Mad Max: Fury Road

"The men - who are they?"

-The women in Mad Max: Fury Road-

 

"Max. My name is Max. That's my name."

-Max, reminding us in the end that this is actually his film-

He's not brilliant, prolific Ridley Scott. But he is Australian director George fucking Miller. You have to put the emphasis on fucking because that is the kind of jaw-dropping vehicular action on screen for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) on full display from the mind of George fucking Miller. Okay, enough profanity. But this is like an electric car lovers nightmare! Those Smart cars wouldn't have a prayer.

Seriously though, the creation of Mad Max and it's associative mythology is nothing short of a masterstroke of pure genius, a brilliant creation that seems to tap into man's fears of the future. The idea of Mad Max, a representation of man facing the unknown, a symbol of survival turned out to be a brilliant moment from the mind of Miller something akin to the creation of the light bulb or the microwave. In film, the idea of Mad Max, born of that beautiful Miller mind, has remained something of an iconic, magical moment that has endured and stood the test of time.



Following three unforgettable films, arguably one of cinema's best trilogies, Mad Max (1979), The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Mad Max, Mel Gibson's embodiment of that character and George Miller went to sleep for a time. *// At age 70 George Miller returns thirty years after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome to reawaken the hero firing on all cylinders mentally and physically with more springs in his step than a tricked out Mad Max vehicle.

How do men like George Miller and Ridley Scott do it? These geniuses have more piss and vinegar than a lazy teenager.

Who knew Mad Max would become the legend it is today? Who knew this franchise would be the powerhouse it remains? It's living proof that vision and passion matter.



Miller has had an interesting career. It certainly lacks the abundance of classic films that have been left in the wake of someone like Ridley Scott, yet Miller's Mad Max series remains as fertile, energized and vital as anything made by Scott. The series ranks up there with the likes of Alien. Miller has just made his mark with one visionary character and universe, but what a character he is and what a world it is.



Apart from Babe (1995) and Happy Feet (2006), two fine films, Miller notably directed the recreated segment, Nightmare At 20,000 Feet, for Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983). He directed The Witches Of Eastwick (1987). He was a producer on two excellent films, The Year My Voice Broke (1987; Noah Taylor's breakout) and Dead Calm (1989). But generally speaking, and while I adore the film Babe, can you believe the man behind Mad Max is the same man who directed two films about a pig and a penguin? Four if you include the sequels? I mean it's just bloody stunning and phenomenal really.



My hero worship for Miller will end here.

What about the film? What were my overall impressions? Mad Max: Fury Road, to use a clichéd expression, is not your daddy's Mad Max. It's really not. I was there. Nevertheless, it's still amazing and spectacular, high octane, rip-roaring apocalyptic road stuff of the tallest order, maybe even more than the originals in that way. But Mad Max: Fury Road felt a little different to me. And that can be a fine thing. It was clearly a new Mad Max for a new generation and one that fully embraces its female population in that group.



Word on the street, a minor blip, is that Men's activist groups have taken issue with the film. I found that fascinating not because of why but because I just had no idea there were men's activist groups out there. There are gay rights groups, women's movements, the ACLU, LGBT activists and the list goes on, but a man's group. Wow, where have I been? They have a group for everything don't they?



But yes Mad Max: Fury Road is Miller taking the series into a brand new direction with a strong female component and message that is indeed underscored through a band of certified hotties (no offense but they were) protected by Max and a red hot (performance) by Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Despite all the evidence (perhaps the film's title) Mad Max is the title character, Charlize Theron's character really sort of hijacks the film from Max a bit. It's very much her film. I don't want to say the Max factor is a non-factor, but at times I was yearning for a bit more manly Max. Furiosa is a terrific character, but it's not Mad Furiosa, but then it is Furiosa's Road, so maybe. It's very much a shared film.



Hardy is a great Mad Max. I enjoyed him in the role, but if I'm to be completely honest Mel Gibson will always be the best. Gibson was a stronger presence on the screen (I was secretly hoping to see him for a cameo). He was a star even before he became the star he would be. He had charisma to spare and Gibson owned the role creating the ultimate Mad Max. That honor is secured in my opinion. That's not to say Hardy's psychologically tortured Max wasn't solid in the part or that I wouldn't want to see him return. But Gibson is simply the best Mad Max on record for me. Ironically, it seemed he really went mad for the Martin Briggs role in Lethal Weapon more than the Max character. I guess that's the irony of Mad Max. But the character always seemed less about being mad than about potentially going mad as a result of the loss and suffering. It was about a man on the edge. As Max points out to Furiosa in the film in one of his shining moments, "If you can fix what's broken you'll go insane."



Max is a character graced with very little dialogue and Gibson's physical presence in the part was truly magic on the screen. Hardy comes close to it and certainly looks the part.

I saw this film with my daughter and to be honest I was quite envious of her. She loved the film and she had no baggage in her mind weighing this film in juxtaposition against three certified Gibson classics. That's a nice place to be for a film like Mad Max: Fury Road. There wasn't a constant compare and contrast for her to contend with emotionally or mentally. That's the hard part for us old timers. I mean it's tough when you've witnessed the best in Gibson in action. We make every effort to take in a work of art, absorb it and accept on its own terms, but it is difficult not to exclude information you already have. You're human. You can't erase it from memory. It impacts your perception and view of things.



For Miller's new Mad Max: Fury Road in the new world there is indeed a strong message here with regard to women and the future. For starters, the women are kept chaste by metallic teeth covering their female genitals. There's even a moment where Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (2011) model Rosie Huntington-Whiteley (ugh) is about to give birth as bullet shells rain down upon her pregnant belly. This is clearly the future. The image reinforces the theme of reproductive rights and the fact life-affirming women are forced to give birth into a violent, male-dominated world run roughshod by radicals and sycophants. This is a frightening reality today. The future is essentially now.



Female empowerment is underscored with moments of gun-toting, bomb throwing, head-butting females that kick ass across the outback. Just like Ripley, these girls can play the game and win and lead. It's not a new message. It's been around, but rarely has it been quite as pronounced as it is here in Mad Max: Fury Road. Films like Sucker Punch (2011) similarly offer the idea of women matching men toe to toe and overcoming their male overlords. Other films like A Handmaid's Tale (1990) and others films offer depictions of male dominance. Mad Max: Fury Road, like all of the Mad Max films, is less steeped in fantasy and offers a harsh potential future for man and womankind. It's a gritty and sobering depiction of what's at stake in a world ruled by chaos (and men). Such a depiction was inverted a bit for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome and Barter town ruled by female powerhouse Auntie Entity. But in the world of Mad Max where civilization has been destroyed there are no exact rules and Mad Max: Fury Road offers a glimpse of another outcome in another section of the barren wasteland.



So Max gets a bit of the short shrift in this film, but only slightly. The one and only Mad Max feels slightly second fiddle here. The feminine component to the film is indeed a powerful one. The idea of the human race subjugating its females is nearly as potent as the car chases themselves. It's also a message women will likely respond to especially in 2015.



On a more positive note of reflection in both Max and Furiosa's story, the two lead protagonists essentially merge the idea of men and women ultimately needing and desiring one another. We can't go it alone. The two sexes are not nor should they be mutually exclusive as some might believe. Together, a man and woman, the characters of Max and Furiosa find redemption, hope and life ultimately together. It's amazing when men and women form alliances what can be achieved and how quickly they are willing to do it (following a good smack down). But men and women are at their best working together. And together Max and Furiosa do have something to fix and redeem themselves. Just as Max warned, handling personal pain speaks directly to our mental stability.



The women too believe in a "tomorrow-morrow land" like the children of Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome in "the green place." But like many of these fictions these things are representations of hope and symbolize our own efforts to survive.

But beyond the subtext and messaging prevent Mad Max: Fury Road must be experienced on a big screen. This film is certainly an all-out, balls to the wall actioner with two significant road sequences. It lacks some of the quieter moments of the earlier Max films instead deferring to much sound and fury for two hours.



But the insanity is vibrantly choreographed and staged with oranges, reds and blues. The use of color is positively popping to the eye. Each and every scene is chock full of information and filled with human oddities, weirdoes and live action mecha colliding in a swirl of truly gorgeous destruction emphasized by that edge of Aussie weird.

Even if I hadn't seen Mad Max: Fury Road, the trailer essentially works as a slam dunk tease for the kind of experience you will enjoy on the big screen. Even if Miller never made another Mad Max film, his trilogy and everything he imagines culminates and explodes on screen in this magnificently thrilling reboot which puts every single idea and visual on screen in two glorious, pulse-pounding hours.



Will it have the kind of repeat power that the previous films had for me? We'll see. The silent, dark subtext felt deeper to me in those earlier films. I'm not sure I felt the same way here in that regard but it absolutely leaves an impression.

Hardy noted his dialogue could fit on one page. Miller stays true to character in this way. Max is a physical specimen. He has charisma and presence and guides us through the sheer power of physical performance. Gibson was a gem in this manner, but Hardy is an equally strong casting choice. Tina Turner once sang We Don't Need Another Hero, but whether it's in the post-apocalypse or today, we need heroes like Max more than ever.



If you visit this site you know I don't normally swear for emphasis, but Mad Max: Fury Road deserves all the emphasis it gets and so does George Miller for this high quality effort. The film and director deliver car after exploding car, truck after exploding truck, vehicle combinations and attacks you never dreamed of and that massive War Rig in a carnival of road mayhem that is brought to life by a bulk of practical visual effects! That aspect and promise of Mad Max: Fury Road is very fucking awesome!

You'd think Miller might have missed a beat in thirty years, but with the return of Mad Max: Fury Road it's clear Miller is right at home on that road firing those cylinders. Not only hasn't he lost his touch, but he brings with the ferocious fourth entry new ideas and yet another new direction. It's as if knowing Miller had the weight of years at his back from studio to fan support he was able to realize a vision he always wanted with no obstructions and no limitations. Letting loose with the pedal to the metal, may long live the Mad Max franchise.

I was there in a theatre relatively well-attended by a mix of men and women - some women entirely on their own. I surprised my daughter. I got her in that seat and she was not aware of the film she was going to see. She was attempting to determine our selection by the attendees in the house. Alas, the high volume of female attendants had kept her from determining she was about to see her very first Mad Max film.

These are our two tickets and you'll notice some red pen mark as I furiously wrote down thoughts and ideas on a little Rite Aid note pad in the darkened theatre. I managed to write on myself also. I think I may have even stabbed myself with the Pilot pen. My daughter was very amused and decided taking pictures of me doing my pre-blogging ritual was great material for her and her friends. She really has no appreciation for just how cool I am.

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

"I was a cop, a driver."

-Mad Max as one of the good guys-

In honor of George Miller's heralded return to cinema with his glorious Mad Max franchise we look back at perhaps the most derided (if that's possible) of his Mad Max films, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985). Even after the release of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome will likely hold that inestimable honor of being the most disregarded of his venerable post-apocalyptic landscape films charged by one unlikely anti-hero, the one and only Mad Max.



It would have been easy to pick Mad Max (1979) to offer a rousing retrospective albeit no less complex or thought-provoking. Its pensive, spare look at society breaking down through the eyes of one of the two last bastions of good - the nuclear family, would have been fun. How fitting in Mad Max to witness civilization's last institution of representative civility - law enforcement - fall prey to the savagery of a new world. Law enforcement is under assault in America in a manner unprecedented in civilization today. How perfect was Mad Max?

Of course, then there was the vicious new order of chaos in The Road Warrior (1981), another variation of Miller's themes that manages to outclass even Mad Max for sheer classic status by expanding on the Max mythology.



Thus, I've opted to address the much maligned third installment of the George Miller trilogy, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. It remains a greater challenge to articulate and defend.

Where did it go wrong for some following two of science fiction's greatest films? Perhaps it was the chemistry between director George Miller and late producer Byron Kennedy that completely focused and tapped into the world weary vision of Mad Max for those first two visions of the world. There was indeed a synergy to that relationship that presented an epic, gritty visualization for those first two beloved gems that arguably sets them apart from the Hollywood sheen of the third in the trilogy. There was something very real and edgy about those films.

Tragically, Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash in New South Wales in 1983. Only the spirit of Kennedy would oversee the proceedings of the final film. Clearly the loss of Kennedy had an impact.

Following Kennedy’s death, and four years after The Road Warrior, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome arrived to thunderous excitement.



Despite its success, in retrospect, unquestionably, the film has been treated with the least respect of the trilogy. Was it too talky? Was it the lengthy segment with the “Tomorrow-morrow land” children that smacked of cutesy Ewoks and the three-quel syndrome that plagued Return Of The Jedi (1983)? Was it the loss of George Miller's creative partner Kennedy resulting in a new partnership with George Ogilvie that altered the focus from the previous two? One could legitimately imagine a third Kennedy-Miller Production would have been different.

Nevertheless. despite the faction of naysayers and all of the complaints associated with Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, for me, the film remains a minor classic, an important chapter in the story and, quite frankly, a tent bearer to one of film history’s best third-in-a-series of installments. A recent viewing cemented that opinion for me. It had all the trappings, details and feelings of a big finish to a series that started small and more intimate. Still, Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome retains its share of important moments of intimacy on the grander canvas of an already grand and sweeping epic tale particularly with our wayward hero.



Upon its arrival in theatres Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome felt like one of those major Star Wars events, a Richard Donner-sized Superman, the latest Rocky moment and maybe that was part of its problem. Unlike the two previous unheralded films, this one felt a little more polished, a little more Hollywood and propped up in expectations. The whole thing felt a little less the-land-down-under in terms of the spirit of its filmmaking and perhaps for the big sell. Yet its post-apocalyptic vibe, was still fully ensconced with the original's appeal. It was indeed still filmed in Australia like the others, but the budget was nearly three times greater than the previous entry in an effort toward building the perfect beast of a film. The sweep and magnitude of which was highlighted and underscored by the inclusion of actress Tina Turner and her two bold, magnificent music selections We Don’t Need Another Hero and One Of The Living sandwiching the compositions of Maurice Jarre.



But what may have been perceived as the film's problems. for me, the final film in the trilogy felt very much like the product of a natural evolution that built upon the previous two pictures toward a satisfying conclusion. Certainly there are moments and scenes that reminisce of The Road Warrior, but on a grander scale, particularly in its third act a la the train sequence. (How 70 year old George Miller corralled the energy for another go of it for Mad Max: Fury Road seems nothing short of a miracle.) In Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, the weathered and weary Max Rockatansky looks a little older, a little wiser from his efforts to survive the uncivilized landscape of the first films since losing his family - an obvious source of joy years earlier. This is indeed a man in survival mode searching but not knowingly so. Where was Max going?

Surprisingly effective is the film’s ability to convey a world reorganizing, making efforts to reestablish civilization out of chaos.



The film too has some truly barbaric and stunning moments like the Thunder Dome itself. It symbolically paints a portrait of an upside down, apocalyptic Rome complete with a hunger for the gladiatorial games of the day proving history repeats itself. The battle itself between Max and Master Blaster overflows with the kind of original suspense and excitement not yet encountered in the series in this way.

I recall being completely sympathetic and almost troubled at the unveiling of Blaster’s helmet. The disturbing revelation was of a man-child living with Down Syndrome clearly beloved by his dwarf Master. It was a truly moving moment in the film for me and filled me with genuine emotion and sympathy for this enemy of Bartertown. Can you imagine pulling off a sequence like that today? I’m not sure it would happen. Would it be considered politically incorrect? What isn't? In the hands of George Miller he pulls off such a sensitive moment with genuine virtue that a lesser film maker might completely mishandle.



Like the previous films, the third entry is populated by intriguing characters and Aunty Entity, played by Tina Turner, is no exception. The casting of Turner had to be a risk, but she pulls off the heavy with credibility and relish as her firm hand seemingly holds together the fragile construction of Bartertown. So many musicians fail to make such an impression when expected to deliver such a meaty role. Master Blaster, too, is the kind of physical embodiment of the film’s two visual dichotomies that would culminate in a third act. The character is part diminutive dwarf and circus strong man – Blaster being Master’s protector from Entity. And of course, there’s the cache (once upon a time) of Mel Gibson, a giant among men when it comes to the art and craft of performance. He is the rock. He is the talented core that threads the trilogy’s success. Sadly, a kind word is rarely spoken of the man's talent today.



The third film, too, says something of Miller’s imagination that he mines a kind of fertile science fiction reality with such epic flair. Miller’s visuals are both glorious in their beauty and stunning in their decay and they are often in juxtaposition. This third film benefits from three distinct, stimulating acts and the end result genuinely feels a little different when contrasted to the visually linear look of those first films.

Still, there are many striking images at play in the third and final outing too. Max’s horse ride out of Bartertown, following a round of “bust a deal, face the wheel” (the film loves catchphrases and is filled with some real classics), resulting from a Gulag sentencing comes to mind.



So many trilogies stumble. The original Star Wars trilogy is arguably one of the best ever made. The first three Alien films are also very close. Others have stumbled in their third attempt. Some feel this to be a true of many of the aforementioned franchises on their third attempt. Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome too.

If Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome stumbles at all it is generally with the perceived allegorical use of the children within the tonal shift of the movie, not only within this film, but within the franchise. The second act of the film becomes a sort of less weird cinematic version of Miri (Star Trek: The Original Series) as the kids represent innocence and hope entirely absent from the second film. In The Road Warrior, the Feral Kid was an uncompromising symbol of survival. He was a representation of innocence lost as much as the world had become paradise lost, as much as Max had become lost following the death of his family.



The inclusion of these rather sweet children presents a shift in mood and in spirit within the franchise. This is the film’s greatest issue for some.

John Kenneth Muir ponders this shift eloquently in his own look at the film noting that tone shift symbolized by or embodied in the “crockery-wielding tykes.” Rather than cuddly-looking, stick-waving bears we get a clan of desert-based Lord Of The Flies survivors but with a “terminal” case of the “cutesies.” This is indeed one of the perceived problems of the third movie. The segment does establish a more reflective tone and becomes decidedly less menacing. Despite lacking the uncompromising grip of its predecessors, it’s relatively easy to embrace this segment. This is indeed a different film and Max is a different man. Max is changing. The potential for new life exists. Not only does the film present an entirely new chapter in this incredible story, but at this point it’s one we’re willing and ready to invest in ourselves - at least for many of us. It presents hope and the nobility of man and our reluctant hero leading us and the children into that future. Seeing the film as a family man sheds a different light on the film’s virtues.



In retrospect, it's oversimplifying to simply dumb down the third film as a riff on Return Of The Jedi. There's much more going on here psychologically than the fantastic escapades of bear-clothed little people and biker scouts. It's just right of center enough to be morally complex and differentiate itself from the land of the teddy bear.

In one scene, Max punches one of the females to keep her from walking to Bartertown. This is the school of hard knocks for children coming-of-age. Sure, there's a captivating Peter Pan-like magic to the children's stunted learning in the post-apocalypse where record players are new again. Again, we're reminded of "bonk, bonk on the head" (Star Trek: The Original Series) without all of the creepy, but an overly fuzzy distraction of Ewoks this is not. These kids are hopeful and looking for guidance. Max inadvertently finds his hope in the process through them. This is following his earlier repulsion in Thunder Dome where one could possibly do battle with a man child normally relegated to the protected class of a civilized society.



Roger Ebert went so far as to call the third film, “more visionary and more entertaining then the first two.” Roger was good. That is entirely fair to say and, as discussed, the film has plenty on offer to make that argument.

The three acts may feel slightly jarring when juxtaposed against one another. The final act is the moment the film bridges segment or fuses the first two parts together. It clashes the violence of those from Bartertown with the future hopes of the kids of Captain Walker. It's the ugly, nasty reality of civilization building meets the hope of children born into a world with wide-eyed optimism and curiosity untainted by the vile politics of Bartertown. The fusion is striking, but also a bold work of cinematic vision. The kids are the future and Bartertown represents the cancerous ways of dictatorship. These Peter Pans of never, never land or “morrow, morrow land” bring forth the vitality of their thriving, green water hole, a symbol of rebirth and new life, to the rest of a seemingly decayed or dead planet.



What people have missed with the children in the third film is they ARE innocent. They haven't been exposed to phonograph players, clocks or airplanes. They are indeed new to the world. There is a major disconnect there for them. Fans of the first two movies were not necessarily open to the positive symbol these kids represented within the trilogy yearning perhaps for more of the first two movies. Today, the film resonates more powerfully than ever.

Additionally the end of Bartertown suggests Max is prepared to accept something better. Its dissolution is a symbol of Max letting go of the devolved, violent and cancerous civilization he rejected internally, but settled for as a matter of course. After all, he was a law enforcement officer. Instead Max comes full circle seeing ultimately seeing his own family in the eyes of those children. He is hardened that's true but not entirely closed.



Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome is artistically far better than some of the critics gave it credit. Most films wish they could be this complete, this imaginative, and this fully-realized in presenting their world-building and themes. Maybe expectations, following two great films, were just a little too high. Maybe people imagined how they would write the story visually and it simply did not connect with that vision. I don’t know what people were expecting, because the third and final picture in the series is exceptional and unexpected. Quite frankly, it rounds out one of the finest character sagas and depictions of apocalypse ever committed to film.



Gone is the Sex Pistol-ish punk spirit of the leather clad Mad Max and the fiery cool of that Ford Falcon Interceptor. Hmmm, maybe it was the car. Yet, this film surely has its unrelenting moments. Like the character, the film is a pensive, contemplative, weary nomadic warrior attempting to make sense of a mad world while finding hope and beauty in the most barren of places. This film has its heart and humanity in the right place. Like the graying in Max’s hair, this is an aging, wiser, softer warrior slowing down (by contrast), “the raggedy man,” even in a savage land and that makes sense. This indeed remains a distinguished, underrated classic and an ultimately satisfying conclusion to Miller's story.



Yes, tone is a big issue in shifting the film. While Miller may pay homage to himself for the railway chase, landing in the familiar tanker chase territory of The Road Warrior, the train works as a symbol of innovation into the frontier. Those who have worked the railroads have often said that our land was built on steam. It speaks volumes about the future for Max and these children. Perhaps a kind of family has come full circle for Max, the post-modern, post-apocalyptic family.



In the end, Max earns Entity's respect when she spares the life of the "raggedy man" and the "soldier.” In that single moment, Entity comprehends and understand the future requires men like Max. We are rewarded in his survival and in knowing as Turner sang that he is one of the living, a survivor. If there’s any hope for the future Max and the children are part of civilized humanity's survival. Those final moments underscore that human compassion may have hardened, but it still exists.



In film, this is my kind of superhero.

Wait, thinking about it, maybe it was the dog. That darn dog was really cool.

This post has been modified and updated since its original appearance as part of The Film Connoisseur's 15 Of The Apocalypse post here. Unfortunately, the images provided for this post were snapped from the DVD prior to the release of the Blu-Ray. Sorry folks I just don't have the time to retake them. But boy do I love the framing and look of the dirty Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.