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Mad Max 4
Still haven't written that A2 review, and may never do so, but I saw Mad Max: Fury Road (henceforth, MM4) on Wednesday and there's a few thoughts floating around in my head. Lots of spoilers behind the cut tags.
Themes that didn't stand out
It struck me as a film that wouldn't be ruined by spoilers, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to see it in the theaters, so I was going ahead and reading all the spoilers from the start. Which is interesting, b/c there was a lot of analysis on Tumblr about the feminism of the film, the personhood of Max and his reclamation of the ability to speak, and the symbolism of liquids (water, mother's milk, blood). None of these themes were as big a deal to me when I watched as Tumblr made them out to be.
MM4 however does pass both the Mako Mori test ("at least one female character, who gets her own narrative arc, that is not about supporting a man’s story") and the Bechdel test ("at least two female characters, who talk to each other, about something other than a man"). For the Mako Mori test Furiosa has her narrative arc, and the wives kinda do (though only one or two are distinct from the others'). And for the Bechdel, Furiosa tells the wives to count the ammo, and Toast does so and reports back.
Themes that DID stand out
There were a couple themes that did stand out though that I had also seen mentioned, namely Furiosa's ability (as opposed to disability) and the low amount of dialogue.
Furiosa's missing/prosthetic arm is never mentioned aloud in a single line of dialogue, and it's not even a significant issue in the non-verbal communication that happens. She works around it, she fights Max and Nux perfectly well when it gets stuck on the rig in the desert, and nobody pulls any punches b/c she's missing an arm - it's clear that they're fighting for their lives against her, and the arm doesn't put her at any particular disadvantage at all. It does feature when she discovers the nature of the Green Place though: she's already been wounded by someone stabbing her stick shift knife into her side, and when she falls to the ground to scream, it becomes apparent that the knife also weakened her arm harness as it falls beside her. That's the only moment in the entire film when it seems like a possible liability, but really it's more just a sign of how broken she is, that this arm which never was a burden for her suddenly is.
I really like actors who do a good job of body language and expressions. For example, Chris Evans in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (aka Cap2) in the elevator scene telegraphs everything he's thinking as more and more people who turn out to be Hydra agents get on. And a lot of people really hate Keanu Reeves's horrible talking skills in films ("Dude!" "Sweet!"), but I love his body language. Seriously, watch any movie he's in, and watch how he moves. Bill and Ted, the Matrices, N-many Ronin, anything he's in, forget what he says, but watch what he does. He's amazing.
In MM4, so much is said through the body language, the faces, even just where their eyes are pointing and the resulting camera motions. Max holds a gun on Furiosa in one hand, his eyes flick up to the visor, his free hand goes up out of the field of view of the camera, the camera goes down to the bag on the floor and we see a gun drop into the bag. Repeat another six times. In the last scene, Furiosa and the remaining wives rise up on the platform, we see Furiosa look around, and then the camera points down in the crowd and we see Max looking up. Her brow tightens slightly. He nods at her, clearly a sign of respect and acknowledgement. She nods back. He steps back as the camera pans out, then breaks eye contact and melts into the crowd. It's just really subtle and obvious at the same time - subtle because so much happens with their expressions that is never put into words, but simultaneously the things they're saying non-verbally are easily understood by the audience.
A theme I hadn't seen discussed
Thinking about the film over the past couple days, as well as re-reading the summaries of the previous three films, I realized that Max has transitioned from being all of the protagonist, the focal character, and the viewpoint character, to being only the viewpoint character, or maybe not even that but just another piece of the scenery of the worldbuilding. MM1 was all about Max Rockatansky, even going so far as to fridge his wife and child (shown as his son in MM1, implied to be a daughter in MM4 unless that's some other random girl child). MM1 was also supposed to be the very near future, in that things looked just like the "now" of when that movie was made, only with slight bits of anarchy and fuel shortage added in. But this changes throughout the subsequent films, with fuel, bullets, and water running shorter, and with Max increasingly dealing with new people in the midst of their own post-apocalyptic stories, and new societies cropping up and dealing with the shortages, so that by the time MM4 rolls along, the story is actually about Furiosa escaping from the complex dictatorship and caste society of the Immortan Joe's War Boys.
Max is just a bystander in Furiosa's story, reminding me of so many old tales of a wandering traveler who just happens to show up as exciting things happen, akin to Gandalf in the Hobbit/LotR serieses. Yes Gandalf is special and has powers and knowledge that the protagonist hobbits (etc.) don't have, but it's not his story, he's just there to move things along.
And Max too has become ageless much like Gandalf. The War Boys clearly have many mutations and health problems (Joe himself having to wear the suit, face mask, and ventillator; Rictus requiring an oxygen tank; Nux's two tumors on his neck and requiring blood transfusions) which seem to be the result of either radiation or inbreeding, and to me seems like more than could happen in the same generation without having a whole generation grow up in this post-apocalyptic world. The War Boys' religion is also well-developed, though goodness knows cults can spring up quickly. Mel Gibson was 23 when MM1 came out. Tom Hardy is 37. Nicholas Hoult (Nux) is 25. If we assume that Nux is the first generation, born immediately after the collapse, and that he's something like 16, then (23+16=39) this isn't that unreasonable, but I really think that more than just 16 years has passed in-universe from MM1 to MM4.
But my point is, the story of MM4 isn't actually about Max, he's now just the witness, the thread weaving its way through all the stories. He has already passed into legend himself, something more than just another human struggling through this changed world.
Geography and 160 days
I really can't wrap my head around the geography of it all though. MM1 was set in Australia right? Let's say the whole continent was turned to desert. Why wouldn't all the survivors be by the oceans then? Building a distillery to purify ocean water is much easier than maintaining engines. I can build you a distillery right now from parts in a grocery store, maybe even from parts in my house. I can't build you an engine, and I probably never will be able to. (Though if I lived in that world, I'd probably figure it out.)
Also, that whole "let's ride our motorcycles for 160 days". Australia is approximately 2,500 miles (4,000km) across - East/West since that's the direction. If they're driving at 50 mph for 12 hours a day for 160 days, that would be 96,000 miles. I saw a thread on Reddit speculating that the Great Salt Flats is actually the Pacific Ocean dried up, which could explain why no one lives on the ocean. Circumference of the Earth is 24,900 miles, by the by.
But driving for 160 days with only the fuel and water they can carry on the bikes? Many motorcycles get the same gas milage as cars, which would be worse on slippery desert sand, or even unpaved salt flats, but let's assume 50 miles per gallon just to be generous. 50 mph in 12 hours is 600 miles in a day, or 12 gallons. 160 days of that is nearly 2,000 gallons. I don't see each motorcycle carrying 2,000 gallons. (And by the by, a small tanker truck carries more than 5,000 gallons.) And if each person drank 1 gallon a day, they had two people per motorcycle, each motorcycle would have to carry an additional 300 or so gallons of water. Now, we can cut that down if they're wearing Dune-style stillsuits which let them reclaim their body moisture (humans actually produce more water than they consume, it's just we're really inefficient and naturally sweat off or pee out all that extra), and it's possible the older women had stillsuits but Furiosa and the wives certainly didn't.
In my headcanon, since Max is much older than he looks, he's one of the few people alive who actually knows how big the world is, and part of why he tells them not to drive for 160 days is that he knows that they'd go around the world multiple times. I mean, even if he doesn't know the math, he knows the phrase "around the world in 80 days."
Final rating: Fun. Glad I got the chance to see it in the theaters. I hope they actually continue the series more, b/c honestly I think the worldbuilding's only getting better and I want to see what they do with Mad Max the myth the legend going forward.
See also my MM1 review.
2015 films
2014 films
2013 films
Originally posted on Dreamwidth.
comments there. Comment here or there.
Themes that didn't stand out
It struck me as a film that wouldn't be ruined by spoilers, and I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to see it in the theaters, so I was going ahead and reading all the spoilers from the start. Which is interesting, b/c there was a lot of analysis on Tumblr about the feminism of the film, the personhood of Max and his reclamation of the ability to speak, and the symbolism of liquids (water, mother's milk, blood). None of these themes were as big a deal to me when I watched as Tumblr made them out to be.
MM4 however does pass both the Mako Mori test ("at least one female character, who gets her own narrative arc, that is not about supporting a man’s story") and the Bechdel test ("at least two female characters, who talk to each other, about something other than a man"). For the Mako Mori test Furiosa has her narrative arc, and the wives kinda do (though only one or two are distinct from the others'). And for the Bechdel, Furiosa tells the wives to count the ammo, and Toast does so and reports back.
Themes that DID stand out
There were a couple themes that did stand out though that I had also seen mentioned, namely Furiosa's ability (as opposed to disability) and the low amount of dialogue.
Furiosa's missing/prosthetic arm is never mentioned aloud in a single line of dialogue, and it's not even a significant issue in the non-verbal communication that happens. She works around it, she fights Max and Nux perfectly well when it gets stuck on the rig in the desert, and nobody pulls any punches b/c she's missing an arm - it's clear that they're fighting for their lives against her, and the arm doesn't put her at any particular disadvantage at all. It does feature when she discovers the nature of the Green Place though: she's already been wounded by someone stabbing her stick shift knife into her side, and when she falls to the ground to scream, it becomes apparent that the knife also weakened her arm harness as it falls beside her. That's the only moment in the entire film when it seems like a possible liability, but really it's more just a sign of how broken she is, that this arm which never was a burden for her suddenly is.
I really like actors who do a good job of body language and expressions. For example, Chris Evans in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (aka Cap2) in the elevator scene telegraphs everything he's thinking as more and more people who turn out to be Hydra agents get on. And a lot of people really hate Keanu Reeves's horrible talking skills in films ("Dude!" "Sweet!"), but I love his body language. Seriously, watch any movie he's in, and watch how he moves. Bill and Ted, the Matrices, N-many Ronin, anything he's in, forget what he says, but watch what he does. He's amazing.
In MM4, so much is said through the body language, the faces, even just where their eyes are pointing and the resulting camera motions. Max holds a gun on Furiosa in one hand, his eyes flick up to the visor, his free hand goes up out of the field of view of the camera, the camera goes down to the bag on the floor and we see a gun drop into the bag. Repeat another six times. In the last scene, Furiosa and the remaining wives rise up on the platform, we see Furiosa look around, and then the camera points down in the crowd and we see Max looking up. Her brow tightens slightly. He nods at her, clearly a sign of respect and acknowledgement. She nods back. He steps back as the camera pans out, then breaks eye contact and melts into the crowd. It's just really subtle and obvious at the same time - subtle because so much happens with their expressions that is never put into words, but simultaneously the things they're saying non-verbally are easily understood by the audience.
A theme I hadn't seen discussed
Thinking about the film over the past couple days, as well as re-reading the summaries of the previous three films, I realized that Max has transitioned from being all of the protagonist, the focal character, and the viewpoint character, to being only the viewpoint character, or maybe not even that but just another piece of the scenery of the worldbuilding. MM1 was all about Max Rockatansky, even going so far as to fridge his wife and child (shown as his son in MM1, implied to be a daughter in MM4 unless that's some other random girl child). MM1 was also supposed to be the very near future, in that things looked just like the "now" of when that movie was made, only with slight bits of anarchy and fuel shortage added in. But this changes throughout the subsequent films, with fuel, bullets, and water running shorter, and with Max increasingly dealing with new people in the midst of their own post-apocalyptic stories, and new societies cropping up and dealing with the shortages, so that by the time MM4 rolls along, the story is actually about Furiosa escaping from the complex dictatorship and caste society of the Immortan Joe's War Boys.
Max is just a bystander in Furiosa's story, reminding me of so many old tales of a wandering traveler who just happens to show up as exciting things happen, akin to Gandalf in the Hobbit/LotR serieses. Yes Gandalf is special and has powers and knowledge that the protagonist hobbits (etc.) don't have, but it's not his story, he's just there to move things along.
And Max too has become ageless much like Gandalf. The War Boys clearly have many mutations and health problems (Joe himself having to wear the suit, face mask, and ventillator; Rictus requiring an oxygen tank; Nux's two tumors on his neck and requiring blood transfusions) which seem to be the result of either radiation or inbreeding, and to me seems like more than could happen in the same generation without having a whole generation grow up in this post-apocalyptic world. The War Boys' religion is also well-developed, though goodness knows cults can spring up quickly. Mel Gibson was 23 when MM1 came out. Tom Hardy is 37. Nicholas Hoult (Nux) is 25. If we assume that Nux is the first generation, born immediately after the collapse, and that he's something like 16, then (23+16=39) this isn't that unreasonable, but I really think that more than just 16 years has passed in-universe from MM1 to MM4.
But my point is, the story of MM4 isn't actually about Max, he's now just the witness, the thread weaving its way through all the stories. He has already passed into legend himself, something more than just another human struggling through this changed world.
Geography and 160 days
I really can't wrap my head around the geography of it all though. MM1 was set in Australia right? Let's say the whole continent was turned to desert. Why wouldn't all the survivors be by the oceans then? Building a distillery to purify ocean water is much easier than maintaining engines. I can build you a distillery right now from parts in a grocery store, maybe even from parts in my house. I can't build you an engine, and I probably never will be able to. (Though if I lived in that world, I'd probably figure it out.)
Also, that whole "let's ride our motorcycles for 160 days". Australia is approximately 2,500 miles (4,000km) across - East/West since that's the direction. If they're driving at 50 mph for 12 hours a day for 160 days, that would be 96,000 miles. I saw a thread on Reddit speculating that the Great Salt Flats is actually the Pacific Ocean dried up, which could explain why no one lives on the ocean. Circumference of the Earth is 24,900 miles, by the by.
But driving for 160 days with only the fuel and water they can carry on the bikes? Many motorcycles get the same gas milage as cars, which would be worse on slippery desert sand, or even unpaved salt flats, but let's assume 50 miles per gallon just to be generous. 50 mph in 12 hours is 600 miles in a day, or 12 gallons. 160 days of that is nearly 2,000 gallons. I don't see each motorcycle carrying 2,000 gallons. (And by the by, a small tanker truck carries more than 5,000 gallons.) And if each person drank 1 gallon a day, they had two people per motorcycle, each motorcycle would have to carry an additional 300 or so gallons of water. Now, we can cut that down if they're wearing Dune-style stillsuits which let them reclaim their body moisture (humans actually produce more water than they consume, it's just we're really inefficient and naturally sweat off or pee out all that extra), and it's possible the older women had stillsuits but Furiosa and the wives certainly didn't.
In my headcanon, since Max is much older than he looks, he's one of the few people alive who actually knows how big the world is, and part of why he tells them not to drive for 160 days is that he knows that they'd go around the world multiple times. I mean, even if he doesn't know the math, he knows the phrase "around the world in 80 days."
Final rating: Fun. Glad I got the chance to see it in the theaters. I hope they actually continue the series more, b/c honestly I think the worldbuilding's only getting better and I want to see what they do with Mad Max the myth the legend going forward.
See also my MM1 review.
2015 films
2014 films
2013 films
Originally posted on Dreamwidth.