And now, for something completely different.
It’s me again, Write Readers. The second film on our Academy Award Best Picture list is none other than Mad Max: Fury Road. Is it just me, or does this one feel like the Django Unchained of the bunch? It’s all about the action, and the explosions, and the post-apocalyptic earth. Not only that, but it’s actually the fourth installment of the series! Who ever heard of a “fourth” anything getting nominated? Even if they made Titanic 4: Return of the Sunken Diamond, I doubt the nominations would be substantial. But here we are, and here it is, whatever it is. And whatever it is, it did it well, because Max racked up an impressive ten nominations, including Best Director, Best Costume Design, Best Sound Editing, and more. We get to watch Charlize Theron (Imperator Furiosa) and Tom Hardy (Max, the mad one) shoot things and hit them for a solid two hours. 
Here come the spoilers.
As far as I could gather, Mad Max: Fury Road takes place in a post-apocalyptic earth, which is a giant wasteland of a desert, which stretches as far as the eye can see. Max Rockatansky is driving along, minding his business, when suddenly he is captured by a group of white-faced (literally their faces and bodies are painted white) individuals called War Boys. When they get to The Citadel, Max becomes a blood donor for these sick War Boys, and is given the lovely nickname “blood bag.” In other news, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) is preparing the war rig (a very large, very heavily armored “big rig” vehicle) for some type of supply run. It is soon discovered that five of Joe’s (the evil lord) wives are missing, and that Furiosa stole them. A sick War Boy named Nux grabs his blood bag and heads out onto Fury Road, ready to stop Furiosa, or end up in Valhalla (dead) in the process. In fact, his only mission seems to be to die in combat. Somehow, after a long and valiant battle, the blood bag and his captor Nux manage to not die (which is pretty impressive really) and also catch up with Furiosa and the War Rig.
Max insists on hijacking the War Rig, although it’s not as though he has any pressing appointments or anything, and soon they’re all on their merry way, attempting to out run yet more would-be rescuers. This continues on for some time, and keeps on keeping on, until Furiosa and crew finally make it to their destination, with Nux in tow, who has sneakily managed to hide out on the War Rig, and at some point has changed sides and is now rooting for the “good guys.” They finally make it to what should be “the green place”, some fabled story Furiosa has been telling these wives, and discover that there are only a few of the women left from Furiosa’s clan, and that the “green place” has been dead for some time, and all that’s left are a bunch of seeds and some motorcycles. Since hope is completely dead, they decide to journey on, before Max suggests that they attempt to take the Citadel, which they do, after endless more fighting, explosions, deaths, and driving.
(Spoilers over)
Don’t get me wrong, I love a good action movie. If things explode in it, I’m down to watch it. Having said that, after watching it, I’m not quite sure I see what all the fuss was about. Sure, it was entertaining, but Best Picture? I don’t think Mad Max has a chance of winning, not against some of the other options. I mean, for crying out loud, there’s a space movie which may or may not be sad! (I’ll let you know tomorrow when I see it.) But because I did enjoy myself mostly, I’m going to keep on with this review, to let you know WHY I found it amusing.
My absolute favorite thing about this film is the rich inner world it has created. The synopsis that I just gave you tells you really nothing about the movie, because although it’s a never-ending stream of conflict, there is a complex world that I couldn’t possibly explain. It would take such a long time for me to go into describing the Citadel, and how beautiful and strange a place it is, with the lush greenery at the top and barren wasteland at the bottom of the valley. I wouldn’t even know where to begin if I wanted to talk about all of the disorders, cancers, and other things that I presume come from the whole nuclear contamination situation, and how the only reason Joe is breeding with these young, beautiful wives is because he’s trying to give birth to a human that isn’t deformed in some way. Then there’s the class system which is highly complex and requires viewing in order to really understand it. I don’t know where the commoners came from- don’t ask me. All in all, this film is rich with storytelling, even if much of the storytelling doesn’t actually come from any sort of words the actors speak out loud. It’s still cool, and I would like to see it again if only to try to catch the things I missed the first time around.
Then there’s the great relationship between our two main characters, Furiosa (Theron) and Max (Hardy). It’s so complex and juicy! There’s that whole “I’m stealing this rig to go do my own thing” part which creates a bit of tension and only a few trust issues, and then they bond through the whole “nearly getting blown up thousands of times” experience. And then of course when somebody dies, everyone bands together even more. And somehow we end up at this moment where Hardy is desperately trying to tape Theron back together again because she has about 46 injuries, and Hardy realizes he never told her what his name was, and at the end of the film he just gives her a nod and walks away? That’s crazy. Juicy, I told you. It’s a really complex relationship and it didn’t have to be. I applaud writers George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris. For something so obviously not real, they made the movie surprisingly…well…real.
I don’t actually think this film has a chance of taking home Best Picture, not because it isn’t enjoyable, but because it doesn’t really have the qualities that typical Best Picture films have. The acting is fine, it’s not obviously horrible but it’s not particularly outstanding, it’s all the other things that look so amazing (the sound, costumes, etc.) that they throw up a smoke screen and make you think this is the best movie of the year. Also, I, the queen of all things explosions, found myself checking Facebook in the middle of it. It’s a terrible thing to say, but somehow it gets a little monotonous, what with all the fast driving, ceaseless blowing up of things, barren wastelands, and people dying and going to Valhalla.
Then again, what do I know?
Live, Love, Learn,
Rebecca &