George Miller returning to the world of Mad Max has
something of the action story to it; the old gunslinger, almost forgotten,
returns to fight once more and show the younger generation how it’s done.
He may recently have focussed on dancing penguins (Happy
Feet) rather than the high octane carnage that he made his name with, but with
Mad Max: Fury Road Miller doesn’t just recapture the old magic, he creates
something better than anything he’s achieved before and in doing so hands out a
warning to other action directors out there that they need to step up their
game.
The original trilogy is iconic rather than truly classic in
my mind, introducing audiences to a world on the brink of absolute collapse, ravaged
by environmental decline and man made disaster. Over the course of the three
films we watch Max, a police officer in the first film, suffer and fight just
to survive at great personal cost as the world falls apart around him. Part
classic western, part dystopia fuelled by ‘80s fear of oil crisis and nuclear
war, they build one of the more intriguing post apocalyptic worlds film has
offered. The films themselves had plenty of weaknesses and they haven’t aged as
well as some of their contemporaries (Terminator, Aliens, etc), but Miller’s
skill for action, mood and world building are all on display.
The latest film starts with Max, now played with taciturn
aplomb by Tom Hardy, being captured by the War Boys, a collection of young men
who serve Immortan Joe, a warlord who made himself into a demi-god with the
control of what little water there is in the area. The opening act races by,
almost a little too fast it seems, but as the film develops you realise the
frenetic pace and often slightly sped up action is all designed to keep you
unsettled and immerse yourself in a world where life is short and death is
often brutally quick.
The central plot kicks in when Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a
trusted driver/warrior for Joe, steals an oil tanker as part of an escape plan
for her and several young girls who had been kept as wives/breeders for Joe to
create a dynasty.
All the War Boys from Joe’s citadel and the neighbouring
fuel and bullet towns set off in pursuit, with Max strapped to the front of one
of the lead cars and so one of the longest, most brilliantly inventive car
chases in film history is launched.
Eventually Max is able to escape the War Boys and forms a
reluctant bond with Furiosa and the girls, haunted throughout by memories of
those he hadn’t managed to save.
The film cavorts from one beautifully executed, metal
smashing, bone crashing set piece to another, held together by some solid
character work from all involved despite the potentially one dimensional
character types on display, excellent cinematography and one of my favourite
scores in recent years.
It is a wide ranging score which involves at various points
a mobile heavy metal rig, tribal drumming and soaring orchestral music. Like so
much of this film, shifts in pace, tone and approach that could so easily have
been jarring are handled with delicate skill.
It is also a much smarter film than I expected going in,
packed with subtle moments and nice character moments. Miller understands that
most crucial rule of film making - show, don’t tell - in a way that many action
films seem to forget. Little looks, minimal dialogue and beautifully framed
backdrops build characters and hint at the history of this world. Fury Road is
a film directed with real confidence in itself and the story it is choosing to
tell.
Amusingly Miller seems to have angered some “men’s rights
activists” by having the audacity to have strong female characters and
explosive car chases in the same film, and there is a measure of recommendation
for me in their anger. While the film is certainly never heavy handed in its
politics or agenda, it is refreshing to see an action movie that understands
that female characters should absolutely cover a range of roles, motives and
approaches in the film, rather than the usual narrow spectrum of wives/mothers
or prize. To a number of the characters the women of this film are exactly
that, but they are never just that to the audience and George Miller certainly
deserves praise for delivering a more rounded central group of characters than we’re
perhaps used to seeing. Plus as a general rule if you’re making bigots like
them angry then you’re doing something right.
While the film does have one or two flaws, for example Max’s
visions of those he believes he failed could have been handled with a little
more subtlety, it feels like the height of bad manners to complain about a film
which absolutely knows its targets and hits every one of them.
This is an action film that embraces insanity and intensity
in a way few have, whether it’s the suicidal tactics used by the War Boys, the
scale of the storms that wreck the country or the cult that’s developed around
‘daddy’ Immortan Joe.
Exhilarating in the extreme, Mad Max recaptures an epic tone
and ambition that feels somehow nostalgic. This is very much a 21st
century blockbuster, with all the technical expertise and grand scale that
modern budgets allow, but the fact that George Miller insisted that every car
used should be genuinely drivable hints at the old school director at its
heart. While I’m sure plenty of CGI was used (the death count amongst the stunt
men would have led to some sort of industry wide strike otherwise) it rarely
feels that way. Every impact counts, every clash of metal on metal feels
intensely real and this saves the film from the CGI fatigue that can afflict
the majority of blockbusters these days.
There’d been rumours of a new Mad Max film for several
years, but casting or costing always seemed to get in the way, and I’m glad
they did. Because in the end we got the perfect cast; Hardy and Theron are
superb, Nicholas Hoult, as an eager to please War Boy named Nux, continues to
steal scenes in every film he’s in and the Five Wives each get moments to shine
- Huntington Whitely especially shows that Transformers 3 was misleading and
she really can act. We got the perfect score from Junkie XL and cinematography
by John Seale. We got several of the best action sequences any film has served
up in recent years with the final act providing some truly jaw dropping
sequences. And we got a brilliantly twisted, dystopian world full of little
touches that hinted at a whole host of stories just waiting to be told.
Most importantly we got the right director, a man who showed
that experience and a desire to tell a fresh story in a familiar world could tie
all the insanity and excitement together into the sharpest action film of the
year.
5/5