Report: Fury (2014) Tank Battle Is Better Than Screenplay Version

David Ayer has a WW2 movie coming out this winter, Fury.  It’s a movie about an Easy-8 Sherman tank crew, commanded by Brad Pitt, crossing the German border in 1945.  Some of us here read the script and thought quite highly of it.  For example, Ayer describes the floor of the tank as “awash with blood, piss and oil”.  It really could be another ‘Das Boot In A Tank’ (The Beast of War being the first).

To make things even better, they went ahead and recruited a real Tiger tank.  Let’s just emphasize how big a deal that is – no Tiger has been used in a film production in history, they’ve all been fakes.  The ones in Saving Private Ryan?  Fake.  The ones in Band of Brothers?  Fake.  The one in Fury though will be real, the last running Tiger in the world, out of a specialist museum in England.  To take care of their baby, a specialist crew remains with the vehicle at all times.

In the screenplay though, there was one sticking point.  Now here is a SPOILER warning, do not continue reading if it matters to you.

In the screenplay, Pitt’s crew encounter a trio of Tigers on some farmland.  Presumably, Tiger 131 was to triple up as three different tanks using some editing techniques.  The problem was though that Pitt’s tank goes into comic book mode, in the script, and takes out all three Tigers (in as Sherman).  Now it wasn’t outside the bounds of reality, but it just didn’t quite fit.  Even though Tiger crews by 1945 were ill-trained.  Otto Carius, one of the greatest tank commanders ever (and a pro in a Tiger) lamented how the scared kids towards the end of the war in Tigers didn’t use them properly.  But even then, the Sherman Vs. one Tiger would’ve been better.

Well it turns out that this is going to be the case, according to reports from a recent test screening – which got a positive reaction by the way.  In the movie, Pitt’s tank will encounter a sole Tiger and take it out, but not without using significant skill and the Sherman’s mobility to their advantage.  So considering that, how good the screenplay is, the fact that it’s David Ayer and how good that trailer was… I think we have a winner here for sure.

Manliest movie of 2014?  Possibly…