Warner Bros. Pictures
Movies featuring car chases have been around for almost as long as cars and movies have existed (see The Keystone Cops). 1968’s Bullitt is credited for having the first real “car chase” scene that made audiences feel they were part of the action, and The French Connection amped up the cinematic car chase scene by filming in the real streets of New York City with real traffic and pedestrians unaware of what was going on. Of course, more recently we’ve had the Fast and Furious franchise which features some ridiculously over-the-top stunt and effects work that have made audiences cheer.
But way back in 1981, director George Miller capitalized on his international hit Mad Max (1979) with The Road Warrior (aka Mad Max 2 outside the US), a film that was basically a feature-length car chase with minimal dialog. Miller was tempted to dip into that well one more time in 1985 with Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome but that one was not as successful cramming a story into the chase scenes. After that, Miller thought he was done with the saga of Max Rockatansky, but even while directing charming family films about pigs and penguins, the idea of another chapter in the series was nagging at the back of his mind. By this time Mel Gibson was too old for the part (and still kind of shunned by Hollywood for his past behavior), so Miller selected a virtual newcomer at the time, Tom Hardy, to fill Max’s leather pants, boots and jacket. The movie was set to shoot in 2001, but the events of 9/11 and the collapse of the US dollar took its toll on the film’s budget. When they were ready to go again in the Australian desert, the region saw unprecedented rain and flooding, leaving behind a green oasis that did not jive with the film’s post-apocalyptic look.
Production finally began in South Africa, with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron still on board, and the result is the stunning Mad Max Fury Road. The story is simple on the surface: mankind has been reduced to savagery with those in power controlling everything from gas to water. The rest have to wait to be blessed with even a few drops of water, but the overlord Immortan Joe (played by original Mad Max bad guy Toecutter, Hugh Keays-Byrne) warns the people not to get addicted to water. Immortan Joe is preparing to send his Imperator Furiosa on a run to a refinery to get more gasoline, but on the way she takes a detour, having smuggled five of Immortan Joe’s favorite wives out of The Citadel and the chase begins. During the pursuit, she notices a man strapped to the front of one of the vehicles (Max had been held captive and used as a human blood bag for one of the sickly War Boys), and after the car crashes, the two form an uneasy alliance to get to the Green Place which is a safe haven for her and the wives (Max is forced to drag the War Boy Nux with him as they are chained together). When Immortan Joe learns that his wives are missing, he sends every vehicle at his disposal to retrieve them.
Like The Road Warrior, Mad Max Fury Road has very little dialog but is packed from beginning to end with action. Miller has created an entire world fully formed, from Immortan Joe’s Citadel to the vast stretches of desert, and a sort of boggy area with denizens straight out of Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal. The film is visually stunning with Miller never letting the orange sands of the desert become monotonous. The blue-tinged night scenes are also stunning, almost black and white but with occasional flashes of color from fire or blood. And then there is the massive sand storm that one would think from the ads and trailers is the film’s climactic moment, but it’s actually right up front. You have to wonder how Miller can top that scene later … and he does.
The one thing to keep in mind about Mad Max Fury Road is that all of the vehicles seen in the film are real and driveable. Nothing you see during the massive car chases — outside of the sandstorm scene, presumably — is done with CGI effects (although many of the flying bodies most likely are). There are small cars almost like dune buggies, there are larger sedans and trucks, there are massive 18-wheelers (one even has four drummers on the back and a heavy metal guitarist on top of the cab) all with various armor plating and protective/destructive adornments. Everything has a function. It’s pointless, though, to try to describe what Miller and his crew have been able to put on screen. You just have to see it to believe it. And even after you see it, you may still not believe it!
Miller has cast an amazingly visual group of people. tweet
But even with all of the vehicular carnage, there are still people in the movie, and Miller has cast an amazingly visual group of people just as well as he’s cast the scenery. Charlize Theron has transformed herself into a shaven-headed action chick — with a prosthetic arm no less — and she is both tough and vulnerable, showing the audience that she’s on the brink of an emotional breakdown but never letting anyone else penetrate that warrior-like exterior she’s manufactured from her own psyche. Her first encounter with Max is a brutal, all-out hand-to-hand battle that leaves you stunned by how intense it is. There are no holds barred in Theron’s performance. Nicholas Hoult is the War Boy Nux, and he has a terrific character arc going from Immortan Joe’s chosen warrior to a defender of Furiosa and her cargo when he suddenly becomes less favored in the blink of an eye. We can believe his sudden transformation because Hoult shows us how much Immortan Joe’s approval means to Nux — the Immortan’s favors virtually guarantees ones admission into Valhalla — but one slip up and a look of disapproval breaks Nux’s spirit like glass when he realizes his true place in the Immortan’s society.
Warner Bros. Pictures
The film is populated with a cast of wildly different characters, from the grossly deformed to the Immortan’s beautiful wives, led by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Zoe Kravitz, all seemingly fragile, ethereal slaves to the Immortan, but more than willing to join in and kick some ass or do some mechanical work on Furiousa’s rig when necessary. Of course, the (human) star of the movie is Tom Hardy, more than capably filling Mel Gibson’s boots. He opens the film with an amazing sequence that requires him to run through endless caverns, shackled and trying to elude a horde of War Boys who want him for his blood, and then he spends another chunk of time strapped to Nux’s car like a ship’s figurehead. When he finally gets free and joins with Furiosa, he’s not so much fighting for himself as he is trying to atone for past misdeeds, real or imagined, as he is tormented by visions of a little girl who keeps harping on him about how he “let them all die.” Hardy’s Max becomes the film’s true beating heart in one small moment near the end of the film when he finally says his name. For Max, it’s a moment of desperation and heartbreak and Hardy’s performance in that moment nearly reduced me to sobbing. With all of the eye-popping action, that moment made me love the movie even more and has stuck with me.
Mad Max Fury Road a true masterpiece of filmmaking. tweet
Critics throw around the word “masterpiece” a little too freely when referring to a film they like, and for a film in the action genre to even be considered for that honor is a rare thing indeed, but George Miller has created an action movie spectacle at the age of 70 that any director a fraction of his age should be envious of. Miller shoots his action full-on, full screen and fully cinematic, never, ever, resorting to a nausea-inducing hand-held shaky cam. He also uses the 3D process to great effect with little pieces of debris constantly flying your face and one big 3D moment during the film’s climax. The cameras glide through the action, and the outstanding editing and music score add to the adrenaline rush making Mad Max Fury Road a true masterpiece of filmmaking. Here’s hoping the film is successful enough for Miller to finish his second Mad Max trilogy.
Mad Max: Fury Road has a run time of 2 hours, and is rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images.
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