James Biggins

QEN101

Prof. Williams

11-14-17

Landscape Inquiry

Ideals are peaceful. History is violent (David Ayer). This is a quote from the movie

Fury. Its said by Brad Pitts character, SSG Don Collier, to the newest addition to their crew,

Logan Lermans character, to emphasize that his experiences as part of the crew are not going to

get better. That experience will be driven primarily by the landscape and the setting of the story,

which takes place in war-torn Germany. As the American tank crew fights during WW II in this

film, landscape plays a large part in affecting various elements of the story. The elements of

history, both in broad and specifics, economics, and the effect the setting has on the characters

are all important to the story. The history of the events leading up to the second World War is a

crucial element of the landscape of the film.

The road that led the crew of Fury to Germany has been building up for more than a

decade and had more than one cause and effect. In many ways, World War II was directly caused

by World War I and in particular, due to the Treaty of Versailles. Having been forced to sign by

the Entente nations, the agreement all but crippled Germany:

The need to pay war reparations, coupled with the instability of the government,

contributed to massive hyperinflation which crippled the German economy. This

situation was made worse by the onset of the Great Depression. In addition to the

economic ramifications of the treaty, Germany was required to demilitarize the

 Rhineland and had severe limitations placed on the size of its military, including

the abolishment of its air force (Hickman).

As a reaction to these hard times, the German people followed in Italys footsteps and turned to

fascism, hoping that it would return a sense of stability and progress to the stricken nation.

After years of militarization and the gradual rearming of the German navies and air force,

it all came to a head with Poland. Germany had already taken over Czechoslovakia and Austria,

so for Great Britain and France, Poland was the final straw: Massing their armies along the

Polish border, the Germans staged a fake Polish attack on August 31, 1939. Using this as a

pretext for war, German forces flooded across the border the next day. On September 3, Great

Britain and France issued an ultimatum to Germany to end the fighting. When no reply was

received, both nations declared war (Hickman). Although no direct military action would be

taken by either side for months, its all that was needed to kick off the second World War.

Of course, the crew of Fury didnt get their start in Poland. They got their start, along

with much of the rest of the U.S. Army, along the shores of North Africa. Operation Torch

kicked off in the closing months of 1942. The unit that Fury belongs to, the 2nd Armored

Division, got their first taste of action along the shores of Morocco, in the famed city of

Casablanca. Later, they would battle against fascist Italy and Nazi Germany in the streets of

Sicily: The Hell On Wheels Division saw action at Butera, Campobello, and through to

Palermo. During the fight for Sicily, the 2nd AD fought against the German's elite Hermann

Gring Panzer Division (Vet). Its here that the crew of the Fury first fought, verifying Colliers

statement, I started this war killing Germans in Africa. Now, Im killing Germans in Germany.

After the North African campaign, the 2nd Armored, along with Fury, was rotated back to
England to prepare for Operation Overlord, where it would land on the beaches of Normandy on

June 9th. From there, they would be involved in numerous offensives, including Operation Cobra

and the Rhine Campaign to make crucial headway in the drive towards Berlin. This marks nearly

two years, including the time the crew wouldve spent training, that the group of five have spent

together. This demonstrates how long the crew have been together and heavily suggests that the

volume of fighting that theyve seen is the reason theyre so jaded.

To say that the second World War crippled Germany is an understatement. Its common

procedure for a modern country to completely reorganize its economy and manufacturing

capacity when it goes to war. Unfortunately for that country, its wartime manufacturing is

oftentimes the first things targeted. For the Allies, this was no different. What started in 1940

with nighttime raids flown by the RAF was kicked into overdrive as soon as America entered the

war. Those nighttime raids turned into round-the-clock operations, some holding up to a

thousand Allied bombers, in what was called saturation bombing. Every faucet of Germanys

wartime economy was targeted and the Allied commanders knew exactly what to target: Allied

commanders not only grasped the German Achilles heel- petroleum, but had a huge bomber

force to hit virtually any target in force. Thus the synthetic plants along with the transportation

network became priority targets (Speer). Of course, this put Germany in a critical position. As

we see in Fury, by the time April 1945 rolls around, the country is in ruins. There are pockets of

resistance but for the most part, the German war machine is in shambles, unable to mount any

sort of coherent, consistent defense against the Allies march to Berlin. The Luftwaffe is

nonexistent and the Wehrmacht is only seen on the defensive. But, much akin to a wounded

animal backed into a corner, they lash out with a ferocity that continues to stun the crew of the
Fury even after all the fighting theyve done. It goes to show that especially in wartime,

economics plays an absolutely pivotal role when the setting is concerned.

Without a doubt, the strongest evidence for setting affecting the story can be found in

how the characters react to the local population, in terms of both enemy soldiers and civilian

noncombatants. Specifically, Logan Lermans character started out as, more or less, a clean slate

for character development. He started out not wanting to shoot any of the enemy soldiers, as he

was not prepared to end another life. However, being thrown into this life or death situation, and

being commanded to not only fight but to shoot first and ask questions later, he was forced to

adapt to his surroundings. in the first encounter, Lerman is commanded to kill a German soldier

who has surrendered. Against his moral judgement, Lerman fights back, and Pitt's character ends

up holding the gun in his hand and pulling the trigger for him. The following instance, Lerman

hesitates to shoot who he thinks is just a kid, but turns out to be another German soldier. His

hesitation causes several men in their convoy to die- an action Lerman is immediately blamed

for. His disobedience to follow orders is punished through Pitt's shouting and bashing Lerman's

head, further instilling the need to shoot without thinking. More situational shifts in this war

come throughout the movie; the German soldiers and civilians are not talked about or treated as

humans, but rather objects or animals. In a particular scene after liberating an unnamed German

town, several of the men, including Shia Labeoufs Christian character, go about lighting fires

and sleeping with the German women. When Lerman meets and becomes close to a young

German girl, the others argue over her and debate the right he has to her, much like she was not a

person, but an object they've won the rights to. It could be highly inferred that the majority of

these men, if not all of them, would not have behaved this way before the war. In fact, Labeouf's

character is constantly reciting bible verses and Michael Pena's character suggests at being
married. When thrown into these situations, however, people tend to dehumanize the enemy in

order to make it easier to fight and kill them.

There are a plethora of factors that go into making a story memorable and without a

doubt, landscape and setting are one of biggest contributors. In this particular movie, the

landscape and setting was the paramount driving force in shaping the characters we saw. It was

at times subtle, such as the weather choice; drab and rainy for most of the movie, while other

times blatant, such as the gruesome deaths of the other Sherman tank crews that we witnessed.

The setting was constantly making minor adjustments that shape the overall tone of the movie,

which I feel is why it had such a profound impact on the final product.
 Works Cited

1945. World War II History, worldwar2history.info/1945.html.

Hell On Wheels. History of the 2nd Armored Division | Hell On Wheels, 6 Feb. 2008,

www.militaryvetshop.com/History/2ndArmored.html.

Hickman, Kennedy. Learn How the Rise of Fascism and the Nazi Party Caused World War II.

ThoughtCo, 3 July 2017, www.thoughtco.com/world-war-ii-road-to-war-2361456.

Kovac, Criss. The Fury of Hell on Wheels: Tank Warfare, April 1945. National Archives and

Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 14 Oct. 2014,

unwritten-record.blogs.archives.gov/2014/10/14/the-fury-of-hell-on-wheels-tank-warfare-april-

1945/.

MURTHY, R. SRINIVASA, and Rashmi Lakshminarayana. Mental Health Consequences of War:

a Brief Review of Research Findings. World Psychiatry, Masson Italy, Feb. 2006,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1472271/.

Operation Torch: Allied Invasion of North Africa. HistoryNet, 9 Aug. 2016,

www.historynet.com/operation-torch-allied-invasion-of-north-africa.htm.

SPEER, ALBERT. World War II Aftermath in Germany: Economic Collapse (1944-48). World

War II -- Aftermath in Germany Economic Collapse,

histclo.com/essay/war/ww2/after/ger/eco/gae-col.html.