By ALEX WHEELER
Features Editor
and
JOSEPH CONWAY
Contributing Writer
—
Is a film made to entertain or to win awards? Does it happen to be entertaining and also award worthy? Alexander Wheeler and Joseph Conway are here to answer those questions in this week’s edition of
“Award Great or Award Bait”
Fury is a tank-heavy WWII film directed and written by the writer of Training Day, David Ayer. It was released on October 17, and has received critical acclaim.
Alexander’s Opinion
Fury is a great war picture. It features a great and almost classical performance from Brad Pitt, and David Ayer’s tense and stiff direction allows the film to transcend typical war film tropes.
Tension gets built up and built up and built up and then finally, when there is release, there is the feeling of ultimate payoff. That payoff comes in the form of style; in the matter of substance, however, the film’s narrative falls flat. This is due to no real plot device moving the film forward, other than the inherent perils of war.
Joseph’s Opinion
Recently, in its commercials, Fury has been hyped as the best WWII film in the last 30 years. Though Fury is by no means a bad film, it does not quite live up to that praise.
Fury is a very powerful film with plenty of strengths, but its shortcomings will likely keep it from receiving Oscar Gold. One of the main strengths of the picture is Brad Pitt. His hatred of Nazis is reminiscent of Ethan Edwards’ hatred of Native Americans in John Ford’s 1957 film, The Searchers.
The main aspects that kept Fury from being a great movie were the story and the character development. The film lacked an ultimate goal, and the narrative suffered because of this.
Fury is a great war picture, but it’s obviously a wanna-be Oscar picture. Being a WWII film released late in the year, buoyed by a stellar performance from an A-list star, is just asking for Oscar glory. Not to say that Fury is a bad film, but we are giving it our first Bait award because it tries so hard to be a good Oscar film that it loses itself narratively.
Alexander’s Predictions:
Bait
Joseph’s Predictions
Bait
