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It’s been 35 years since “The Road Warrior” trilogy first began and Mel Gibson took the world by storm, giving us a new kind of hero and showing us just why Max Rockatansky was so mad.
With such a huge success and its well-deserved icon status, George Miller’s incredible post-apocalyptic thriller “Mad Max” (1980) was certainly a game changer of its day, but the two follow-up sequels – “The Road Warrior” (1982) and “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” (1985) – did not quite live up to their predecessor. It seemed that the “Mad Max” franchise was to be no more.
Miller went on to produce and direct several successes after “Mad Max” – most famously “The Witches of Eastwick” (1987), “Lorenzo’s Oil” (1993) for which he received an Oscar nomination for his screenplay, “Babe” (1995) for which he received another two Oscar nominations for writing and producing, “Babe: Pig in the City” and also “Happy Feet” (2006) and “Happy Feet Two” (2011). He actually won an Oscar for “Happy Feet” (for best animation movie of the year). Although most of these weren’t huge box office successes, except for the “Happy Feet” movies which made almost $600 million worldwide, he has enjoyed a steady career to date.
However, he has been trying to revive the “Mad Max” franchise for many years, as far back as 1995, and has hit many financial and production schedule bumps along the way, mainly because he wanted to continue with Mel Gibson but that became harder as time went on. Here now, revived, fully financed and with several new scripts and ideas in the works, Max is back and George Miller is 100 percent back in control and is, as many have stated, “better than ever!”- but more about that later.
“Mad Max: Fury Road” (continuing on from the first three movies) finds Max – played by British-born actor Tom Hardy, most recently known for playing Bane in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012) – many years later, “war-torn” and alone with his, now almost destroyed, V8 police Interceptor. He finds himself being pursued and, after wrecking his Interceptor, being captured by a gang of mutant savages known as the “War Boys.” He is taken and imprisoned by the tyrannical Immortan Joe who, incidentally, is played by India-born actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, most famously known for his portrayal of ‘The Toecutter’ in the first “Mad Max” movie.
Max is then used as a live blood donor for the gang, but is then caught in the middle of an internal power struggle as renegade general Imperator Furiosa, played with a believable power by Oscar winner Charlize Theron, is escaping with Immortan Joe’s five wives as she is trying to break free of his tyrannical hold over them.
An army of War Boys, led by Immortan Joe, are sent out to catch them and bring them home, and Max is tied to one of the vehicles, driven by Nux, played by rising star Nicholas Hoult, best known for his portrayal of Beast in three of the recent X-Men movies. He is a gaunt but loyal servant of Joe and requires Max to be with him so he can receive blood when he needs it, but where does his loyalty truly lie? Will they escape Immortan Joe’s despotic grasp, and what of Max? His power and survivability are in no doubt and, yes, a truly exciting and visually stunning movie unfolds, but of course you will have to find out what happens for yourself.
Together with first-time writers Nick Lathouris and Brendan McCarthy, George Miller has certainly created a stunningly visual and thought-provoking piece of action/entertainment. The underlying themes of female empowerment and the overwhelming desire to both survive and be free have brought about praise from several unusual fronts, most interestingly from feminist groups who have praised Charlize Theron for her dominant role. There has also been a surprising amount of acclaim from critics across the media world, with some actually calling it one of the greatest action films ever made. This is quite an astonishing claim, especially in view of the fact that this kind of action genre has been very heavily trodden over the years, and trodden very well too; this praise is quite something. Whilst it is an extraordinary piece of film-making – with great directing, photography and editing – I would certainly not say it’s the best. But it is good, it is very good, and that is due mainly to the insightful way that the writers, Miller & Co., attack the very themes that create the mayhem in the first place, namely the empowerment of Furiosa and the wives to break free of the male control and to pursue their own life away from bondage.
Of course, it is Miller’s direction that, at the end of the day, makes this a brilliant piece of cinema. His range of delivery is astonishing – one minute he fills the screen with some amazing action, editing, audio, lighting and then in the next minute we see character close-ups that tell the emotion, the rage, the fear and the elation, all in an instant and all cut seamlessly together… That is where this movie succeeds for me and where I know that, in the wrong hands, it would have been just another “silly action film.”
Welcome back, Max, and welcome back, George Miller. Your timing is perfect and it is good to see a hero who is not an Avenger and does not have any super-powers other than his compassion for his fellow survivor and, not to forget, his mad side that helps him out in a fight! This movie is recommended to anyone who loves a good chase/action/adventure movie and just wants to be entertained in a thrilling way – I promise you wont be disappointed.
Look for a sequel in a couple of year, titled “Mad Max: The Wasteland,” Then, as Miller says himself, look for further sequels in the new series… We shall, with much interest.
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“Mad Max: Fury Road” (R), a Warner Bros. release, is now out on DVD and Blu-ray.
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Roy Morris is a freelance writer. He can be reached by email at amorris1989@hotmail.com.