MAD MAX FURY ROAD

Australia, 2015, 120 minutes, Colour.
Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keayes- Byrne, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington- Whiteley, John Howard.
Directed by George Miller.

In 1979, the original Mad Max was a small-budget Australian feature, a road movie, a vengeance and violence movie, a chase movie, featuring the up-and coming star, Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky. The film was also a breakthrough for the director, Dr George Miller.

Nobody could have predicted how successful the sequel would be, Mad Max 2, released in the United States as The Road Warrior. It was a great hit, again a road movie, violence and vengeance, but this time with a post-apocalyptic world and the need for a saviour, especially to drive away from the hostile humans and mutants with their strange and exotic and features, clothes and vehicles. Max had become a saviour, especially with the children who survive to populate a new and hopeful world.

George Miller then made a third film in the series, in 1985, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The budget was bigger, Mel Gibson had become an international star in the meantime, and singer Tina Turner came to Australia to take a role, ruling over a kind of latter-day Roman Empire town with its own arena and gladiatorial combat. Max was again the saviour who had to suffer. Tina Turner sings ‘We don’t need another hero…’. But it was very clear that the world certainly did need a hero, a Mad Max figure.

The film was immediately imitated, iincluding a number of films from Italy, kind of spaghetti Mad Max variations. But, there was no Mad Max 4. Until now…

After 30 years and the older films becoming cult classics and part of myth-making, the world is ready for another film – and Fury Road has been greeted by very favourable critical response as well as big box-office.

It is not as if we have never seen anything like it, but this is a return, bigger, louder, even better.

George Miller has put all his experience over the last 30 years, including Hollywood films like The Witches of Eastwick and Lorenzo’s Oil as well as his involvement in the Babe films and Happy Feet. Unfortunately, rain in outback Australia meant that local deserts were unsuitable for filming and so, in 2013, principal photography took place in Namibia, providing impressive deserts, mountains, canyons. They serve well as post-apocalyptic locations. Very impressive is the location of The Citadel, a plain where oppressed inhabitants are in need of water, facing a steep mountain with greenery atop, holding back water which is released as if from a huge dam – but mercilessly limited. Later, there is an extraordinary tornado like an enormous wave in a tsunami.

In the first part of the film Max appears as something of a victim, taken by the powers that be who rule in The Citadel, chained in a cell, brought out and inverted and link to a young warrior as a blood transfusion supply. We are wondering how this victim Max will become our hero on Fury Road.

The other main character in this film is Imperator Furiosa who is commissioned to drive a huge tank in a convoy to transport petrol to a distant community. Furiosa is a fierce woman, initially laconic, with a metallic arm fixture. The young man receiving the blood transfusion, Nux, is desperate to go in pursuit, vying with his friend, driving a souped-up vehicle – but still wanting his blood supply and having Max tied to the front of the vehicle, like an emblem on the prow of a ship, still blood-linked and masked.

Where to go from here? Furiosa has some ideas, veers off the expected path, is pursued by strange porcupine-spiked vehicles from Gastown which fire but explode spectacularly when hit. The almost cult-like leader at The Citadel takes a vehicle-posse in pursuit of Furiosa so that we have vehicles, many of them with quite a bizarre look, in deadly pursuit of the convoy.

Eventually Max frees himself, gets rid of Nux who returns to the leader, becoming something of a celebrity. It takes some time for Furiosa to accept Max. When Nux returns, he becomes infatuated with one of the young women, the cult leader’s wives, whom Furiosa is attempting to take to a Green Place and safety.

There are plenty more activities and adventures, especially with a commune of older women who have survived and are prepared to support Furiosa and to fight back. There are revelations about the Green Place, chases and deaths, Furioso injured, Max able to revive with blood, and a strong decision is made as to a strategy of how to fulfil hopes and find the Green Place.

George Miller has made the film at something of a furious, Furiosa pace, always relying on his technique for chases, not tracking shots as we follow vehicles but making all the action tell in the editing, quick moves from scene to scene, always suggesting movement, a kind of kinetic impact for the audience. The vehicles are as imaginative as in the earlier films with fresh variations. The humans often have the qualities of mutants which makes them intriguingly repugnant, especially the leader played by Hugh Keays-Byrne?.

One of the main questions for any sequel was: who could replace Mel Gibson? The answer is the excellent British actor, Tom Hardy (in films and television since the early 2000s but making an impact with the prison film, Bronson, then with such Hollywood films as Inception, Lawless, and the villain in The Dark Knight Rises as well as his tour-de-force, the sole character in the car drama, Locke. He is more than matched by Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Nicholas Hoult is the young driver.

The older mad Max films will now have a new lease of life. And fans will not be disappointed with Fury Road. With the worldwide distribution of films like this, the response to Max will be universal.

1. Mad Max as an icon, in the 1970s, 1980s? 30 years later? World impact?

2. The career of George Miller, inventive, his stories, the hero-warrior, post-apocalyptic landscapes, civilisation, the human condition? Vengeance? Saviour? Victim? Conqueror? Invulnerable to vulnerable?

3. The role as created by Mel Gibson? Tom Hardy and the continuity?

4. George Miller and visuals, action, motion, speed, chases, fights, the brutal world, saving and conquering? Editing and pace?

5. Namibian locations, the desert, mountains, the canyon? The Citadel, the green place? Sandstorms? Fire?

6. The range of the musical score, the moods?

7. The cast, international?

8. Max, the wanderer, survivor, a world of cars, the monstrous visuals of many of the vehicles, the need for petrol? His being alone, taken, his cell, being used as a blood transfer source? Chained? On the prow of the vehicle? His mask? Suffering?

9. The Citadel, Gastown? Human survivors, the populous, the slaves on the treadmill, the albino children? The hard life, Immortan Joe Joe as the Lord? His assistants? The control of the water, letting it out, turning it off? The people in fights for the water? The atmosphere of occult? The promises to the young men of reward in Valhalla?

10. Furiosa, as a warrior, the injury to her from, her appearance? Driving, strong, taciturn? The impact of the journey, her secret plan? The mission of transporting the gas, in a fleet?

11. Veering off from the track, saving the girls, Immortan Joe Joe’s wives, keeping up hope, saying that she wanted redemption?

12. Immortan Joe, his being decked out, breathing, mask? The field glasses? The decision for the pursuit?, Nux, his car, his companion, their fight? Driving? The weapons, the flares, destruction? Nux and his putting Max on the prow of his car? Yet still with the blood transfusion link?

13. The distant view of Gastown, the pursuit, the vehicles, the spikes, the explosions? The menace?

14. Max getting free, Nux and his various stories, his being left behind, reporting to Immortan Joe, gaining prestige, the jealousy of his friend, the vengeance, the pursuit, the friend being crushed?

15. The women, as wives, the look of glamour, their dress, their being victims, survivors? The pregnant wife? The strength of the women, their hopes, collaboration with Furiousa?

16. Suspicions of Max, his gaining control, the gun, filing off his mask?

17. The strategy of going to the canyon, the blocking of the canyon, the pursuers and the heavy tread vehicle getting through?

18. Furiosa, changing, going into action, protecting the women, working with Max? The action sequences, fending off the bullets with the doors, getting into
the quagmire, putting the link to the tree and getting out?

19. Nux, joining the group, the attraction to the girl, his change, help, fixing the engine?

20. The range of heroics?

21. The tower in the desert, the naked woman, the revelation of the elderly women, their stories, helping? The truth about the green place? Furiosa’s story, her past? The disappointment?

22. Max, suggesting a new strategy, returning to the Citadel, the fleet, the bikes, the women and their deaths, the pregnant woman taken, Immortan Joe, his wanting the baby to be born?

23. The pursuit to the canyon, the vehicles trying to outrun each other, Nux and his fixing the engine, the escape?

24. Immortan Joe, his brother, ugly, the way of breathing, the masks? The cars, the pregnancy, the Caesarean operation?

25. Furiosa, her injuries, the collapsed lung, the blood transfer, revival?

26. The return, the death of Immortan Joe, bringing his body back, the mob approaching? The Green Place? Releasing the water and not cutting it off? Nux and his being disillusioned about Valhalla?

27. The settlement, revising, Furiosa staying, the wives? Max and his decision to leave, to wander and to survive?

28. The post-apocalyptic world, the need for water, for humanising people, for giving them hope?