FURY ... or how to survive in war times.

There's been lot of stories about WWII. We've seen perspectives from the Nazis, Jewish, the rest of Europe, the USA, from stories of survival to the horrors of the war once it reached a new country or how devastated was a whole continent and then turn worldwide. So we already know it's beginning, raising and then its development till the conclusion over years of fighting and lots of lost cities and people. So what can possible could be new about this event in the human history?

Well, actually we better be ready cause now that the awards season for cinematography just kicked off last month, we are about to see a war related film each month from now till the end of the year. So the first one, comes by the hand of the popular actor/celebrity Brad Pitt, in a story that happened in one of the less told moment of it so far, the end of the war.

For all of those used to like this genre of films where we get to see soldiers been killed and strategies to conquer the enemy and win a battle or maybe lose it but earning a lesson of survival, courage or bravery, might get a bit disappointed. Definitely in the visual side we are going further in terms or explicitness in the screen as now we are able to see how human bodies look smashed, stabbed, and other ways to be killed in a war where survival is not anymore an option, is more about standing by your side and just clean the house before the flag rises.

But we are at a film that is more psychological than physical. The story, even that has a few great war scenes and moments of tension, focused its storyline in the effects and consequences of war, and the meaning of kill or get killed, gets in the battle field. All this told by the eyes of two perspectives. The Captain of a group of soldiers driving a tank to clean the small towns in a Germany thats is going down by the allies. Brad Pitt is the actor playing this Captain that has seen the worst of war and of what the human race is capable to do in order to win and survive. Thats why he will do whatever it takes to bring his people safe back home and even that this small group has become more a family than soldiers, he has to stand up against them to show them discipline and leadership that will get them through the horrors of war and their own.

Sadly his performance doesn't bring anything new to the table and reminds us more like one he did a couple years ago for the vision of director Tarantino in another fictional war tale. But this one is not fictional and thats why we can't avoid to empathize and relate with this small group of survivors that bring a unique personality of their own to the group. But is the new addition, a young soldier, just arrived from his hometown to fight this war or what is left of it, in order to make a difference of it, but once he is trapped in the fight, he will realize what being a soldier actually means.

This young vision is what feels new and refreshing about this story. We are able to see and suffer from his virgin, innocent, naive eyes, how any soldier gets fresh to the battle field with a sense of patriotism but also as a human just trying to fight for  a cause without meaning to kill or destroy others. For example, in one scene we can see how we refuses to kill. He doesn't understand why should he need to hate this germans, if they are human beings as well, fighting for their own cause.

So it's not till when he starts bounding and relating to his fellow soldiers, a new family, a group of friends, co workers in some weird way, but brothers in this fight, where their lives depend on the skills of the one next to you. Not till you are in the middle of fire guns, and you need to work as a team to survive the night and realize that the enemy won't stop to kill you so you need to stop them first. Not until you start losing people you care and those eyes start to testify horrible acts against other innocents that your mind will change and react in order to do whatever it takes to survive and protect the ones you care about, your team, your side.

The evolution of this characters and the way they react, sometimes far from what being a human is known, is what makes us like them or hate them, and thats where we are able to identify what being a veteran from war means. This experience transforms anyone into monsters or something far from the suburban life. That's when this brotherhood between those men makes totally sense and can be identified as something unique as this bond is stronger than any relationship because your life is in their hands and you play with the dead among them.

You can see through their eyes and notice the reflection of all those acts far from those innocent eyes that said goodbye one time before. This is "FURY" (2014), the story of a tank and its crew that can be described both as it's entitle and their story is what should be another testimony of those who still see war as challenge to defend the honor and name of their country in order to sacrifice their mind and get lost in this act that won't just destroy cities or countries but the soul and mind of any human being that is put to a test in a game or life and death, where yours and the others is as close as the fury you feel inside.