Fury.

April 1945. The allies fighting deep in the heart of Nazi Germany, encounter the most fanatical resistance yet. In desperation Hitler has declared total war, mobilizing every last man, woman and child. Taking part in this last gasp push against what remains of the Nazi hordes and their empire are the tanks of the American 66th Armoured Regiment, 2nd Armoured Division known to the Germans as ‘Roosevelt’s Butchers’ who had been fighting virtually non stop for a number of years and were now a rag tag bunch with little food and under equipped.  On one such tank turret is written Fury (2014) which consists of a five-man team lead by the complex Sgt Don ‘Wardaddy’ Collier (a scar faced Brad Pitt) and includes Technician Fifth Grade Boyd ‘Bible’ Swan (Shia LaBeouf) , Corporal Trini ‘Gordo’ Garcia (Michael Pena)  and Private First Class Grady ‘Coon-ass’ Travis (Jon Bernthal).

 

M4 Sherman tank 

When the tanks original assistant driver/bow gunner is killed in battle he is replaced by an enlisted office clerk Private Norman ‘Machine’ Ellison (Logan Lerman) who has “trained for 60 words a minute - not to kill people”. The underlying narrative of this electrifying movie is how this innocent young man, who has never seen the inside of a tank nor experienced the ravages of war, copes not only with the extremities of the brutality of war but the cruelties inflicted on him by his compatriots.

 

Tiger 131 at Bovington

The films authenticity is helped by the fact that four veterans of the D Day landings and the Battle of the Bulge, well into there nineties, acted as advisers, having long closed door sessions with the main members of the cast. The cast also had intensive training at a Boot Camp with the US Navy Seals to get them to think and act like military men which also helped bond the men into a working team.   A large part of the movie was filmed in England because of the availability of M4 Sherman’s and a Tiger 131 tank only found at the Bovington Tank Museum in Bovington, England.    

 

A rare tender moment in the movie.

Its apocalyptic inhuman subject matter is directed and written by David Ayer and succeeds in striking the viewer as being very realistic, portraying an honest look at the best and worst of human kind under conditions that most of us would thankfully never have encountered. The movie is at its best when dealing with the indoctrination of the young recruit as a member of a tank corps and how he is taught to disregard the value of life - including his own. The movie is only spoilt by its gung-ho climax, which although very exciting does not have the political angst of the first half. Not as good as the Russian movie White Tiger (2012) but a very commendable modern war film that’s well worth your time.

12 Years a Slave.

“There is no sin: I can do what I like with my property” says cotton plantation owner Edwin Epps when whipping a female slave, the same slave he rapes on a regular basis. This one episode really sums up the mentality between people who are financial capable of ruling other’s of a lesser social standing.  London born Steve McQueen’s third film, after his debut Hunger (2008) that dramatizes the events in the Maze, 6 weeks prior to Bobby Sands death on the 5^th May 1981 and Shame (2011) a film that involved sex addiction, is based on a 1853 memoir written by Solomon Northup a free African American[1], married with two children living in Saratoga Springs, New York who earned his living as a skilled carpenter and fiddle player who is duped, kidnapped and ends up as a slave to William Ford in the Southern States of America. 12 Years a Slave (2013) is the story of Northrup’s experiences working and living as a slave for twelve years of his life unable to admit to his masters who he really is and having to deny the skills he learnt as a free man, all in fear of a near death beating, and going as far has having to except a different name ‘Platt’.

 

'You just don't have any say boy'

The superb screenplay is by John Ridley; the cinematography was the responsibility of Sean Bobbitt who had worked on The Place Beyond the Pines (2013) and the vampire movie Byzantium (2012) as well as McQueen’s previous two films. German born Hans Zimmer, who has been answerable for over 100 films, composed the soundtrack. The ensemble cast is notable for performances from Lupita Nyong’o as Patsey the young and beautiful slave girl that Epps has love hate relationship with, the vicious slave owner Edwin Epps is played by another McQueen regular Michael Fassbender, with William Ford a kinder, less aggressive plantation owner performed by Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, seen recently in Prisoners (2013) as Platt’s arch enemy John Tibeats and a small, but important role for Brad Pitt as Samuel Bass.

 

'A thin line between love and hate'

This is an exceptional film not just because it won a very deserving BAFTA for Best Actor for  Watching this historical drama exhausts you, drawing out every piece of emotion, a brutal, but moving film, that everyone should take time out to watch if for nothing more than to act as a lesson on how not to treat your fellow human beings. Bearing in mind that slavery can take many different forms, not always as psychically brutal as shown in the film but equally mentally demeaning.  Cinema to be appreciated rather than to be enjoyed. Chiwetel Ejiofor as Northrup and a BAFTA for Best Film, but also because it tackles a subject that is not normally told in such an honest and forthright manner.

'Southern trees bear a strange fruit'

[1] In United States history, a free Negro or free black was the legal status in the territory of the United States of an African American person who was not a slave. The term was in use before the independence of the Thirteen Colonies until the abolition of slavery in the United States in 1865 after the American Civil War, when the status ceased to have any relevance

World War Z

They (zombies) scare me more than any other fictional creature out there because they break all the rules. Werewolves and vampires and mummies and giant sharks, you have to go look for them. My attitude is if you go looking for them, no sympathy. But zombies come to you. Zombies don't act like a predator; they act like a virus, and that is the core of my terror. A predator is intelligent by nature, and knows not to overhunt its feeding ground. A virus will just continue to spread, infect and consume, no matter what happens. It's the mindlessness behind it.[1]

So says Max Brooks who wrote the novel that this film is supposed to be based on. But the author has claimed, and I can see his point, that following a gaggle of rewrites World War Z (2013) has nothing in common with his book, World War Z An Oral History Of The Zombie War, which is a follow up to his 2003 novel The Zombie Survival Guide. 

 

George Square was never this busy at Christmas!

Marc Foster, responsible for the 2008 James Bond movie Quantum of Solace and the inappropriately named Machine Gun Preacher  (2011) the life story of former outlaw biker turned Christian, Sam Childers, is in the directorial driving seat for a movie about a world wide zombie pandemic. The main character is ex UN investigator Gerry Lane played by Brad Pitt who when the ‘disease’ breaks out is brought back from retirement, forced to leave his family on a floating Pentagon and assigned to what seems like an impossible task to identify how the deadly virus can be stopped.

 

Zombie team work.

Given over to three nights at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre in Dumfries as a replacement for the Robert Redford vehicle The Company You Keep which had been held up, World War Z turned out to be quite a treat. Yes ok nonsense, but smart nonsense all the same which manages to maintain a good level of excitement throughout the full length of movie. And yes I know that the critics, in general, did not think a great deal of the movie but I thought it was very well made, had some good workman like performances from the main cast and boasted some great action sequences especially the ‘George Square’ episode in the first 35 minutes and I must say that the zombies in this film were some of the quickest I have ever seen managing to spread the infection round the world in no time at all! Seriously it’s worth a look if you want to sample modern horror without the gory bits.      

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[1] Interview with Max Brooks.

Killing Them Softly.

Since I’ve only recently seen the class act that is Pulp Fiction (1994) I am able to confirm that Killing Them Softly (2012) appears heavily influenced by the Tarantino film? Its about a hit man Jackie Cogan (Brad Pit) as brutal and matter of fact as either Vince or Jules. The story is driven by dialogue that is only interrupted by bouts of gross violence that’s inflicted on some poor sole. Recognize the template?

Hit man Jackie Cogan.

Andrew Dominik set his film in 2008 at a time when America embarked on a transitional stage in its history. It was a period when the collapse of the Banks was rattling the very bedrock of America’s capitalist system and an African American called Barack Obama was competing with George W Bush in an electoral campaign to become the first black President of the most powerful country on earth. Dominik is a New Zealand born Australian who has already directed two award-winning movies, Chopper (2000) and his first collaboration with Brad Pit, The Assassination of Jessie James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007).

Russell and Frankie.

Based on the 1974 novel Cogan’s Trade by George V. Higgins, Killing Them Softly is a neo noir crime drama where a local mobster Johnny ‘Squirrel’ Amato (Vincent Curatola) employs Frankie (Scoot McNairy), a low life thug who is just out of prison, and his friend Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), an unstable petty criminal whose addicted to heroin, to hold up and rob an illegal card game. Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta) has already robbed his own game previously, and although the local Mafia knows he did it, he was never punished.  Which is the reason Squirrel thinks they can get away with it, banking on the fact that the crime bosses will think Markie’s at it again. When the truth comes out Jackie Cogan is employed by the mobs agent Driver (Richard Jenkins) to carry out retribution on those deemed responsible for the robbery.

Jackie chews the fat with fellow hit man Mickey (James Gandolfini) 

As he did with Jessie James, Pit fits the part of cool hit man like a glove. The slow motion killing scene of a driver in a car against the soundtrack of Ketty Lester’s Love Letters (a single I still play on my Juke Box) is extremely well done, as is in fact the whole of this politically tinged film. I must give a special mention to Francine Maisler who was responsible for assembling such a great cast. Mr Dominik confirms his filmmaking abilities with his CV getting better and better.