movie 'FURY' with Brad Pitt

[Jim von Krieg]

Fury premieres in two days in this part of the world, I am definitively going to see it this weekend. I've tried to steer clear of any spoilers, I am bit concerned of the reported hollywood finale.

On the other hand, it is good to know there is one, so I can be prepared for it and just enjoy the footage instead.

5 tankers vs 300 SS Nazis though... ? Hmm... Sound a bit Ltn Aldo to me!

Just to be prepared, I watched this rental the other day. 13 samurais ambushing and killing the evil shogun and all of his 200 soldier entourage



Now I know the odds are quite not the same, but then again, no Easy-8s for them, just their katanas.

History is full of lop sided battles in which a smaller force, against all odds, emerges victorious or is so heroic that the battle becomes a legend. Off the top of my head, Spartans at Thermopylae; Jewish rebels at Masada; Battle of the Box Wagon near Fort Kearney; remnants of 24th Foot at Rourke's Drift; Marines at Wake Island; Australians at Tobruk; 101st at Bastogne; Taffey 3 off of Samar Island, and many other fights in which a few stood off many.

It is a military maxim that a few troops at the right time, at the right location can be worth many more troops at a later time period. History is full of things that never should have happened, but for the bravery and courage of a few that stood their ground against overwhelming odds. I can't speak to Fury as I've not seen it; however, history has many stories such as one portrayed in a movie I recently watched on the defense of Vienna from the Turks by the outnumbered Austrians and the Poles in the 13/14th Century.

Desperate stands are one of those things that have always fascinated me. They happened even before there was a Hollywood to gloss over it. One of my favorite books is Last Stand of the Tin Can Sailors about Taffey 3 being caught totally by surprise by the Japanese Center Force off of Samar. Suicidal charges to launch torpedoes from destroyers and destroyer escorts against cruisers and battleships which should have been a total rout. However, their actions were so ferocious that the Japanese Commander lost his nerve to push his advantage and retired without realizing just how close he came to disrupting the invasion of the Philippines.

As to Petri's point, Seven Samurai and the Magnificent 7 are in a similar fashion. They are both great movies.

Wooty WOOOT...

Jim vK