Let’s be clear about this right up front: Fury is relentlessly grim and punishing. But that doesn’t mean it’s not a remarkably well-made film. Brad Pitt’s passion project focuses an unblinking and bloodshot eye on the ravages of war during the final weeks of World War II, from the perspective of a five man crew inside a clanking Sherman tank as it lumbers its way through Germany.

There is no doubt that the stellar cast outdoes itself in every way. Brad Pitt has never been better as the hardened army sergeant in command. Shia LaBeouf does a surprisingly brilliant turn as the Bible thumping main gunner. Michael Pena and John Bernthal (Walking Dead) are the other hardened members of the crew, but Logan Lerman (Percy Jackson), as the naive clerk drafted at the spur of the moment to become a gunner, outdoes them all. He actually steals the show from Brad Pitt. And the tank, known as Fury, is a character in its own right.

Writer/director David Ayer (End of Watch, Street Kings) has crafted a mucky, misty, muddy war time world, beautiful in its own way. But it’s hard to enjoy the film’s aesthetics when your attention is constantly drawn toward gruesome scenes of death: a soldier, in flames, shoots himself in the head; a tank rolls over bodies in the mud; another soldier gets his legs blown out from under him and crumples to the ground. And perhaps, most disturbing of all, Lerman’s character has to clean the tank of his predecessor’s remains, which include a chunk of the poor soldier’s face. I found myself covering my eyes for a good part of the movie, because I just can’t stomach that type of gore. The men in the audience however, were moved and fascinated.

And therein lies the crux of Fury. It is definitely a guy’s movie, almost Hemingway-esque it seems to me. It’s one man’s fiction, and not based on a true story. Men are intrigued and enraptured by it, but I’m thinking most women will be repulsed and repelled. My theory is that since women go through such pain, suffering and sacrifice to bring life into the world, we are not entertained by seeing lives savagely taken, no matter whom they belong to. It’s wired into our DNA, whether we’ve had children or not.

That being said, no matter what your gender, you can’t help but be compelled by the battle scenes, the final one in particular, and the final image is so arresting it will stay with you for a very long time, if not forever, so be prepared.

Rated R

2 Hours 15 Minutes