Saw the movie last night on the first day of showing. I will wait to see what others have to say but overall I thoroughly enjoyed it for the various extremely realistic and militarily accurate pieces.
Within the parameters of what a Hollywood movie "has to be" it did an outstanding job and when you old tankers and infantrymen see the scene where they are winking out the AT guns and you can watch the AP tracers go into the woodline and the HE rounds taking out trees you will see what I mean.
Really good stuff in there,don't let the rivet counting ruin it for you.
I was,of course,giddy to watch everything being run by NCOs!! Glorious!
J

All in all I liked it but there were some unrealistic scenes to me anyway such as the Pak in the woodline missing 4 shots on the Shermans in an open field going in a straight line and definitely the end shootout at the crossroads - 200 SS troops with panzerfausts can't take out a disabled tank? I think that battle would have lasted all of 5 min. I did think Brad Pitt did a good job - better then I thought going into it. I think the Tiger was realistic but at 300-400 yards in an open field I think all the Shermans would have been gone. I'm just a picky one with war movies

Whoops, just saw the don't let the rivet counting part ruin it for you - your right
The shells zipping heads off was pretty interesting also.

Given it is a REAL (the Bovington) Tiger, it should be realistic!

I meant its actions of taking out 3 Sherman's before being knocked out when in a previous scene the Pak couldn't hit any of the 4 Sherman's in an open field which I thought was unrealistic.

I'm hoping to go next week. Brad Pitt is one of my favorite actors and I've loved most of his movies. This one I've been waiting months for.

Well , Hoenig -- I'll take this under advisement .

Like my dad always said : " It's a movie ! "

From what I hear from everyone - It's quite recommended

I'm with you on the PaK scene. That was a well-set ambush. At the ranges portrayed, that would have been a first-shot = first-hit for those gunners (and a "lights first time, lights every time" for a Shermie).

That one, friends, actually angered me a bit... "let's depict the other guy as cloddish incompetents because they wear the "bad guy clothing". I don't mind showing that the better equipment (and heavier front armor of that Tiger is a case) simply wins in the mechanical match-up - that would be honest to all. US tankers suffered, as the movie even indicated, staggering losses right to the end - sometimes because of bigger guns on the other team and poor armor on our side, and sometimes because actually some on the other side were pretty good at what they did.

And yes, the end-scene with all those putative SS nummies simply wasting ammo away at the stranded tank was, well, bizarre! I would imagine that at least one of those fellows knew, by 1945, how to deal with a stranded-but-live tank. And, at the end, the SS had more of the experienced and trained folks than did the Heer. Anyone but a new draftee had already had plenty of chance to learn about tanks or die... This was long a key feature in German infantry training. You would not do any sort of mob-action frontal assault on MG inside a metal can. You might consider sneaking up behind it and climbing on and pouring gasoline over it and setting it off. You would definitely have simply stood back and snuffed it with a couple of your panzerfaust - given as the crew were inside and limited in their ability to see and respond. It is actually quite likely that the Germans would have simply gone out of their way a little and bypassed it - given as it was going nowhere and of no real threat unless you got in front of the guns - they had another mission to attend to. I really dislike the movie business of portraying the other guy as being super dumb and doltish. Folks of all stripes and colors make mistakes, but folks who were in the end-game from our side (including one of my uncles and my late dad) didn't come back saying the other side somehow was just plain stupid and couldn't fight worth a d**m. They came back still shaking from the terror months after the end - from having dealt right to early May with sometimes very skilled fanatics and the myriad ways a boy could die at the drop of a hat.

The Tiger scene was great! It was a neat, if small-range, depiction of the statistics of what often happened. The Shermies encounter the Tiger (or a Panther) - they know that they have little chance of getting through the front before the bigger gun and great optics and fine training of the other guy scores. So, they whip of a storm of shot and spread out and try to flank the guy. The German turret is slower, the gun and gunner perhaps much better. It's a race, as shown. The German knows he cannot let those Shermies get behind him and hole his engine. The Sherman is faster and more agile, Tiger slower but better armored (in part...). Wittmann didn't become a Tiger ace because he missed his shots under pressure. The Shermie attack was pretty honest - the knowledge of the fatal risk and terror evident, along with the courage and drive to get a bad job done. One left at the end... maybe reasonable and par-for-course. That happened a lot. Patton went through Shermans and crews faster than they could ship them over from UK and up to the front.

And speaking of panzerfausts and their usage... you are talking a huge warhead on a short stick, fired by a big shotgun charge in a pipe. It was a weapon that you actually did not fire at a tank from 20 feet away, lest you blow yourself away, too. And pretty much one in the side would be it for a Shermie.

But it's a movie, and actually very well done, IMHO. Chock full of good action, a great look at the brutality of war and, refreshing to me, a willingness to admit that we were not all saintly and the other guy all bad.

I would have liked to have spent a little more time panning slowly around those various US and German vehicles and the uniforms - a wealth of detail work was done setting up these scenes, and it's all the more astonishing as there are few working relics and little available equipment from either side 70 years after the noise had subsided.

It was "Happy B'Day (only a little late!), Dad" for me, courtesy of my dotter (who also enjoyed the heck out of it), and a good flick. I'll be seeing it again, I think! And the model club guys are going to be working it over at our build tomorrow night!

Bob

By no means am I saying its bad, just being in this "business" your subconscious of what you think "should" be happening takes over a little I liked it all and all and I'm sure I will see it again, it also portrayed the crazy life of those guys in terrible situations, they added enough gore and graphics to make you think (such as the guys head being taken off by the Tiger and half the face left in the tank.(first Sherman co driver)
On top of that I saw it in an RPX theater and it rocked me off of my seat (when the Tiger shot the turret off the first tank out of the blue I almost landed in the seat next to me.
I agree with Bob though they could have shown you so many more details, every now and then you would see something and be like I hope they show more of that, there was only a couple seconds of the 251 also. I think everyone will enjoy it.

I saw it and I like it, just because it's a tank movie! That's all!

I've bought tickets for Saturday night, and I'm very much ooking forward to seeing it !,

There aren't many "half decent" Tank movies. I hope this one is good

Sounds good, really looking forward to the video or on demand release in six months.

Loved the movie!

There was definitely the hollywood angle as expected, especially with the end. Those guys in one broken Sherman would have never stood a chance, especially against that many well trained and battle tested SS troops.

To me where I think the movie really did a great job was the sounds inside the tank, the metal on metal sounds and thuds, the overall crampiness of the tank, etc. And I also like the authenticity and variety of all the equipment involved. On camera at least it didn't seem like they used hollywood kits tanks or mocked up phonies. And Nice mix of shermans showing the two different suspension types, US and German half tracks, etc.

Premiere here is 30th October. I've decided to go see it and I'm waiting it with great interest.

I will say again the attack against the Pakfront was my favorite,given the space restrictions of making the movie. It was accurate in many ways. Personally I would have liked to see true tactics in play,like half the platoon taking an overwatch position while the assault element advanced but only vets would understand that so hey!? It just really got me how accurate that fire fight was with the Shermans' AP tracers going into the woodline and the muffled sounds heard from inside the tank wearing headsets. Brought back a lot of memories.
Wardaddy controlled a just about textbook assault,laying down sustained supression on the target with auto weapons while directing the main guns onto the bigger threats,taking out the priority targets first(Paks)then letting the grunts winkle out the remaining infantry positions.
As far as the Paks missing so much. Well,try to track a moving target while aiming through a reticle sight and hand cranking the gun through traverse and elevation all at the same time. There was no auto-gyro or self cushioning aiming devices going on and the gunner in the Sherman,played so well by Shia LeBeuf,even said while trying to get the engine shot on the Tiger "Hey,this ain't as easy as you think" or something to that effect. Add the fear and nerve factors and there you go. It is not an armchair video game and "it ain't easy"

War is not an easy thing, in so many ways. Been there, done that, like so many (waaaay too many, IMO) others.

The Shermie gunners were trying to hit a low, smaller, hidden target while bucking across the ground - where a "miss" would really be easy and not interfere with the AT crew. The AT crew faced 2 sequential scenarios: first shot or 2 at predictable "crossing your shot-line" slow movers, or at one essentially stationary while it turned to face the gun, followed by the race to cap an on-coming tank before it capped them. The PaK crew was not seeking suicide-by-tank. Both scenarios would be predictable and expected.

Could the PaK40 crew track and hit a moving tank? The first go, from ambushcade at the ranges depicted would be a pretty sure thing. That's what these crews were trained to do. They wouldn't take that first shot and disclose themselves were they not confident of a first hit (tanks moving across the shot-line won't likely run into the PaK and discover same, so disclosure is a choice and not an imperative for the PaK). Tanks charging straight at the gun? Effectively, at that short range (near point-blank for that PaK40), a tank coming straight at the gun is not moving much, and the AT shot is still within it's early flat trajectory...

How effective were PaK40 and other towed AT guns in WWII? Ask the Russians, if not our own boys. Probably more tanks were lost to towed AT then to tank-on-tank. We all have read and heard about the feared "88" - it had both reach and clout on almost anything anyone had in a tank at the time - but the PaK40 was greatly liked by its crews and the depending Landsers - albeit a bit heavy to wrestle, it was accurate, hard-hitting, and fast to load and engage. It was not laughed at by hardly anyone facing one at its work-a-day range.

I expected to see the first Shermie burst and burn, followed by pretty much what we saw. But, hey, it's a movie (and a good tank show, at that!), and we KNEW going into that scene that FURY HAD to survive it!

See it and Enjoy it!

Bob

I know you are correct about the Pak I was just trying to throw some logic in there as to why maybe they missed? These were late war guys after all and maybe not to well trained,if at all. I read about a german gunner in the ardennes that missed taking the crucial first shot because in the excitement he got tangled in his headset wires!! It did not end well.
I was thinking when watching that scene unfold that the Shermans' were very lucky!! That part,and the mass killing at the end,kind of reminded me about the old"Combat" TV series were Sarg and the guys knocked off about a hundred Germans each week while maybe getting one guy wounded from their squad. My best friends' Dad saw this show and said as an Infantryman in France he remembers it being in reverse!
Still love this movie and will see it again. We can only hope the films like this will keep getting better like they have been over the years.
J
J

as with any movie it's not perfect but I liked it; had a sense of being in a lucid dream that would sometimes turn into a nightmare; realistic in the attrition rates among US forces (Pitt's comment about being all that was left of the platoon). I'll buy it on DVD when it comes out. decent attempt to portray the horrifying reality of tank warfare in WW2: gore, burning alive, stuff that we can't begin to imagine unless we were there. honors to those who fought this kind of war for us

quote[...That part, and the mass killing at the end, kind of reminded me about the old"Combat" TV series were Sarg and the guys knocked off about a hundred Germans each week while maybe getting one guy wounded from their squad. My best friends' Dad saw this show and said as an Infantryman in France he remembers it being in reverse!...]quote

Yikes! Another one of us old Combat fans!

Great show in many ways, albeit yes, we seemed to manage to escape almost every encounter with only a single wounded guy, while the "krauts" died in droves! It was done far enough back that there was plenty of real stuff still around to work with!

I'm sure it went both ways... Any vet has stories both funny and not so about the strange glitches one encountered along the way. I sometimes wonder that as many encounters actually work out OK as do, given the myriad chances for gear to get tangled and the increasing complexity of things, etc. I always felt Mr. Murphy peering over my shoulder with mischievous anticipation!

BTW, I'm not really knocking the movie - it's a GREAT tank flick, and one of the few I think really worth spending prime movie money on, and for seeing a few more times. Movies have all kinds of limitations that never applied to real action!

Bob

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I chalked up their misses to the fact that the German AT crews in April of 1945 were probably NOT highly trained. These could have been kids or old men shooting for the first time, not battle-hardened troops.

I just came back from"Fury" and I really liked the movie. It gave a glimpse into the tankers world which rang true with me.

As far as the PAK 40s most only got off one shot before the return fire of HE took them out. Gunnery is not easy I have seen boresighted tanks miss the first shot at a close target. Was the sight bore sighted, how much training and practice did each gunner have? How worn are the barrels, cold guns are slightly different then hot tubes. Also how good was the ammo made by slave labor. Round dispersion is a real consideration due to different lots of ammo. For tank gunnery we tried to use the same lot for confirming the bore sight as we did for the record runs. One or 2 mils off is the difference between a hit and a miss. It was a movie but what happened could be possible. Not everyone in field gray was a crack shot.



SPOILER ALERT IF YOU HAVE NOT SEEN THE MOVIE STOP!!!!!!!







One thing that I found odd was the fact that the SS colum was marching with panzerfausts but had to get them out the case to engage Fury. The crossroads was streching it, but was a very good action sequence, and unlike "Combat" most of the crew died. If memory serves sometimes the guest star might get KIA. Like Red Shirts on Star Trek.

I thought the Tiger fight was good it was awesome to see it running. Between the gritty realism and good acting overall I recommend this movie to any one with an intrest in history, modeling or who likes good movies 5
[:::]

Tom

I'm gonna come back and read this AFTER I see the movie.......

See this as a drama of how war affects people, not an example of tank combat.

While some of it was very good, some is also exaggerated.

But I think it's the best film to date to show what life is like in a tank in combat.

I went to see the movie last night just to get out of the house (got a nasty cold) and actually enjoyed myself and the movie. Now back to being miserable again. I should go see the movie again so to feel better for a while.

Bob

Saw Fury this past Sat night (Oct 18) with the missus. She's into action flicks as well, and shops at Lowes and Home Depot...not foo-foo malls...makes me truely a rare and lucky guy... I was lucky enough there was some dead zones in the movie where there was time to whisper answers to her about a certain scene or vehicle. From the get go, we saw a few silhouettes featuring a Panzer IV, a Panther, an 88 or two, and what looked to be quite a few AT guns. And Tiger 131...what can be said about that! Awesome display and action...made you feel what it could have been like, or to witness. I was wishing that 131 was granted more time allotment considering the almost 2 1/2 hour length of Fury. Will have to purchase the movie to really get stop action detail for all the vehicles. As far as the story line? Yea, a bit far fetched with the Panzerfausts' poor deployment at the crossroad, but then again I chalk it up to Germany's desperation at the end of the war when it came to conscripting anyone that had a pulse...hense, wearing an SS uniform does not make one into a bad-ass...especially in April-May 1945. True, a few die hards existed, but we know the overall quality of the German force was no longer capable of sustaining it's cause. I assuming the German halftracks are post war Czech production, but as before, buying the movie for stop action will detail what I (we) will enjoy tearing apart and critiquing. Overall? Five stars out of Five stars...just for the authenticity of the vehicles like no other movie had (vice A Bridge Too Far)!!