Melita Jurisic mswyrr:
I swear Fury Road is made up of 90% dramatic/ironic/painful echoes by volume.
For instance, Max and Angharad both fall off of the Rig after rescuing the driver (Angharad using the boltcutters on the harpooned wheel, Max body-checking multiple polecats away from Furiosa).
And both times Capable and Dag try to save them by reaching out from the backseat. They only succeed once.
It occurred to me the other day that Angharad dies in the back of the Gigahorse, where the Organic Mechanic does his impromptu c-section. The same place where Furiosa almost dies but is saved by Max.
Yes! I had that realization on my 3rd viewing and actual tears came to my usually-dry eyes. UGH.
one thing though - what the Organic Mechanic does is not a c-section imo. a c-section is a surgery during which the woman/pregnant person is treated as a person/a patient. what the Organic Mechanic did was cut a woman open like breaking open a Christmas cracker to get the goodies inside. He’s treating her as a thing, an incubator whose only worth is to create a male heir.
It’s dismemberment, not surgery.
The reason why I’m pointing this out is that it’s not just that Angharad dies in that palce and Furiosa lives, but that Angharad is treated as a thing by OM whereas Max… revisits his own physical exploitation and being treated as a thing to treat Furiosa with infinite care.
The thing that remains the same btw is that a woman/women are with both Angharad and Furiosa, loving them and grieving them. Miss Giddy holds Angharad as she passes away, always seeing her as a person; the Vuvalini and the sisters comfort/hold Furiosa.
The major difference is the definition of humanity/masculinity the man involved is working from - are you capable of giving life of yourself or do you just take from those who can, ripping it out of them?
The final note is that OM is the man that violated Max’s body, though it’s Max’s choice that makes him different/in community with the women there not merely having been victimized.
AND ANOTHER THING
The 3 people helping Max save Furiosa are the Dag, Capable, and the Vuvalini played by Melita Jurisic. Each of them lost someone they were particularly close to during the final chase–Dag lost Keep, Capable lost Nux, and while I’m arguing Joy Smither’s Vuvalini was ‘Melita’s’ BFF we might, even if headcanon fails, say she’s lost her sisters as a whole (Valkyrie and Maadi, too!). And I’m very into the symbolism and emotional punch of having the people who are grieving most being the ones to keep Furiosa from dying, too.
I really loved that bit about Angharad being treated like a thing but Max revisits his own exploitation. Like you know when Slit throws a lance past Max’s face at the beginning, kinda using him to aim and later Furiosa uses the same side to make that awesome shot? This reminded me of that. But seriously there is so much deep thinking going on and my thoughts are just ‘I wonder if the war pup at the beginning is taking Max’s hair so he can make some kinda cuddly toy for himself’.
(via bonehandledknife)
