Mad Max: Fury Road

"WITNESS ME!"

This souped-up monster truck of a movie recently had its ten year anniversary, and I happened to notice we do not have a review for it. I'd like to fix that.

Fury Road is the fourth installment in George Miller's Mad Max universe, in which wars over dwindling resources have plunged most of Earth into a dystopian nightmare and forced a lone wandering hero to emerge from the chaotic wasteland that is now Australia.

I came to know this world through my dad's VHS copy of Mad Max 2, though it was titled The Road Warrior here in the states. That was a very captivating movie for my kid self. It had the distinct vibe of something that was evocative of a grim future while also reflecting ancient times and heroic myths of old. I didn't see the original Mad Max until I was in my early twenties and never did see the third movie Beyond Thunderdome, to which Fury Road is the followup.

For awhile, Miller left that wild and weird mythos behind and made more family friendly pictures like Babe or Happy Feet (and their sequels). Then, in 2015, Miller brought Mad Max back to the big screen with gusto and legendary craftsmanship. Mad Max: Fury Road is an action film for the ages. Epic cinema at its finest.

Though the clear artistic vision behind it cannot be understated, a lot of this film's brilliance is able to shine through because of its simplicity.

The plot is fairly easy to grasp — the movie is, for the most part, a very long and elaborate chase sequence. And the approach to the plot and characters is likewise minimal. Most of the story is driven by actions being performed, and there's an economy of words to the dialogue; it's driven more towards characterization, with minimal exposition. That's where Miller's vision comes through. This is show, don't tell storytelling at its finest. Our introduction to Furiosa, Immortan Joe and his cult-empire is explained more through visuals than dialogue. Max, the main character, barely says anything for most of the runtime, but it's always pretty clear where his head is at thanks to Tom Hardy being as great at acting with his physicality as he is with words.

But don't let the basic story and the sparse dialogue fool you. This a very well-written movie, in addition to being an action extravaganza.

There are many different elements to this rather narrow plot, and all of those elements work. There's, of course, the titular hero who spends the first half hour or more desperately trying to escape Immortan Joe's War Boys. Then there's the secondary plot involving the film's more prominent hero, Furiosa, a clear-eyed and battle-scarred woman with seniority among the War Boys, who uses a routine supply run as an opportunity to make her own great escape along with Immortan Joe's “prized breeders.”

The movie starts to evolve when the two plotlines converge, the escape story becoming a tale of redemption. Max is a very reasonably self-centered person in the beginning of the movie, but being forced to fight alongside and work as a team with Furiosa's party starts to soften him up, of course. I and many others also found it refreshing when it turned out that the film is surprisingly feminist in nature. While Max mostly acts as a man of few words, Furiosa is a greater force as the character leading the action and driven by a compelling backstory that will feel clearer than Max's for anyone who hasn't seen the other films. The girls Furiosa is rescuing share her theme of women escaping the bondage of cruel men and reclaiming their lives. At a certain point, the movie is about a bunch of badass survivor women and their two weird guy friends going up against an obnoxious gang that pretty much runs on violence and toxic masculinity.

Even that side of the plot is its own source of entertainment throughout the movie. As insanely over the top and savage as Immortan Joe and his various minions are, their self-serious commitment to all of it is hilarious and our vague insights into how their little society functions is fascinating in many ways. It doesn't hurt that Joe himself is a pretty cool villain. He and the War Boys are like a cruder, scaled down version of Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers from Star Wars. All of the antagonists are extreme yet delightful to watch in a macabre way.

And this is all set against some of the most impressively realized action sequences seen in years, each one distinct and flowing almost like a short story onto themselves. Even better, a lot of it was filmed practically. Real choreographed stunts, real vehicles smashing into each other and real explosions in the desert. It might be some of the best mixing of practical and CGI filmmaking ever. All with breathtaking cinematography, heavy-hitting sound and deft editing.

So there's a lot on offer here. It's a movie that is, in many ways, perfectly calibrated and executed. If you haven't seen it yet, I recommend you give it a go.

Bits and pieces:

* The film is written well, but it's not without flaws. For instance, this movie really doubles down on the impression from The Road Warrior (and I assume Beyond Thunderdome) that the world after the first Mad Max has just become this grim fantasyland of violent mayhem where time is sort of hazy. This film introduces societies that are implied to have been around for decades, and yet Max is still fairly young. Obviously, it's not an issue if this is the only movie you've seen in the franchise, but it's worth noting regardless.

* Immortan Joe is played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, the same actor who played Toecutter, the main antagonist from the original Mad Max. That's two very different villain vibes right there.

* The casting director definitely earned their keep when it comes to Immortan Joe's wives: Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley of Victoria's Secret. And not one of them is treated like just a pretty face, they each have a clearly defined character and give good performances.

* I would liken Mad Max: Fury Road to Tron: Legacy. Not the deepest movies in terms of plot, but they are superbly crafted sequels that breathe new life into the captivating aesthetics of the original films.

* The War Boys are definitely some of the most unique disposable henchmen I've seen. They're absurdly entertaining due to their rabid insanity and fervant desire for glorious deaths, but Nux's character really highlights how their very existence is sad to think about.

* You would think Furiosa is the name she got when she earned her place among the War Boys' ranks. The revelation that it was the name she was given at birth makes it even more amusing than it probably should be.

* Despite being set in Australia, the movie was mostly shot in Namibia. This also adds to Fury Road's low-key fantasy vibe.

* Perhaps my favorite random thing in the movie is The Doof Warrior, a bizarre electric guitar shredding weirdo who leads the orchestra accompanying Immortan Joe's war party.

Quotes:

Immortan Joe: "Do not, my friends, become addicted to water! For it will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence!"

Imperator Furiosa: "We fang it!"

Nux: "Oh, what a day! WHAT A LOVELY DAY!"

Furiosa: "Out here, everything hurts."

Immortan Joe: "Ah, MEDIOCRE!"

Max Rockatansky: "You know, hope is a mistake. If you can't fix what's broken, you'll, uh... you'll go insane."

Five out of five war rigs tearing ass across the Outback.

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