In 2015 I went to see Mad Max: Fury Road at the cinema with a friend of mine who also happens to be a poet. I was fairly familiar with the Mad Max franchise beforehand; I distinctly recall watching The Road Warrior at some point although I didn't really understand what the film was all about. This time, with a bit more knowledge of George Miller's post-apocalyptic world, I was able to appreciate the artistry of the wasteland even more.
What followed was one of the most spectacular and operatic action films I've ever seen. Praise for Fury Road is nothing new; indeed, it seems every major publication felt the same as me back in the summer of 2015. Everyone was singing the film's praises as an operatic work of action and chaos on a scale nobody had ever seen. It was extraordinary how George Miller had been able to return to Mad Max after more than two decades and revive the franchise in tremendous fashion.
Of course, as with every great success, there were some detractors. There were those who felt Fury Road was more style over substance, substituting over-the-top action for complex plotting, and there was also a boycott by those claiming the film was a feminist propaganda piece. I'm not too bothered about the latter criticism, as having watched Fury Road a few times now I feel the feminist aspect of the film forms a strong background theme. It feels organic to the story rather than something forced upon an old franchise as the boycotters claim.
It goes without saying that Furiosa, as played by Charlize Theron, is one of the best action heroines of recent times. The fact that she is the real main character of the film is testament to how much thought George Miller and his co-writers put into her role. Although Max Rockatansky is still the central figure of this tale, his role as an observer to the events in the wasteland allows Furiosa to take much of the narrative heft, giving the film a strong emotional center. The character Nux, played by Nicholas Hoult, is also part of this, providing a great deconstruction of the redshirts often seen in franchises subservient to the main villain.
Speaking of which, what villains Fury Road has indeed. Immortan Joe, the tyrannical warlord of the Citadel, is likewise a great deconstruction of villain archetypes. While he is certainly fearsome and imposing, it is mostly a front to disguise an aging man suffering from disease who retains control by maintaining a ferocious façade. His two lieutenants, the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater, add terrific character to the proceedings, with the former having a particularly memorable scene when he attacks the War Rig by himself. Nux's aforementioned deconstruction of the foot soldier is further highlighted when contrasted with his lancer Slit, who has fully embraced the War Boy philosophy yet is spiteful and bitter compared to Nux's wide-eyed, child-like innocence.
It's this attention to strong themes and a straightforward narrative that elevates the already ballistic action-scenes. Most of the film is an extended car chase with a few pauses for breath, with an attitude that tells the audience to join the ride or step off if they can't keep up, an attitude conveyed by the terrific editing by Margaret Sixel. The cars themselves are in many ways the true stars of the film. The War Rig is the most important of these, a fearsome beast of burden which acts as a mobile fort for Max, Furiosa and the Wives. The two-tiered Gigahorse is a monstrous engineering achievement, as are the People Eater's limousine and the aptly named Peacmaker. However, the most striking of the vehicles is the Doof Wagon, a lorry slash mobile music stage carrying drummers on the back, and the Doof Warrior on the front. Playing a flame throwing double-necked guitar, he provides a constant heavy metal soundtrack to the chase and is quite possibly the greatest side character ever put to film.
I think by this point it may seem like I'm gushing about Fury Road quite a bit. It's true that the lack of a complex narrative is likely to put some people off, along with the lack of explanation for the film's mythology. Also, having seen the film with my parents, I can say that the onslaught of never-ending action could do a few people's heads in, but that's what's great about Fury Road. It's an brilliantly constructed opera of mayhem, and not a lot of films are that.
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