Many of you packed theaters across the country this weekend to see Brad Pitt lead a small platoon of soldiers across Nazi Germany in David Ayer’s tank drama, Fury. The gritty combat thriller earned enough to hold of David Fincher’s Gone Girl and claim the top spot at the box office. But how many of you watching Fury over the weekend noticed a relationship unfolding on screen that many thought was far more romantic than the one happening next door in the Nicholas Sparks adaptation, The Best of Me?
David Ayer has been describing Fury as the "study of a family" (according to HuffPo), only one that happens to live in a World War II tank. Yet, some coming out of Fury noticed a different dynamic between Brad Pitt and the introverted, God-fearing soldier played by Shia LaBeouf in the film. Is it possible these two men had a romantic relationship?
Thankfully, ScreenCrush put the question directly to David Ayer, commenting that a scene between Bible (LaBeouf) and War Daddy (Pitt) could be interpreted as "a very loving, nurturing scene." Ayer explains:
It’s interesting. It’s funny, again, I think it’s the disconnect between the civilian world and the military world. … You see that in the service. You see that on line units, you see that in the world of combat arms. You see that in a world where guys who laid down their lives for each other and that’s that thing: closer than brothers. The brotherhood and all that stuff. People don’t fucking get it unless they’ve lived it. So, for guys in the service, it’s like, ‘I know what that is.’"
Implied homosexuality can be common in action movies populated by rugged males. The buddy-cop genre often leans on conventions of romantic dramas, for a reason. But Ayer goes so far as to say that the relationships in Fury are "totally asexual" in that ScreenCrush interview, and emphasizes, "It really is that closeness, and the bonds of combat."
How did we get to this point? Naturally, the conversation began on Twitter. Freelance critic Matt Patches suggested that certain scenes between the men in Pitt's commend implied that they were romantically involved." Reaction to the theory was… mixed. Some thought it was a stretch. Others read different takes on the camaraderie of combat:
The beauty of Fury is that it CAN be read from different avenues. Get in on the conversation. Fury continues to march through theaters as we speak.
