In the late 1970s, an Australian doctor and his friend acquired a budget of around US$300,000 and dragged a few shitty cars into the desert to make a modern western called Mad Max, featuring an unknown actor called Mel Gibson who went on to be extremely successful before becoming extremely weird. Mad Max did very well commercially and the doctor, George Miller, gave up the scalpel and embarked upon Max Max: The Road Warrior which was released in 1981.
Whereas the first Max movie had the world on the brink of collapse, the second saw society reduced to violent scavengers battling for fuel, and The Road Warrior became the benchmark for the post-apocalyptic movie genre and is a cult classic.
The third instalment, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, co-directed by Miller and released in 1985, was more mainstream in presentation and even had a theme song by Tina Turner, oh the horror. Opinions are divided as to whether it is better than The Road Warrior; I think not.
Miller then went off and made a couple of successful movies about a pig (Babe) and couple of successful movies about dancing penguins (Happy Feet). Hardly a career direction that indicated Miller might return to the crazy world of Max.
“And the Road Warrior? That was the last we ever saw of him. He lives now… only in my memories.”
Then in 1998 Miller had an idea for the next instalment and spent the next thirteen years struggling to start production. Finance problems, 9/11, the security problems in potential shooting location Namibia, and difficulties in casting the character of Max (Mel Gibson: too loopy; Heath Ledger: too dead).
Production finally got underway in 2011 with Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as the female lead, Furiosa. Built around 3,600 storyboards and not a lot of script, Miller produced more than 400 hundred hours of film which were edited down to the two hour final product.
Thirty years after the not that great last Max Max offering, and after so many years in development; expectations were not high that giving seventy year old Miller $160 million for his latest indulgence was a wise investment.
It was.
Mad Max:Fury Rod is the most enjoyable, batshit insane, over-the-top, meticulously crafted piece of escapist entertainment I have seen for a very long time (Inception may have been the last occasion I had such a good time at the cinema).
Here’s the plot: It’s a two hour car chase. Here’s the (unexpected) sub-plot: It’s time for women to rescue something from the mess made by men (sub sub-plot: grannies and guns make for a dangerous combination).
Cinematography: Gorgeous colours, astonishing camera angles (including some shot with vehicle mounted Olympus EP5s {and Canon 5Ds, but we won’t dwell on that)}; edited with a precision such that the end result has an almost balletic grace, even when the subject is a car covered in spikes exploding into the back of tanker. That takes skill. Of course there is CGI, but 90% of the film is actual footage, using seemingly hundreds of daft vehicles and 150 stunt actors who certainly earned their money (check out the men on poles). The result is a visible authenticity accompanied by your brain regularly recording a “wow, how the hell did they do that?” moment.
Given the almost constant mayhem, there is surprisingly little gore, with Mr. Miller obviously intending that we should just sit back and have an outrageously good time without being subjected to any unpleasantness (which also gives the film a 15 certificate, which is good for box office). It’s also extremely funny in places and I found myself giggling when remembering odd moments the day after seeing the movie; much to my wife’s bemusement.
Perhaps the best example of the wonderful lunacy of Fury Road is the musical accompaniment provided for those going into battle. In days of yore you might have a man with a bugle or, god forbid, bagpipes; but for Fury Road they constructed a vehicle with four drummers on the back and a blind guitarist on the front, suspended on a bungee cord and playing a guitar constructed partially from a bedpan with a built-in flamethrower. This contraption was trundled across the deserts of Namibia with the drummers required to drum and the guitarist required to play whilst simultaneously operating the flame thrower whilst being bounced around in a haze of dust. Now THAT’S entertainment!
Fury Road is the Mad Max that Miller has been wanting to make ever since he and his mates filmed a few cars getting smashed up on the back streets of Australia nearly forty years ago. It’s bombastic, fantastic and makes other recent “blockbuster” offerings look very tame by comparison. I’m off to see it again next week; and when it arrives on IMAX in Bangkok, I’ll see it again.
Eleven stars out of ten.
Comments 🔗
2015-05-17| Spike saysStolen by the twats at Sawatdee Network http://sawatdeenetwork.com/blog/
2015-05-17| Grant saysCads and bounders! You’ll sue of course…?
2015-05-19| Andrew saysapparently after the apocalypse there is still plenty of gas (petrol to youse guys…) around - which begs the question - why are the prices so high now?
2015-05-20| Spike saysThat was certainly the question on my lips when I walked out of the movie.
2015-05-20| Andrew saysI’m guessing that what was on your lips after the movie was more like butter and salt….and a few crumbs…
2015-05-21| Spike saysWent again last night. What was on my lips afterwards was Guinness.
2015-05-22| ChristianPFC saysSawatdeenetwork has a page where they display beginnings of posts from blogs about Thailand and link to them. I would not call it “stealing”, rather a review. My blog is featured there as well, I don’t mind. (My involvement in Sawatdeenetwork is merely as a member and poster. As it is a gay forum, “dicks” or “pricks” would be more appropriate than “twats”.)
2015-05-22| Spike saysI have no problem with providing summaries and links. But in this case they reposted the entire article. It now appears to have been removed.
2015-05-22| Andrew saysAh Guinness - which is even more expensive than gas - at least here…at least you can feel a lot better for having bought it…( although that feeling usually only last till the next morning…)