Since I know there’s probably a fair amount of you out there who haven’t seen the first three Mad Max movies, I’m here to tell you a li’l secret about them:
All the people complaining about how Max “isn’t the main character” in Fury Road are big ol’ Fake Fanboys cause Max’s primary character trait in literally every movie is “I hate this, why is it happening, please leave me alone to brood in the desert in peace”.
He’s much more the central focus of the plot in the first movie but in Road Warrior and Thunder Dome he basically just gets kidnapped or beat up by wankers in weird bondage outfits and spends the rest of the movie trying to leave as soon as possible while other people are like “please solve our absurd post-apocalyptic problems”. There is not one single point where Max actively seeks out being a hero until it is forced upon him. He ACTIVELY TELLS PEOPLE WHO ASK HIM FOR HELP to take a hike.
Mad Max himself would like nothing better than to never, ever, ever be the main character.
He would also like for people to stop stealing his fucking car.
Her look here + the look she gives Max when she’s bandaging Angharad’s bullet wound…Capable is not here for your bullshit.
I just, her face. If you take your hands and block out Furiosa and Cheedo, it is the best “Back off” face ever. The way her eyes literally do not waver from the start to the finish of the scene. It’s almost directly challenging to Furiosa, who also doesn’t look away. She used to these types of challenges from others, but I’m not sure she expected it here. Notice how Capable also makes it a point to lean far into Cheedo’s pathway, effectively blocking the space between her and Furiosa. It’s a direct statement, saying “I will protect them now, and I will not let you, or anyone else, cause another one of them to fall. Is that clear.”
Yo…they are totally fleshed out characters, which becomes really clear when you take time to watch them. But, like many things in this movie, a lot of what we learn about them is not delivered through dialogue. So I think it’s easy to miss it if you only see the movie once, because there’s so much to watch and they’re often in the background.
After seeing the movie the first time, I couldn’t keep any of their names straight, so I watched this featurette like 10 times to remember who was who and who did what in the movie. And I was like, “Holy shit, they’re way more active and central to the action than I even noticed the first time around.” And I ended up writing a lot about them in my first review of the movie, because I kept hearing people say that they didn’t think the Wives were very developed characters. Now that seems totally obvious, but there’s so much information in the movie, and so much of it is different from what we’re used to seeing, that it’s easy to miss stuff without repeat viewings.
International Film Critics Vote ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Year’s Best Film
George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road is the surprise choice for best film of the year, as chosen by the International Federation of Film Critics (Fipresci).
Miller beat out the other three Fipresci finalists for the best film honor: Laszlo Nemes’ Son Of Saul, Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin and Jafar Panahi’s Taxi. The 2015 Fipresci best film award was selected from films which had their premiere after July 1, 2014. 493 Fipresci members – all international film critics - voted for the award.
“You could have knocked me over with a feather!,” said Miller in a statement. “It’s lovely to have this great cohort of critics acknowledge our collective labors in this way.”
Miller will receive the Fipresci Grand Prix at the San Sebastian film festival on Sept. 18, whereMad Max: Fury Road will also get a special gala screening.
Since its creation in 1999, the Fipresci Grand Prix has been awarded to such directors as Michael Haneke, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jean-Luc Godard and Pedro Almodovar. (hollywoodreporter.com)
Do the injured left arm/hand count as a parallel within a parallel?
I’ve wondered about that! Are both Theron and Hardy right-handed? Because if so, it makes sense to leave them their dominant hand to do the most acting with. But it’s still a parallel in-story.
Hardy’s right handed, I don’t know about Charlize though. Could just be a happy accident that adds a touch more symbolism to the story - and I’m always here for more symbolism.
Slightly different thing, but I have noted that when we see Furiosa pull the knife out of her ribs, the next thing we see is Max bash his palm on the truck door and then yank out the crossbow dart from his hand.
I think all parallels are intended!
I noticed during my viewing this weekend that part where they both remove their respective wounding weapons. Literally one right after the other. Beautiful editing.
Oh, you mean the cut between these two shots?
Just maybe my favorite cut in the entire movie.
Aside from the removing-impaling-object parallel, the way he slams his hand into the frame…almost makes it look like they’re holding hands even though they’re in different cars.
casually pointing out that if we’re also talking thematic directions, Furiosa facing or moving right generally means moving ‘forward’, Max is always looking ‘back’.
Reblogging for this hilarisad string of tags. In my head that little smile is definitely Furiosa laughing at herself for even asking, like, What did you expect, you idiot? He won’t even tell you his name.
okay so let’s break this down. first the sisters save furiosa by pulling nux off her:
that’s your pretty clear, straightforward life-saving courage. and it’s significant that the sisters are ready to fight like that even so early in the story.
but then furiosa goes for nux’s throat
in the sort of interaction she’s internalized after years of repetition: one of the war boys comes for her, she ends them. end of fucking story.
a moment of reflection, a moment of flinching back from immediately killing, would have doomed her in the past
she’s programmed herself to kill without mercy in order to survive. she doesn’t even consider if there’s an alternative. there never has been.
20 years and nobody’s ever stopped her. the only people who tried wanted to hurt her. but they didn’t succeed. otherwise, no matter what she did, who she hurt, nobody cared enough to stop her. they gleefully supported it or considered it her right or her obligation
murder, murder, murder, life means nothing. only weak people flinch from inflicting pain. and you know what happens to weak people. they end up dead or in cages. that’s the law of the Citadel
furiosa didn’t intellectually believe that fully, but you do something long enough and it gets inside you.
but for the first time in twenty years someone knows right from wrong and cares enough to stop her
i think angharad mostly cares for the principle of the thing. definitely condemnation is in there. but… you can read it as a very angry form of reaching out. you can read it as angharad’s response to furiosa’s lecture earlier about how “everything hurts” out here. whatever the case, furiosa is and always will be someone who kills. that’s key to how she survives and protects those she loves. but it’s possible to fight and kill without losing touch with the idea that killing doesn’t have to be the only answer. that killing is always wrong, even if it’s necessary. that you should be thinking about when it’s unnecessary to kill.
i think the sisters save furiosa’s life and nux’s life here but also are part of the journey of saving their souls in this scene
the lecture on Wasteland feminist theory nux received is more obvious, but angharad stopping furiosa is also this huge huge thing
for the first time in her adult life someone cares enough to stop her. to say: he’s just a kid. you don’t have to this time. and if you don’t have to, you shouldn’t.
When Furiosa finds the Vuvalini, she announces herself with the following words: ‘I am one of the Vuvalini, of the many mothers. My initiate mother was Katie Concannon. I am the daughter of Mary Jo Bassa. My clan was Swaddle Dog.’
This tells us Furiosa came from a matriarchal culture where ‘initiate mothers’ and older female role models were considered just as important as real mothers. She was raised and taught by a whole host of mother figures, and she clings tightly to this part of her identity.
We also know that Furiosa was stolen to act as breeding stock, but when she failed to produce any children she was discarded as worthless and had to become ‘one of the boys.’ By her skill and determination, she worked her way up through the ranks of Immortan Joe’s war boys until she reached a position where she was able to escape.
And all this makes me realise how cathartic it must have been to meet the wives and form a relationship with them. Throughout the film we watch her care for them, protect them and teach them. We watch her pass on her skills and knowledge to this new generation of women. We watch her relate to these women as a woman herself. We watch as her attitude towards them becomes almost entirely protective and maternal. Her mention of having an ‘initiate mother’ is particularly striking,
since it would appear that Furiosa became just such a mother
to the wives.
The only part of motherhood Joe valued was the actual birthgiving - a sentiment gruesomely displayed by the crude caesarean forced on Angharad. But the Vuvalini had many different ways to be mothers, and Furiosa proves that the most important part of motherhood is not the production of children, but the act of teaching and protecting. This, alongside the wives’ assertion that ‘Our babies will not be warlords,’ the culture of toxic masculinity that surrounds the war boys from being separated from their mothers at birth and the fact that a new, peaceful generation is ushered in by the war pups lowering the lift and the Milking Mothers throwing off their chains to give water to Wretched, tells us that the true value of motherhood does not lie in the ability to bear children, but in a woman’s ability to teach, influence and shape future generations.
Marvel are you paying attention?
I’m sorry for the self-reblog, but thanks to this comment I can’t stop thinking about the contrast between the way Age of Ultron and Mad Max dealt with having an infertile female lead.
Natasha called herself a monster. It was her deep, dark, tragic secret. She feared no man would ever be able to love her. She thought it would keep her from being with the one she loved.
On the other hand, it was patriarchal society that told Furiosa she was worthless because she couldn’t have children. She was stolen to act as breeding stock, and when she failed to accomplish the one thing she was considered useful for, she was discarded.
And in response, Furiosa says fuck that.
“I am one of the Vuvalini,” she says. “I am one of the many mothers.” She may be infertile, but so what? Her place is still with the many mothers because motherhood is so much more than birth and pregnancy. She is the initiate mother of the wives and she protects them with all her rage and love and ferocity. She’s welcomed as the new ruler of the Citadel by children and the Milking Mothers.
Furiosa of the many mothers refused to let her worth be defined by the patriarchy’s narrow definition of motherhood. She spat in its face and tore the entire toxic institution to the ground so she could create a world where women’s roles as mothers went far beyond the mere production of children.
