The BFI London Film Festival 2014 came to a close last night with a star-studded gala premiere for David Ayer’s visceral World War II movie Fury, starring Brad Pitt.
Fury follows military leader Wardaddy (Pitt) as he commands an American tank crew through Nazi Germany in the final months of the conflict. When one of his crew dies, Wardaddy is lumbered with trigger-shy Private Ellison (Logan Lerman), who must learn his stripes in the field of battle.
So far, so genre. However, with the director behind End Of Watch in the hotseat, **Fury **is far from conventional. Struggling to be heard over the screams of the gathered fans, co-star Jon Bernthal – who plays loose cannon crew member Grady 'Coon-Ass' Travis – told **Empire **that the film is more like a “family drama” than a traditional war movie.
“It’s about a family travelling through hell in a metal box and we had to create that family,” he said. “I think I play the crazy, testosterone-filled, fearful teenager who’s always acting out.”
The film’s central family is anchored around Brad Pitt, who calls the shots as Wardaddy. He is a respected leader who wields a great deal of power over the men under his control. Some of that power was on show on the red carpet too, with the Moneyball man’s arrival met by a chorus of cheers and whoops.
“I had to inflict a lot of discipline,” Pitt told Empire, in between signing autographs and taking selfies with fans. “I love these guys. We got really tight to the process, but there is an interesting dynamic if I’m responsible for their morale in knowing when to pick them up and when to put them down. It was constantly in play throughout the shoot.“
The family metaphor was a common theme for the film’s cast, with Shia LaBeouf describing his role as like a “mother with a gun”. He said: “They were my sons. You get to know your boys. You take care of them a lot.”
**Fury **was shot primarily in Britain, with the cast and crew subjected to a punishing production schedule, courtesy of what writer-director David Ayer called a “cocktail” of “non-traditional” methods. He chose to push particularly hard with the youngest member of the cast.
“I just wanted Logan to feel that terrible first day of school kind of experience that he has in Fury,” said Ayer. “I put as much stress on him as I could so that you can just see it in his eyes.”
The **Fury **premiere marks the final night of the London Film Festival. Closing the event, CEO of the BFI, Amanda Nevill stressed the breadth of young British talent on show in this year’s programme, with 39 of the festival’s films originating from Britain.
She said: “You have to ignite that spark and that passion and let filmmakers have a go at it. Making films is a very expensive, complicated gig. These are films that have competed against the best the world can throw at us. You sit there and look at these films and it makes you really proud to be British.”
Fury, written and directed by David Ayer, also stars Michael Peña, Jason Isaacs and Alicia Von Rittberg. It will be released nationwide on October 24.
Reporting by Tom Beasley and Joshua Hammond
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