Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road

It was the year 1979. George Miller, a then unknown Australian emergency room doctor, was making his feature film debut with Mad Max, a dystopian action film he made with a producer he met at summer film school named Byron Kennedy. Mad Max was a smash hit and launched the career of Mel Gibson, who portrayed the titular character, as well as Miller, who would go on to make three more Mad Max movies and other famous films such as Babe and Happy Feet. 

(Mel Gibson as Mad Max) 

After the success of the first three Mad Max films, pre-production for the fourth began in 1997. However, it was a troubled project, plagued by numerous difficulties. Mel Gibson, who was set to reprise his role as Max, eventually dropped out. In June 2010, Tom Hardy was cast as his replacement. Principal photography began in July 2012 and wrapped six months later. The film finally premiered in May 2015 as Mad Max: Fury Road and has so far proven to be the biggest success in the franchise, garnering significant critical praise and raking in box office sales. 

Fury Road is not a perfect film, but it certainly comes close. The plot is seemingly simple: the world is now a desert wasteland after the nuclear holocaust, civilisation has broken down, and Max Rockatansky, although surviving, is no longer the man we know from his previous days. He is wild and feral, alone yet haunted by the ghosts of his past, constantly on the run. He is captured by the army of a tyrant known as Immortan Joe and put to use as a universal donor. When Imperator Furiosa, one of Joe’s lieutenants, leads Joe’s wives on an escape mission, Joe sets out with his army in pursuit. Max is forced to tag along and manages to detach himself from the army in the process. However, both Max and Furiosa quickly discover that they need to work together in order to survive the wasteland.

As an action film, Fury Road delivers. The pace is frenetic and fueled by octane, lasting the entire 2 hours of runtime. Right from the get-go it never slows. At the end of my first viewing I found myself having to unclench my muscles because I had been unconsciously tensing up throughout the film. The action sequences are spectacularly filmed and choreographed, with a visceral feel to them. I had the opportunity to watch it in the cinemas twice, then on DVD for the first time, on the 9th of September, 2015. It was decidedly less engaging on the senses when viewed on a television screen, yet no less amazing. The luxury of repeated viewings on DVD also makes for observations of things which may have previously gone unnoticed.

 
(The above scene was not CGI work but a choreographed stunt sequence, with Hardy swinging back and forth on a pole as Max)

The colours and cinematography are absolutely breathtakingly stunning. Instead of de-saturating the colours as other movies within the genre do, Miller chose to “…go really all-out on the colour” [1].

(The one in red is Coma the Doof Warrior, whose sole job is to provide a soundtrack for Joe and his Warboys. The guitar used was a real guitar that could also shoot flames, just as it appears in the film.)

The cinematography is a thing of beauty in this film. Shot by Oscar winner John Seale, it is notable for its use of crosshair framing, where the subject is placed in the centre of the frame, going against the Rule of Thirds. This is also helps the film eschew the male gaze, as the women are not framed as they usually are, with the focus on their bodies, but here the attention is drawn to their eyes and their motions.

This leads to a very important aspect and one of the underlying themes of Fury Road: women are important, women are not secondary to men, women are not mere sexual objects. Although Max is the titular character, it is really Furiosa's story. Furiosa is the one who has fought her way up through the ranks, hatched a plan to take revenge on the one who imprisoned her, and is a match for Max in every sense. Like Max, she is made of nothing but sinew and strength, shaped by a determination to survive against all the odds. They know what it is to be caged and what it is to break free. They are equal in their different strengths. When they fight, Max outweighs her physically but Furiosa is quicker and more brutal. There is also a scene where Max gives up his gun to Furiosa because he realises she is a better shot than he is.

Aside from Furiosa, there is plenty of variation in the other women of Fury Road. The Five Wives are clearly distinct in their own personalities; they are fierce, quiet, resilient, vulnerable and courageous, amongst many others. It is refreshing to see a group of women band together in support of each other without a man at the centre. There is also the Vuvalini clan, to which Furiosa once belonged, comprised of elderly female gun-toting motorcycle riders. Together, these characters represent a range of women hardly seen in the cinema.

Fury Road critics often make a point of Furiosa's role overshadowing that of Max's. In my opinion, Furiosa and Max do not outshine each other, rather they complement each other. It is still Furiosa's story, and Max a vagrant who partly by force and partly by choice becomes an ally. Yet it is clear that one cannot survive without the other. There is a mutual respect that grows into a strange, refreshingly romance-free relationship between two long-isolated individuals finding a kinship in the other. The most telling scene lies towards the end of the film; Furiosa is near death, having suffered injury and blood loss. The ever-willing universal blood donor, Max quickly sets up an IV line from his arm to hers, then cradles Furiosa in his arms and tells her, in a hesitant voice, that his name is Max. It is a stark contrast to the first time they ride in the War Rig together, when Furiosa christens Max "fool" after he refuses to tell her his name, instead asking if it really matters. At that point in time, Max is a shell of himself, so unused to communicating with anyone other than the dead, that he deems himself unworthy of a name. Yet as he holds Furiosa, his blood in her veins, something has changed within him. He is not whole, but he has reason to live beyond mere human instinct. He has seen hope, and what hope can do. Together with Furiosa, redemption is a flicker of light in their long-darkened skies, thus he finds the courage to call himself Max again.

References:

[1] http://collider.com/mad-max-fury-road-18-things-to-know/