Cinemazlowski 'Fury' and 'St. Vincent' offer surprisingly Christian themes

Oct 24, 2014

What makes a man truly good – as in noble, brave and heroic? Is it the ability to fight evil in a war, or the willingness to help others even when there’s great emotional or monetary sacrifice involved? And can a man attain greatness even when he is deeply flawed in some significant ways?

Those questions are explored in two new and very different movies, “Fury” and “St. Vincent,” that offer audiences the riches of unpredictable and fresh writing, bold performances and superb direction. The fact that “Fury” is a harrowing and hell-raising WWII film led by Brad Pitt and “St. Vincent” is a quirky dramedy starring Bill Murray reflects the fact that this fall has been offering an impressive slate of films to make up for a summer of shallowness.

Surprisingly, they are also films with very strong Christian themes and characters who are front and center to the story. “Fury” is filled with profanity, like most modern-era war movies, but at least three of the five main characters are Christian and both prayers and heartfelt descriptions of Scripture and God’s call are front and center to its most heroic moments. Any grown adult has heard “bad words” before, and these are grunted and yelled in the context of battling Nazis, so tune those out and you’ll be astonished to find a truly powerful Christian witness.

“St. Vincent” has less profanity, being a PG-13 film, but it does feature a central character who smokes, drinks and gambles way too much. He also hires a hooker weekly and the movie opens with a brief and tawdry (yet clothed in underwear) sex scene between that tries to play for laughs, but get past that minute or so and you’ll be rewarded with a beautiful and touching story of redemption that calls us all to strive to be saints no matter how many faults we are fighting.

“Fury” follows the story of Don “Wardaddy” Collier (Pitt) and his four-man tank team (including a solid Shia LeBeouf and an Oscar-worthy Logan Lerman) as they attempt to mow down Nazis in the heart of Germany.  Tough but scrupulously fair, Collier has a sterling record of always bringing his team back alive.

But when his main gunner is killed, his replacement is a clerk typist named Norman (Lerman) who has never been trained in combat and is petrified by the idea of killing someone, even a Nazi. In his one morally questionable move, Collier forces Norman to shoot dead a Nazi soldier who is trying to surrender, and that life lesson in knowing how to kill or be killed leads to all manner of life lessons through the rest of the film, including a final showdown between these fantastic five and a regimen of 300 SS officers.

“Fury” is written and directed by David Ayer, who has written the grittiest cop movies of this century in “Training Day” and the absolutely superb “End of Watch.” Here, he turns his eye away from the hellish streets of some corners of Los Angeles and towards the battlefield, offering an even more ambitious look at what defines manhood.

The choice to use the term “manhood” is intentional here, as these are both movies centering squarely on men – some in life and death situations from decades past, some in more low-key daily crises in the present day. But both these movies offer a refreshing alternative to the often-neutered modern males portrayed on screen these days, while finding a safe median on the spectrum between Rambo and Ross from “Friends.”

“Fury” is packed with action, and while tis final half-hour is thoroughly rousing, it takes the time to show the devastating impact combat – especially the close, hand-to-hand kind still prevalent during the 1940s – could have on the mind, soul and spirit of our troops. It also has a centerpiece section away from the battlefield that is a masterstroke – offering a respite of humanity to both our heroes and the audience itself while showing the men as they each deal with a dinner with innocent German women in vastly varying ways.

Meanwhile, “St. Vincent” offers Bill Murray a tailor-made, career-capping, thoroughly Oscar-worthy role as a cantankerous and highly conflicted man named Vincent, who reveals his nicer side slowly and surprisingly as he takes the young boy who’s his new next-door neighbor under his wing. As a gambling addict, alcoholic and chronic smoker who sleeps with a pregnant hooker (Naomi Watts) on the regular, Vincent should be nobody’s idea of a role model for an impressionable boy.

But when a struggling single mom named Maggie (Melissa McCarthy, toning down her obnoxious shtick to deliver a well-rounded performance) moves in next door with her young son Oliver (newcomer Jaeden Lieberher in a sterling debut), he winds up being the kid’s babysitter. Being hopelessly in debt and generally averse to children, he charges $11 an hour to do the job, but just as Brad Pitt’s sergeant teaches his newbie a string of life lessons in “Fury,” Vincent winds up teaching Oliver an entirely different set of life skills while showing that even the biggest sinners can also be saints in some ways. As an all-too-rare bonus, the movie also positively portrays Catholic priests in extremely favorable fashion throughout.

“St. Vincent” has the improbable distinction of being the debut feature film of writer-director Theodore Melfi, a total unknown who not only accomplished the magic feat of landing Murray but drawing a classic performance out of him as well. The whole movie has a glow of goodness from start to finish even as it also provides a fun portrait of a man who is a nearly unchangeable reprobate.

As the movie reveals ever more about what Vincent does with his life and the circumstances that have driven him there, it draws a mix of both laughter and tears that is an al-too-rare combination in movies. And both these movies form a rare combination that, viewed separately or together, have something for everyone.