Man of Few Words

Mad Max: Fury Road

I strongly believe that we all fear the end of the world. I’m not really sure how the world is going to be brought to its knees, but I am sure that it isn’t going to be a pretty sight. Many filmmakers have given varying interpretations of what the world is going to be like when it is engulfed in chaos and anarchy. A post-apocalyptic world full of zombies seems to be the big thing right now throughout television and movies. However, in the late 70s one Australian filmmaker believed that we would have to fear the insane more than anything else. George Miller (Happy Feet) gave us a world that has destroyed itself and only the violent have survived with Mad Max. Thirty years later, Miller has decided to go back to that world with this year’s Mad Max: Fury Road.

Haunted by the death of his child, "Mad" Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy Child 44) is a lone wanderer of a vast desert landscape. Max is taken prisoner when his path crosses with a volatile group and sent to what they call the Citadel. What seems like the only place in this world with clean water, the Citadel is cruelly being run by a warlord named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne Mad Max). Every so often, Joe enlists his top warriors, led by Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron Prometheus), to venture away from the Citadel and collect gasoline for his legion of motor vehicles. Yet on this trip, Furiosa has smuggled out Joe’s Five Wives with the plan to take them to a better, greener, home to raise their children far away from Joe’s tyranny. Realizing what she has done, Joe calls every ‘War Boy’ to recapture his wives and bring them back. Max gets inadvertently involved when he is strapped to the car of one ‘War Boy’ as a continuous blood donor and flung into the chase. During the confusion of the chase, Max becomes free and realizes that his best chance to survive is to help Furiosa transport the Five Wives to safety.

Is it possible for a filmmaker that revolutionized a subgenre of action films to reinvent it again? This is exactly what George Miller has done with Fury Road. Mad Max broke new ground in the late 70s with the way action scenes were shot and the post-apocalyptic world in film. Fury Road builds on that and takes it a few steps further. Miller achieves this by the pure scale of action sequences performed in Fury Road. Essentially one large chase scene, Fury Road is filled with massive explosions and brutal deaths. To ensure the audience is ‘taken’ along on this wild ride, Miller also uses a lot of quick shots and fast motion. I believe the fast motion is also used a lot in this film to give the audience a taste of how each character’s mind works.

Tom Hardy takes over the role that made Mel Gibson a movie star, though their versions of the character are vastly different.  Hardy is a man with very few words in this film and is the true definition of loner. Hardy successfully projects a hard, stand-offish exterior with his Max. Though having few lines in the film, Hardy is still able to communicate Max’s understanding that survival is most important in his world. Another actor that impressed me in this film was Nicholas Hoult (X-Men: Days of Future Past). Hoult plays the always desperate to impress Nux. Hoult throws all internal reservations to the wind and goes bat-crap crazy for this film. I was so impressed with the way he was able to depart from the characters that the world has gotten to know him for. If he is able to keep blending in so seamlessly to each of his roles, he will be an outstanding actor…at least more than what he already is. Even though Hardy is the title character, the film truly belongs to Theron. Charlize Theron gives us a character that feels that she needs to repent for past sins, a character not uncommon on film, but Theron does it in a way that seems fresh. The compassion and at times almost heartwarming strength that Theron exudes is so palpable that she becomes the center of this movie.

This film is not for everyone. The colors and camera movement really portray the chaotic world that this film takes place in. For lovers of Miller’s earlier Mad Max films, this film will bring feelings of nostalgia and even joy because George Miller has brought his ‘Road Warrior’ into the 21^st century in a magnificent way. Grand action scenes and even a touching story of redemption, Fury Road will have you strapped to your seat for the full two hours.

The Verdict: See In Theatres