Fury: Finally, a Real Tanker Movie?

fury best job i ever had
September 8, 2014  
|  32 Comments
Categories: Musings

The Mad Duo would just like to say…

Please, let this be as awesome as its potential. Please let these other guys make up for the fact that Shia’s in it.

Here’s what Mad Duo Chris has to say about it:

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I wanted to be a soldier since I was a child. By the time I was in high school and nearing the age I could enlist, my father became terrified I would actually join up. He was a 1960s Air Force vet who hated every second of his service. So when Platoon came out in 1986, my father took me on opening weekend. His plan was simple. He’d expose me to the horrors of war, I’d recoil in terror and swear to never join the military, and my parents would someday see me walk across a university stage clutching a law degree.

Platoon was the most realistic war movie I’d ever seen. The combat was brutal. I was mesmerized by the final battle. The crowd left the theater in stunned silence. When we reached our car, my father quietly said, “I hope that changed your mind about joining the military.”

I said nothing. But I thought, Yeah it changed my mind. Now I REALLY want to be a soldier. I signed on the dotted line two years later, when I was barely seventeen. And I never got a degree.

Since Platoon, we’ve been blessed with a plethora of movies celebrating the infantryman’s life. Full Metal Jacket, Blackhawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers, Band of Brothers and Generation Kill have given us insight into the minds and motivations of men on the sharp edge of battle. Through these films, civilians and those of us not fortunate enough to hold an 11- or 0300-series MOS gain at least some understanding of our countrymen who wear the blue infantry cord.

But nobody seems to care about us tankers.

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Aegis LE Logo BBC (300x100)

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No movies celebrate those who rode into battle beside the infantry (no, Tank Girl doesn’t count). The tank crews who survived mere minutes in Duplex Drive tanks on Omaha Beach – and their comrades who sank when their allegedly waterproof screens failed – have been ignored. The crew of Liz, a Marine Sherman on Peleliu Island, receives no recognition for spending five hours under fire hacksawing off the muzzle of their main gun after a Japanese shell struck and deformed it, ruining its accuracy. We fail to recognize the courage of a Soviet KV-1 crew who blocked a road, destroyed a battery of 50mm guns, wasted a feared 88, survived a nighttime raid by German engineers who planted two explosive charges, endured a combined assault by another 88 and a company of Panzers, and was finally destroyed by a German grunt with a grenade after holding up an entire division’s advance for two days.

Rodney Dangerfield may as well have been a tanker. Cause we just don’t get no respect.

This fall, however, that might all change. Fury, starring Brad Pitt, hits the big screen on October 17th (or in November, according to the posters). The trailer for this film certainly gives us tankers hope for long-overdue recognition.

I generally view any upcoming military movie with suspicion. Hollywood has taken some pretty dramatic war stories and butchered them beyond recognition. Lone Survivor was a festival of made-up nonsense. Red Tails, one of the most inspiring true American stories ever, was a total abortion. How can a movie with Terrance Howard, Cuba Gooding Jr., P-51 Mustangs and hot Italian chicks still suck?

But that trailer…damn. Fury just might be the tanker movie I’ve been waiting for all my life.

From the little bits and pieces I’ve heard about the movie I gather that it’s about a tank crew, the last in its platoon, which is ordered to hold a vital area. Apparently this lone tank has to fend off an attack by 300 Germans. One of the crewmen is a brand-new replacement who had never been inside a tank before the battle. And the entire movie takes place over the course of one day.

So this movie has a good plot. And with Brad Pitt as the Tank Commander, Shia LaBeouf as a rather mousy gunner, Michael Pena as driver, Jon Bernthal as loader and Logan Lerman as assistant driver/Terrified New Guy, it has more than enough good actors to carry the story. In the trailer I saw just a couple things that worried me: first, Michael Pena screaming “Shoot that enemy soldier, Terrified New Guy!”, followed by the cliché, “Whaaa, I killed someone, I’m so evil!”; and second, why the hell would that same Terrified New Guy be dismounted from the tank firing an M3 Grease Gun with an “I’m a killer” expression on his face?

But no matter. The trailer also has tons of scenes that make us tankers collectively orgasm in our coveralls. Brad Pitt hunched low in the commander’s hatch giving urgent orders to his crew. Sparks exploding off a turret from a main gun round’s impact. The loader, commander and gunner calling out the beautiful song of my people, “Up!…Fire!…On the way!” And crewmen telling a little known truth about being a tanker:

“Best job I ever had.”

That line really hit me. When I was an Abrams crewman, I used to say – in all seriousness – that tank gunner was the best job in the Army. I would have chosen that job over F-16 pilot. I was an E-5 for ten years because I didn’t want to quit being a gunner. I remember feeling impotent rage as I watched, from my living room, a Marine Abrams hitting an Iraqi-army held building at close range during the invasion. I’m a National Guard tanker, I thought. I can hit a damn building from 200 meters. Why am I not in this war? I was in an armor battalion when I deployed to Iraq in 05, but was stuck in a Humvee on a convoy escort team. We were called Tankers Without A Tank, and until then I never thought I’d be envious of anyone in a Bradley. I’d nearly cry whenever we passed an Abrams on the highway. All I wanted was to sit in a gunner’s seat and launch just one round at the enemy. Alas, the closest I came to being a combat tanker was having my Humvee rocked by a French tank’s muzzle blast during a firefight in Afghanistan.

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And I wasn’t the only tanker in my unit that passionate about my steel beast. I had a first sergeant who actually cried when he told us how conflicted he was about accepting promotion to E-8, because pinning that diamond meant he’d never be in a tank again. As a cop I met a prosecutor who was a tanker in a sister battalion. When I asked if he was an officer he said, “Hell no, I’m an E-5 gunner. I bust my ass all month at work, when I go to drill I just want to do the job I love.”

Fury seems to have captured the passion, brutality, grime, danger and beauty of life on a tank. This movie might – MIGHT – be what we tankers proudly bring up whenever our grunt friends discuss their many infantry movies. Fury has great actors, great cinematography, great special effects, a real Sherman and a real Panzer. It could be an armored masterpiece, if Hollywood didn’t add some stupid, unnecessary, shark-jumping nonsense to it. Which Hollywood almost always does.

Thousands of other proud tankers and I are cautiously optimistic. We want this movie to be “right”. We want to be proud of it. We want it to show truth about what we do, and who we are.

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Fury movie Tanks in WWII Tanker Movie Bradd Pitt Breach Bang Clear 4

You have one job, Hollywood. Don’t fuck this up.

Chris Hernandez Mad Duo Chris, seen below in the turret of an Abrams tank (best job he ever had) may just be the crustiest member of the eeeee-LIGHT writin’ team here at Breach-Bang-Clear. He is a veteran of both the Marine Corps and the Army National Guard who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also a veteran police officer of nearly two decades who spent a long (and eye-opening) deployment as part of a UN police mission in Kosovo. He is the author of White Flags & Dropped Rifles – the Real Truth About Working With the French Army and The Military Within the Military as well as the modern military fiction novels Line in the Valley and Proof of Our Resolve. When he isn’t groaning about a change in the weather and snacking on Osteo Bi-Flex he writes on his own blog, Iron Mike Magazine, Kit Up! and Under the Radar. You can find his author page here on Tactical 16.

hernandez in an Abrams

Chris Hernandez

Chris Hernandez

About the Author

Chris Hernandez may just be the crustiest member of the eeeee-LITE writin' team here at Breach-Bang-Clear. He is a veteran of both the Marine Corps and the Army National Guard who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also a veteran police officer of two decades who spent a long (and eye-opening) deployment as part of a UN police mission in Kosovo. He is the author of White Flags & Dropped Rifles - the Real Truth About Working With the French Army and The Military Within the Military as well as the modern military fiction novels Line in the Valley, Proof of Our Resolve and Safe From the War. When he isn't groaning about a change in the weather and snacking on Osteo Bi-Flex he writes on his own blog. You can find his author page here on Tactical 16.

32 Comments

  1. Curtis

    So is there going to be a follow up to this? Just wanted to hear what your thoughts were. Also love your writing man.

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez

      There will be a follow-up. I’ve been waiting to interview either the director or military advisor, as soon as I get some feedback from them I’ll write it up. Thanks for the compliment Curtis, I appreciate it.

      Reply
  2. Pwnage

    Only drawback is that Pitt is about 25 years too old to be a WW2 tanker.

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Naaaaaaahhhhhh…besides, he looks quite a but younger than he really is. And I had TCs in the National Guard who were in their 40’s.

      Reply
    • Scott Baca

      My Great Uncle was in his late 30s in WW2 when he took his tank into France.

      Reply
  3. Pete Sheppard

    Chris, come over to Tank-Net Lots of tankers, history, discussion, BS and humor. Also on TN is Nicholas Moran, who ran an M1 platoon in Iraq, is a consultant to World of Tanks, AND interviewed the ‘wheels’ behind FURY–who happen to be tankers themselves!

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      I will do that, thank you Pete.

      Reply
      • sqkyshoeshine

        and Kursk. Had six MK IVs shot out from under him. The stories He had. Without doubt the toughest SOB I ever met. I miss him.

        Reply
  4. Scott Baca

    We need a good Abrams movie. Not a real story just a good one.

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Agreed Scott. I started writing one, about an isolated Abrams platoon in Iraq fighting off an Iranian invasion. I need to finish that one.

      Reply
      • Scott Baca

        Nice. I need to pick up your books. Should have them at Hastings in San Angelo.

        Reply
        • Chris Hernandez author

          Scott,

          My books are as eBooks on Amazon, iBooks and B&N, but print copies of Proof of Our Resolve (Line in the Valley should be available in print by next month) are only in a few places. B&N can order them, not sure about Hastings. Your best bet for print copies is to order them on Amazon. If you do get them, please let me know what you think.

          Reply
          • Scott Baca

            Will do. Probably order them on amazon. I just like holding a book in my hands. I know makes me an anachronism.

            Reply
            • Chris Hernandez author

              And I just found out, Line in the Valley is now available in print on Amazon.

              Reply
      • Scott Baca

        “The 10000” would make a good movie or “Bright Star”

        Reply
        • Chris Hernandez author

          Team Yankee!

          Reply
  5. Rick Fetterly

    The opening scene of Courage Under Fire was a pretty good tank battle scene.

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Agreed, other than the really bad VISMODs it wasn’t a bad scene.

      Reply
  6. crazy j

    What? No mention of Sahara (1943) or Battle of The Bulge? A really good tank movie is “Tank.”

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      J,

      I didn’t mention Kursk or the battle of 73 Easting either. Limited space, you know? 🙂

      But I gotta say, “Tank” doesn’t count. It was a movie about a tank, not about tank warfare. But James Garner was great in it.

      Reply
  7. Bill Starks

    Former Tankers and Tank Mechanics over at USABOT.org are hoping this movie is all it’s suppose to be and that the best scenes are not just in the trailers. Best job I ever had… Gunner M60A3, M1, M1IP & M1A1

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Right there with you, Bill. Best Job I ever had. By the way, you might want to go to ironmikesupply.com and check out the Abrams “Human Rights Activist” shirt. I just ordered one.

      http://www.ironmikesupply.com/mens-t-shirts/

      Reply
  8. CombatMissionary

    Chris, I like your writin’. Your article about the French was top-notch. Here’s hoping that HollySuck don’t screw tankers over.

    By the way, the preview for Saints and Soldiers: The Void looks like they focus on armor. You should check it out. Tell us how they did.

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Thanks Missionary. I’ve seen a couple of the Saints and Soldiers movies, and one of them was really disappointing. But in that same vein of low-budget war movies, have you seen Fortress? Excellent film about a B-17 crew.

      Reply
  9. grunt

    this cant be a real tanker movie. they are all in shape, not one mustache and where the F are the boot buckles?

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Hey now… Michael Peña looks a little puffy, that should count.

      Reply
  10. b_a

    I liked “End of Watch” by Ayers. And so I had high hopes for “Sabotage”. The first emerging picture of Arnold looked great and the story seemed quite promising. But in the end it was quite bad. So I woory too that “Fury” might not be that great.

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      As a cop, I was a little hacked off by the unbelievable parts of End of Watch. But maybe it’s my fault. I guess our soft body armor might be AK-proof. 🙂

      Reply
  11. Dave

    Hey now, you have Kelly’s Heroes and the first 8 minutes of Courage Under Fire! Those two movies pretty sum up an Infantryman’s view of tankers….

    Reply
    • Chris Hernandez author

      Dave,

      There’s also The Beast, but since it’s about the enemy I didn’t think it counted.

      Reply
      • Textanker

        “Out of commission, become a pillbox. Out of ammo, become a bunker. Out of time, become heroes.”

        Best Tanker Quote. Ever.

        Reply
        • Chris Hernandez author

          It’s at least in the running. I’ll have to dig around and see if there’s anything better out there.

          Reply

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