I recently watched the film Fury. As a piece of writing I found it a worthwhile tale, it addressed several important aspects of the human condition in extremis--a war. It even peeked at that hoary old chestnut of our humanity: are morals absolute?
Anyway, as a story I really had no objections. I do have huge objections on other grounds however that would dramatically change the story as shown. Changes could have been made that would have maintained story integrity while not treating their audience like fools.
Why fools? Well, Fury grossed about 85 million, that's not a big hit but it is what I would expect from a lot of WW2 geeks wanting to see the world's last operational German Tiger tank in action on the big screen. No T34 dressed in cardboard will ever look the same again--57,000 kilograms does have a screen presence. Anyway, there are three specific instances where the realities of the technical details destroyed the film.
1. The combat between 3 Sherman tanks vs 1 Tiger. The Tiger at a range of 2 kilometres had an accuracy rate in combat of 75%, at 1 kilometre a hit rate of 95%. With a ROF of roughly 3-4 RPM, that leaves 3 dead Shermans before they get into their longest effective range--0 metres for a frontal shot.
2. The dramatic moment comes (spoiler alert) as Brad Pitt's Sherman tries to get behind the Tiger and shoot it in the arse; the only realistic way a Sherman could kill a Tiger. In the film they are virtually nose to nose with each trying to get behind the other for a kill shot. Interesting fact--the turn radius of a Tiger is 3.44 metres, the turn radius of a Sherman is 18.6 metres; guess who gets shot in the bum?
3. The crossroads and Brad and co. exterminating an infantry battalion in a heroic last stand. Fact, a tank alone against infantry is dead meat, a disabled tank alone against infantry is a cooked goose--no ending. In the film we have even seen a preview of what a panzerfaust will do to a Sherman--instant GI BBQ and yet, despite said infantry having a couple of boxes of them, they can't dispose of a crummy Easy-Eight. Grrrr!
So, how much do you hope you have the details right or is it a case of, "Shhh! If we don't make a fuss, no one will know. We hope." Or, do you respect your reader's intelligence a bit more than that?
Btw, the films technical advisers had full access to all this information, as did the producers and writers; after all, they borrowed all the working tanks, Shermans and Tiger, from the Bovington Tank Museum.
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