundreds of dead German soldiers around the tank. The group of veteran combat fighters included, the staff sergeant Don “Wardaddy” Collier, driver Trini “Gordo” Garcia, gunner Boyd “Bible” Swan, loader Grady “Coon-Ass” and of course the new clerk typist Private Norman Ellison. When the crew first met Norman, he was met with hostility and didn’t fit in “Gordo” found his Bible and began questioning Norman about whether or not he was saved, and as Gordo was going through Normans bad he asked where Norman’s cigarettes were, when Norman told him he doesn’t smoke, Gordo proceeded to call him a bastard. On a more serious note, when the crew was asking Norman about his combat experience, “Bible” says, “Just wait until you see it, ” Norman clarifies, and Bible responds, “Just wait until you see what a man can do to another man”.

Later on when the division was taking the small German town, Gordo was humming in Spanish, and Don yelled, “Hey, you want to talk Mexican? Join another tank, a Mexican tank. This is an American tank, we talk American. ” It was clear that this was a group that was different, in terms of geographical location, educational level, language and ethnicity. An unlikely group, perhaps. However, in the film we see them come together, especially when they accept Norman and nickname him “Machine. ” When asked about the notion of differences coming together, the Director Ayer responded by describing the film as “A story about the big mission and saving the world. That’s not this story. This is about a family that comes from the love and complexity of war. It’s not glorified”.

After the first battle, the group found a German soldier disguised as an Allied forces soldier. As a test to Norman, especially after his incapable shooting of the Nazi soldiers that in turn killed part of their division, Don ordered Norman to kill the man. Norman refused at first, but then Don forced his finger to pull the trigger and kill him. This was a harsh reality of the war, that Don as the leader, made sure Norman experienced. Other conflict included when the crew burst into the apartment in the small German town. They teased and harassed Norman, mocking his behavior and his love interest. Don set them straight, but this signified Normans need to prove himself to the crew, and move up hierarchy. This group was very dysfunctional, and Norman didn’t fit in at first.

As outlined in the above paragraphs, Norman was very apprehensive of his new assignment, especially since he had no combat experience. In the film, he was portrayed as a pale and scrawny white guy and was traumatized easily by the reality of war. You see a sort of transformation from when he first met the crew, bright eyed and refusing to kill the prisoner, to fighting the SS brigade in the tank, and crawling out hailed as hero by the Americans. This is an important concept in the Combat Film, in that in reality in war, a lot of the odds are stacked against the Allies, but justice prevailed and the Allies won this fight. Another way in which Fury embodies the World War II definition, is through a clear military objective. The Allied forces needed to gain territory in Germany in order to control the Nazis, and stop the terrible things they were doing. In order to do this, they seized the small German town, and they made moves to capture a territory that would better the lines for the division. Even once they were immobilized by the landline, they had a clear goal, to stop the SS battalion, no matter how daunting it seemed.

Fury covers multiple elements in the last battle scene of the film. During this time, the SS Battalion is approaching, where the enemy presence is made known in a very clear picture of the Battalion marching step in step chanting. This is the last stand, the only hope the Fury crew has at making it out alive, by fighting. The battle takes place, and they ambush the SS soldiers. The group members die, and Don dies after telling Norman to get out and hide. Grady is killed by a Panzerfaust, Gordo is shot while he is covering a grenade after trying to unpin it, and a sniper kills Bible, and wounds Don. The last element, the conflict is resolved and the Americans rescue Norman, taking him by ambulance and hailing him as a hero. The Combat Film love interest was portrayed through the German women at the apartment in the small town. Norman developed a love interest in the owner’s cousin, they made them food and ate dinner with them. In the film it is very clear that they were unhappy that the Allies had taken their town, but nonetheless. After they left the apartment, the German army destroyed their apartment, killing both women.

Another harsh reality if the war, perhaps made more real and traumatizing for Norman. Ways in which Fury falls short of Bassinger’s elements of a World War II film, is that there isn’t a ritual enacted from the present, and leadership wasn’t forced in dire circumstances. While Norman had to step up to perform well in the crew, he wasn’t forced to become the leader. It was cumbersome to decipher whether Norman was classified as a leader, but nevertheless an argument can be made for either way. Given that Don was in such a dominant leader role, Norman did have to step up but not in the way leaders do in Combat Films.

In conclusion, in critiquing Fury as a WWII Combat film it is apparent that Ayer made large strides to be sure the film was as accurate as can be. When asked if he was nervous about the accuracy about the film, he responded, “The most nervous I’ve ever been was on Veterans Day, when I knew some of them were going to see it. But a veteran said it was the most accurate (war) movie he’d ever seen, that he relives some of that every day. You can’t describe how something like that feels” (Ayer 2018). Ayer genuinely understands the narrative and the importance of portraying a World War II film, and that sentiment shines through in Fury.