Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road

On a lazy summer Saturday afternoon in 1979 my sister and I went to the movies. Mad Max was playing, we had no idea what it was about. After it finished we still had no idea what was going on. The movie was spectacular and totally energizing with the post-apocalyptic fall out resulting in a brutal and a lawless environment. Mad Max was an early contributor to this genre and set standards.  

The new Mad Max is a visual extravaganza. The cinematography is outstanding and probably the film’s best feature (it was filmed in Namibia and Australia). The movie is non-stop with cars, trucks and motorcycles churning up dust crisscrossing the desert.  The bad guys are led by a plastic encased emphysema inflicted dog ugly warlord. He holds some sort of quasi deity position and just by looking at him the on looker has a sense of divinity. The evil minions, the War Boys, are pan face caked zealots with no regard to life believing the gates of Valhalla await them upon death. They wear outrageous costumes ranging from clownish out fits to S&M. Their weird combinations are funny to watch.

This is a simple movie. It is basically car (truck) chase movie. Charlize Theron, who plays Imperator Furiosa, is transporting valuable cargo which the bad guys want back. Tom Hardy is Max who initially was Theron’s captive but becomes an ally. There is a plot line about Furiosa’s back story and mission and Max’s adventures that got him to this point, but on the whole this is a just chase movie with lots of stunts and a two hour demolition derby with a high body count.

Hardy plays the strong silent type, and he is very silent.  He has about five lines in the movie not including grunts. Dialogue is not memorable; the movie’s emphasis is action. Theron has more speaking parts besides driving the truck. Driving the truck includes near death situations and heroics. For some inexplicable reason Theron is missing part of her left arm below the elbow. The remaining parts are still great. No one broke a sweat acting.

Some critiques have heaped adulation on the movie as a great artistic achievement (Rotten Tomato-99). They are certainly welcome to their opinion, but get real! This is just a very expensive chase movie with high mega wattage stars. In essence this is still a lazy Saturday afternoon flick.