"You shall ride eternal: shiny and chrome." -Immortan Joe
WHOA!! Just whoa! It's been over a week and I am still geekin out. Mad Max Fury Road is a cinematic spectacle, and I loved it.
In turns, it is: terrifying, disgusting, shock inducing, unsettling, and beautiful. oh and while I hate to think that I am part of hyperbole creep....Mad Max Fury Road is awesome.
The only thing that I believe holds Mad Max: Fury Road back from true cinematic greatness is that, as of now, I don't connect Mad Max to any higher themes of human existence or treatises on current issues. Mad Max: Fury Road seems to be just the most well done bit of "RAWR!!" I have seen this decade, if not ever. Perhaps that is theme of human existence...?
On to the technical highlights.
1. The story boarding and shot selection for Mad Max reminded me of Ozu or Kurowsawa. Every shot is worthy of a still frame. George Miller, you have outdone yourself.
2. The first 5 minutes are possibly the most terrifying five minutes of the decade. I was amazed at how filming in fast motion and then slowing it down increased the terror.
3. Those stunts were ridiculous. Of course there was CG, but I appreciate how many of the stunts were real.
4.To go along with my praise for George Miller, I really appreciate it when a film knows how to conduct tension throughout a film. Fury Road is essentially just one big chase scene for two hours. That could get boring. *I'm thinking of you Duel.* Yet, through the use of ever more impressive narrative devices and stunts that beggar belief tension and attention are held. I thought it was over when there was a gasoline spitting contest on the front of two speeding semis, but no.
5. The icky factor: much of what made Fury Road suspend belief was its attention to the details and tactile nature of icky icky things, Immortan Joe's back for instance. Without that solid grounding in putrescence, other things like a blind guitar player shredding the horde on to war might seem silly. (It was not. It was just too cool.)
*Point for conversation* I saw this film in a rather shabby theater in a mall in Phnom Penh, and with a little research I believe there were some rather significant edits to the Cambodian version. 1. There is apparently a lactation sequence that was cut and 2. The damsel in distress in a cage was supposed to be naked. In the Khmer version she was wearing clothes. Were there other changes? Comment and let me know.
On a scale of the little drummer boy to the blind albino guitar fire guitar player of the horde, I give Mad Max: Fury Road 4.1 out of 5 stars.
also the cat name of Imperator Furryosa is pretty great.
Wait, a movie about women who have been kept as sex slaves to a society that worships violence liberate themselves with the help of another woman, then repeatedly save the purported hero of the movie, and this doesn't resonate with any current issues in a world steeped in sexism and rape culture? I think you missed something here, buddy.
ReplyDeletehmmmmmm....I like being challenged as to a theme that I was blind to. Your reading is valid. I would be curious as to if the writers, producers, and George Miller deliberately set out to make this Mad Max into the gendered violence thesis you suggest. I land on a solid maybe. It would have been amazing if that theme had shown through over the bewildering violence on screen. My critique fell into a similar trap and was overwhelmed with the violence and spectacle. Was that George Miller's point about society? Violence overwhelms, or did he just lose gender's impact and clarity in the film to violence as a matter of production? I will work to improve my gendered readings of films going forward.
ReplyDeleteWell the fact that they hired the playwright who wrote THE VAGINA MONOLOGUES as to consult about the effects of sex trafficking on the human psyche tells ya that yeah, it was probably on purpose. The violence is there because yes, it's a Mad Max movie so it had to be awesome, but there's a lot more going on under the surface that warrants a second viewing. http://wellntruly.tumblr.com/post/120468879068/a-war-rig-of-ones-own-a-very-long-post-on-fury
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