Fury and its problems

Image: IMDB

In this article, I will be talking about the Fury movie featuring Brad Pitt. 

Fury is a 2014 American war film written and directed by David Ayer and starring Brad Pitt. The film portrays U.S tank crews fighting in Nazi Germany during the final weeks of the European theater of World War II. Ayer was influenced by the service of veterans in his family and by reading books. The movie is about 134 minutes long. 

 In 1 hour and 18 minutes, Fury gets ambushed by a German 8.8 cm shell by a Tiger 1. The Tiger aims for the end vehicle even though these ambushes did happen this is not how they would go down. Any German commander, no matter how green he was, knows the way to stop a tank column is by shooting the leading vehicle. This is one of the first things he would be taught on becoming a German tank commander. Now another thing is that Fury should have stuck out like a sore thumb to this German commander. German commanders were very keenly aware that Fury’s gun was a whole lot more deadly to them than the other short 75 mm guns that the other tanks support. German commanders often went out of their way to kill Fury and the Sherman Firefly before the other ones because they know it was more of a risk. German tankers’ tendencies to take out these long barreled tanks first was actually so rampant that allied crews with these updated guns would often try to hide the fact by painting the lower half of the barrel or putting a muzzle break halfway down the barrel to make it look shorter. 

 Many German commanders in this war used this tactic and destroyed many, many vehicles. The most famous one I can think of is Michael Wittmann’s ambush at  Villers-Bocage on June 13, 1944 panzer ace Michael Wittmann destroyed 12 British tanks by using this exact tactic and this is good for defending armies. Cut them off at the front so they can’t move forward cut them off at the back, so they can retreat and in the midst of the chaos, kill as many as you can, then sneak away to safety. 

Furys Calum moves up to try to take the tiger out because they can’t kill him at the front. His armor is too thick, so then they try to close the cap and take the Tiger out from the back. But the German tank crew makes a mistake. One that does not make any sense. He drives forward to close the gap too. Now I’m not the one to say the German tankers had the advantage all the time. I actually disagree with a lot of people who says things like that, but the Tiger has an 8.8 cm gun and it is bigger than Fury’s gun and the other tanks too, but the German tank commander has all the advantages why would you get rid of all of your advantages and basically help them close the gap. Now after a while the Tiger kills the other two tanks that Fury has, and then Fury kills the Tiger and ends the battle.   

The final scene is the most annoying and stupid scene ever. The “final battle” starts with one of the bowel gunners, Norman, having food at a tree line when he sees an S.S battalion.  

An S.S battalion is a highly trained part of the German army and some troops are armed with MG42s ( a German machine gun) and Panzerfaust  ( a Panzerfaust or armor fist or tank fist in German was an inexpensive single shot, recoilless German anti-tank weapon of World War 2.  It consisted of a small disposable preloaded launch tube firing a high explosive anti-tank warhead and was intended to be operated by a single soldier).  

Many people on Reddit and YouTube really agree that one of these Panzerfaust shots could kill that Sherman however Fury is basically an American propaganda movie. In reality, this battalion would have won the battle in the first minute. If you have watched the movie, I think you would agree with me on the 300 S.S battle.  Say what you like about them, you have to admit these S.S soldiers are seriously battle-hardened veterans by this point in the war. They are marching, humming, and that music in the background makes this song sound frightening Like the SS is an army straight out of hell. 

In conclusion, I think Fury is a great movie, but I think the director of this movie subscribed to the many myths about the Tiger and the Panzerfaust and S.S battalions.

10 comments

  1. I loved this movie, but I agree with your statements about the inaccuracy. another thing that annoyed me about the movie was how Brad Pitt got shot like 5 times in the torso and didn’t die.

    1. Yes I agree that sniper could have easily killed Brad Pitt, but remember these soldiers in the movie have plot armor but in reality, these S.S soldiers could have easily destroyed the Sherman with a Panzerfaust or the sniper could have easily killed Brad Pitt

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