Brad Pitt’s Grim War Movie Is Conquering On Streaming
Brad Pitt's gritty World War II drama, Fury, is currently ranked in Hulu's top ten.
A FlixPatrol report shows that Brad Pitt’s gritty WWII tank film Fury is steamrolling Hulu’s top ten. Helmed by Suicide Squad director David Ayer, Fury tells the story of a US tank crew battling Germany on European soil at the tail end of the war. The harrowing 2014 film boasts an all-star cast led by Pitt, Logan Lerman, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña, and Jon Bernthal.
Fury opened in the US on October 17, 2014 to positive reviews and a $211 million dollar box office total to offset its $68 million dollar budget. The film’s ensemble cast was praised for believable performances to match the film’s rugged depiction of war, which some critics compared to the grit of Saving Private Ryan. Achieving that level of reality was no easy feat for Brad Pitt and his co-stars.
After Pitt and his tank-manning companions were cast in the spring of 2013, director David Ayer sent his actors to boot camp – literally. Brad Pitt and co. trained for a week with Navy SEALs, sparred each other, and even lived in a tank together for a time. The process had the actors eating, sleeping, and using the toilet together as cold and exhaustion weathered them down.
All the night watches, bloody noses, and bruised egos gave Brad Pitt and the cast a small taste of military life, which Ayer believed would ground their performances in realism. Given the film’s reception and lasting legacy as one of the decade’s greatest war films, it seems Ayer’s distressing tactics paid off.
The film was shot in England to give the production access to period-accurate tanks. David Ayer dedicated himself to delivering as authentic an experience as possible, wanting everything from tanks to uniforms and maps to feel precisely appropriate to the time and place in which the movie is set. Behind the scenes photos even showed Brad Pitt receiving tank driving instruction.
Fury is a fictional story, but the characters and their situation were influenced by real soldiers and events. Ayer was inspired to make the film by books he read about the war, and by his own family’s military service. The film remains a key filmography entry for David Ayer, Brad Pitt, Logan Lerman, and the rest of the film’s cast.
After Fury, David Ayer directed Suicide Squad, Bright with Will Smith, and The Tax Collector. He is currently at work on a Jason Statham action film titled The Beekeeper.
Brad Pitt and his Fury co-stars have also been busy lately. 2022 saw the release of Pitt’s films The Lost City, Bullet Train, and Babylon. Logan Lerman joined Pitt in Bullet Train and will star alongside Al Pacino in the second season of Amazon’s Hunters, premiering January 13, 2023. Jon Berthal had a big 2022 highlighted by his lead role in Showtime’s American Gigolo, and Michael Peña appeared in Moonfall and Paramount+’s Secret Headquarters.
For Brad Pitt, the past year has been a mixed big. Babylon is expected to continue making waves this awards season, but the spotlight has been darkened by abuse allegations made against Pitt by his ex-wife and esteemed actress, Angelina Jolie. Brad Pitt has so far denied Jolie’s claims.
Fury became a modern classic for war film fans when it was released in 2014, and its continued life on Hulu is only furthering the film’s legacy. For David Ayer, Brad Pitt, and the rest of the cast, this gritty and grueling film is bound to go down as a bright spot on their careers.
