- I've said it before and I'll say it again: Fritz Lang is the cinematic master of the mobs. With Metropolis, M, and Fury, Lang delivered three of the most memorable mob frenzies ever put on film. Normally I wouldn't speculate on how a director could become so in tune with the insanity of crowds, but in Lang's case I'm just going to suppose that living in Germany in the 1930's helped to inform his opinions. With Fury, Lang's first American film, the director and setting may have switched locations, but the themes and high-quality filmmaking are the same as ever.
- In this instance, the mindless masses are after a mild-mannered man named Joe Wilson (Spencer Tracy). Joe was on his way to visit his fiance Katherine (Sylvia Sidney) when an overeager cop (Walter Brennan) brought him in because Joe matched the description of a kidnapping suspect. The noble sheriff (Edward Ellis) wants to make sure that Joe gets treated fairly, but the local citizenry quickly whip themselves into a vengeance-seeking frenzy. Led largely by a known troublemaker named Kirby Dawson (Bruce Cabot), the townspeople are plenty ready to act as judge, jury, and especially executioner as they violently storm the police station. The sheriff and a few decent men try to drive them off with tear gas, but eventually the crowd burns down the station just to kill Joe.
- But it turns out that they didn't kill Joe in that fire. Although his beloved dog (who also played Toto!) was killed and Katherine was driven into a catatonic state, Joe somehow managed to survive. Remaining safely concealed, Joe enlists the help of his brothers (Frank Albertson and George Walcott) to make sure that at least a few necks get stretched for his alleged murder. Initially, it seems like nobody in town is brave enough to testify against the ringleaders, but the savvy DA (Walter Abel) has an ace up his sleeve that should trump any testimony. Now the only person who can spare the town from yet another tragedy is the very man the townspeople tried to kill.
- As he did with many of his other films, notably including M, Lang uses Fury to provide a surprisingly nuanced look at violence. Sure, the ecstatic expressions frozen on the faces of the townspeople serve as an obvious indictment of mob violence, but their tears in hearing their sentences delivered are real. Moreover, Joe's transformation from a man wrongfully accused to a twitching soldier of vengeance is as disturbing as any other depiction in the film. I suppose Lang's message is simply to think carefully before you act. It sounds like simple enough advice, but history provides plenty of counterexamples.
- The story is loosely based on the real lynching of suspects in the murder of a young man named Brooke Hart.
