A dozen days and some 250 features on from opening night film The Imitation Game, the 58th BFI London Film Festival reaches its climax with David Ayer’s ferociously brutal World War Two drama Fury. Set in April 1945, as the Allies make their final push into Germany in the closing stages of the war, the film stars Brad Pitt as the battle-hardened Wardaddy, an army sergeant commanding a Sherman tank and its five-man crew (Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña, John Bernthal and callow new recruit Logan Lerman) on a deadly mission behind enemy lines. Unflinching in his depiction of the horror and pity of war, writer-director Ayer, whose gritty police thriller End of Watch showed in the LFF 2012 Official Competition, balances the savage action with moving human drama.
The Odeon Leicester Square hosts tonight’s Closing Night Gala at 7pm, with a live satellite link to Vue cinemas across the UK and Ireland.
Fury goes on general release from Wednesday 22nd October.