On the Immersion of Fury

Up to this point, David Ayer’s directing career (five films from 2005 to now) has focused strictly on the world of the police. Whether uniformed partners, undercover agents or tough police crews that mirror the criminals, his investigations of the police have been identifiable by their stylised dialogue and sense of accuracy in representing the closed off world of law enforcement. With Fury the same could be said (or at least, said from what we know from other representations), but of the Second World War.

In one-way Fury is a major departure for Ayer. A period piece set in Europe and about the army, not the police force. Yet, one main auteur like feature remains and this is Ayer’s focus on the world of men and masculine relationships. This is not to say that women do not exist, but as in End of Watch (2012) they are objects of sex (sinners) or marriage (saints) and the latter mourn the aggressive but necessary roles the men must live out.

Whether as a writer or director, or both, Ayer has pigeonholed himself as a man who writes dialogue that explores the close heterosexual relationships of men. At its best, this dialogue brings the films to life and this can be seen in much of Training Day (2001) and End of Watch where the narratives can be confused in their complexity. Unfortunately, Fury is unable to match the dialogue success of these previous films perhaps simply because this is not an examination of two close men, but five. Characters here feel not quite fully fleshed out. The lead, Brad Pitt’s Don Collier, moves between sheer, nasty aggression to moments of sensitivity and these are connected by brief moments of tormented isolation. But this cannot quite do the job of explaining who this man is, despite the effective performance. This is a problem that is present for all five tank operators.

Instead, it could be argued that Ayer’s true achievement in his directorial canon is in creating immersive worlds, foreign to most audiences. End of Watch offered a frightening realistic portrait of life in a tough LA area; Ayer’s real locations close up camera work and focus on brutality was an experience hard to forget. And it is this that one takes away from Fury. Ayer shuns the modern warfare aesthetic to create a world that feels like 1945 war torn Germany. The battles are horrifically real and the casualties graphically captured. The mud is sinking and is almost real and this immersion is where Fury’s triumph lies. This is a worthy addition to the Second World War canon.