Taking one look at the theatrical poster for Mad Max: Fury
Road, gives you all the suggestion you need that this won’t be what you expect.
The titular character is masked, facing off screen, his eyes
fixed on something entirely different, and partially eclipsed by a
shaven headed, badass woman in war paint. She’s close to us, her eyes fixed
just beside us, right here with the problem at hand. There is a lot of meaning in that arrangement, as you'll soon see.
The post-apocalyptic genre has seen an awful lot of come and
go over the decades, with sizzling hits and staggering failures throughout, all
because it’s a polarizing genre. Not everyone gets or enjoys it, and some just
can’t stand the bleakness of the concept. Sure, it’s bleak, morbid even, seeing
the future of a destroyed world and the barren folk who still live there. For
those with a taste for adventures taking place after the world as we know it,
you pretty much can’t beat Mad Max: Fury Road.
More so than any other film in recent years, Mad Max: Fury
Road lives up to its title. Usually the words after the colon in a film title seem
to be chosen entire at random, like they just chucked a bunch of words like ‘Redemption’
and ‘Revelations’ into a bingo machine and just had at it.
In Mad Max, you better believe there’s a road. And damn is
it fucking furious. Right from the ass-kicking opening, our titular
hero being captured by crazed white painted desert marauders, you can’t be
ready for the chaos that will ensue, as before you know it, you’re thrust along
on a 2 hour non-stop, high speed car chase through the wastelands of the world
that once was.
Max has been captured by the foot soldiers of Immortan Joe,
the god-like leader of his own personality cult filling an entire city.
Immortan Joe holds the thousands under him in rapturous worship, controlling
all the water and all the power in the known region. Organizing cargo runs that
control the supply of bullets and gas with sister cities across the wastelands,
Joe is master of all he surveys, most of all leading the white painted Warboys
who serve his wishes with an obsessed zealotism.
Setting his latest tanker full of supplies off on a run
across the wastes, Joe basks in the idolatry from his audience, unaware that
what he holds most dear is being smuggled out from under his nose by his most
trusted of soldiers, the one armed sharp shooter Furiosa.
When Furiosa turns off the planned course in her tanker,
taking the precious cargo contained within, the enraged Joe gathers a force
unlike the world has ever seen to reclaim his property. The poor-fortuned Max,
currently being used as a living blood bag to a sickened warboy, is dragged
along, and strapped to the helm of one of a thousand revving cars, trucks and
crazed automobile monstrosities that blast out to give chase after Furiosa. From
that point on, all you can do is hold on for the ride.
There are great characters at play through the action, and
they’re a huge part of what makes the film so enjoyable. Furiosa, the driving
(badum-tish) force behind the heroes, is as strong a character as you’ll see on
screen today. A brutal woman with a shattered past, a killer shot, and a
Mean-Machine style mechanical arm, it’s tough to take your eyes off her.
The villains of the piece are works of art in themselves.
Immortan Joe himself is the echo of a military general crossed with a spiritual
leader, bearing a booming voice and a horrific breathing apparatus rigged to
his face. He’s a great villain, not just for his silver tongue and commanding
screen presence, but because he leads the forces of the wastelands at every
turn personally, he’s a constant threat at the heels of the heroes, not a
distant enemy, and it makes him a far more enjoyable villain.
Another fascinating personality at play amidst the chase is
Nux, one of Immortan Joe’s warboys. Young, feisty, and desperate to please his
beloved Joe by any means, Nux drives a flaming classic car armed with
explosives and a death wish. Nux is a wonderful alternate viewpoint to see the
events of the film through. So different from the cold, determined logic of
Furiosa, Nux is impulsive, obsessive and blinded by worship. The travels of Nux
through the story is one of the films highlights.
Lost amidst the races and flames and fire blasting
guitar players suspended from trucks? Max himself is there too. It’s easy to
forget the unfortunate man strapped to the front of Nux’s car.
Max is an interesting spin on the classic action hero. He’s
not as good a driver as Nux, he’s not as skilled a shot as Furiosa. He has no
personal vendetta against Joe, he doesn’t know where he’s going, and he’s just along
for the ride. He barely grunts a few lines of dialogue through the entire film.
Thrust through the storyline set into motion by Furiosa, and contested between
her goal and her enemies, Max is a lost soul who we can watch the crazed
proceedings through, who never overshadows the rest of the cast. The titular
hero is not the most interesting character, so in a remarkably wise writing choice, isn't hamfisted into being main
focus.
The closest thing I can compare Mad Max: Fury Road to, is a great anime film. The old ones, the ultra-violent,
apocalyptic worlds populated by the most crazed, disfigured villains you’ve
ever seen. Watching Mad Max put me back in the place of unique excitement I
first found watching Violence Jack or
MD Geist as a kid, that crazy, wild
fun that you almost don’t believe you’re seeing for a moment. From start to
finish, it’s larger than life, it’s noisy and wild, and It. Does. Not. Stop.
