Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

maschinenbau said:

I cannot comprehend disliking Fury Road as a car guy. It's a non-stop action sequence with real, actual, hot-rodded and frankenstein'ed cars and trucks. A rare delicacy in this age of CGI, AI, and cheap jump-cut style filming. Savor it.

But so is The Road Warrior, which actually managed to have characters and a plot.  Plus vehicles that, kit-bashed and weird as they were, made genuine sense as vehicles - particularly as vehicles that were scavenged and salvaged and scabbed together from very limited post-apocalyptic resources.

Fury Road misses out on all that.

In reply to Duke :

Seriously?

Appleseed said:

In reply to Duke :

Seriously?

Yes, seriously:

In reply to Appleseed :

Not at all.  What is this thing even supposed to be or do?  After the apocalypse, that Mack rig makes 1000 percent more sense:

What a waste of precious resources.  That Ford technical is so much more likely.

Duke said:

In reply to Appleseed :

Not at all.  What is this thing even supposed to be or do?  After the apocalypse, that Mack rig makes 1000 percent more sense:

What a waste of precious resources.  That Ford technical is so much more likely.

 

That's....the point. It's supposed to symbolize that in a world where no one has enough, Immortan Joe has such a stranglehold on resources that he can build ridiculous, wasteful stuff, like cramming two '59 Cadillacs together on a chassis with twin engines. Nobody has one of anything and he's got two of everything.

Exactly so. That was even in the design brief for the the Gigahorse.

"In a world where there's barely one of anything, to show you had power, he's the man who's got two of everything.”

– Collin Gibson, production designer

https://madmax.fandom.com/wiki/The_Gigahorse

Duke said:

In reply to Appleseed :

What a waste of precious resources.  That Ford technical is so much more likely.

This is - 100% serious - a really interesting bit of analysis and observation that reinforces the depth of the themes in the story.

It IS a massive waste of resources just to look cool and impressive. It is a wasteful display to set Immortan Joe above everyone else. Other vehicles being used may have stylized embellishments that don't necessarily add to the function, but certainly don't *detract* from it. THIS one does...

In the earlier films, vehicles were modified and hacked together for functional purposes. To turn them into something new in order to survive and gain power. Time has passed, and now the modification of vehicles has taken on an aspect of almost religious artifice.

Men like Immortan Joe have been able to acquire so much power that they take those precious resource and use them to build counter-functional monuments to their status and vainglory.

Not to flounder this thread, but I could seriously use analysis of the themes of Fury Road to comment on the situation behind the SpaceX thread that got locked.

brandonsmash said:

Exactly so. That was even in the design brief for the the Gigahorse.

"In a world where there's barely one of anything, to show you had power, he's the man who's got two of everything.”

– Collin Gibson, production designer

https://madmax.fandom.com/wiki/The_Gigahorse

It's a brilliant detail, and this discussion reminds me of the argument around Pulp Fiction and how Winstron Wolf takes his coffee with "Lotta cream. Lotta sugar." And people going "He's supposed to be a baddass underworld toughguy! Why doesn't he just take his coffee black?!?"

I'll have to take your word for the analysis.  I still think Fury Road is 2nd weakest out of the 4 movies.

Beer Baron said:

Duke said:

In reply to Appleseed :

What a waste of precious resources.  That Ford technical is so much more likely.

This is - 100% serious - a really interesting bit of analysis and observation that reinforces the depth of the themes in the story.

It IS a massive waste of resources just to look cool and impressive. It is a wasteful display to set Immortan Joe above everyone else. Other vehicles being used may have stylized embellishments that don't necessarily add to the function, but certainly don't *detract* from it. THIS one does...

In the earlier films, vehicles were modified and hacked together for functional purposes. To turn them into something new in order to survive and gain power. Time has passed, and now the modification of vehicles has taken on an aspect of almost religious artifice.

Men like Immortan Joe have been able to acquire so much power that they take those precious resource and use them to build counter-functional monuments to their status and vainglory.

I was going to say, the Gigahorse is like Joe; all flash, no substance. He's a paper tiger. Look at him throughout the movie, he's a dying old man who's still trying to make everyone think he's got it. Like how he wears the plexiglass body armor that makes it look like he's got a six pack. He wears a respirator but disguises it as a face mask to look more fearsome. He's got the impressive voice and the big speeches, but he really doesn't personally do anything when he takes the field, the Bullet Farmer and People Eater are both openly contemptuous of him, his wives defy him, his most trusted Imperator hates him and has been conspiring against him for decades. He's barely holding on and he's in denial.

The Gigahorse is impressive and imposing, and it's pretty quick, but it doesn't really have any armor or armaments

If you want realistic vehicles, they would all be on bicycles or horseback. No roads would be traversable by that Mack truck after 50 years of collapsed society, and where is all that refined fuel coming from?

If you think Mad Max is only supposed to be a realistic portrayal of an apocalyptic world, you missed the point. 

maschinenbau said:

If you want realistic vehicles, they would all be on bicycles or horseback. No roads would be traversable by that Mack truck after 50 years of collapsed society, and where is all that refined fuel coming from?

They were literally pumping crude and refining it in the compound that was under siege by The Humongous.  The compound was an old refinery - that's why The Humongous was trying to capture it.

Fury Road was too much Hollywood and not enough um, GRM with what was on hand.

CrustyRedXpress said:

In reply to Snowdoggie (Forum Supporter) :

Miller has the weirdest CV. Academy award for directing Happy Feet, nominated for writing Babe.

I had no idea.  Happy Feet was one of the weirdest kid movies I ever saw.  I couldn't finish it.

Babe, of course, is perfect, despite being half of one of the worst original-to-sequel plummets in moviemaking history.  They drove that franchise straight off a cliff.

Duke said:

maschinenbau said:

If you want realistic vehicles, they would all be on bicycles or horseback. No roads would be traversable by that Mack truck after 50 years of collapsed society, and where is all that refined fuel coming from?

They were literally pumping crude and refining it in the compound that was under siege by The Humongous.  The compound was an old refinery - that's why The Humongous was trying to capture it.

There is also Gas Town in Fury Road, the settlement controlled by the People Eater which seems to be built around a massive refinery. That's where Furiosa was supposed to be heading at the beginning of the film, and her detour in a different direction is what tipped off Immortan Joe.

I have an opinion on Fury Road:

It is a strong feminine statement. For all Immortan Joe's posturing, and the War Boys (effectively, all his countless semen), they are impotent without the female. Furiosa and the wives represent this. They are the most precious resource, because without them, there is no future. This is why they are coveted by Joe. Look at his other progeny-a malformed, unhealthy Corpus Colossus, and a dimwitted Rictus Erectus. Joe has two of everything, but cannot prove himself as a man until he has a viable heir-hence the beautiful and virtuous wives. Furiosa steals what is most important to him. Challenging him in a uniquely strong, feminine way. I think it is brilliant.

Oh, then there's this:

You decide if that is more sexual imagery or not.

I for one, can't wait. Joy is one of the most talented and mesmerizing actors working today. 

Yes I've seen the movies, but I always found it hard to believe that fuel is getting refined in a collapsed society with no supply chains to keep that equipment running, and all that stuff is hand-waived or barely mentioned in the movies. Even consumables like batteries aren't explained. My point is it's not a very realistic depiction of that kind of future, so the cars don't have to be either.

In reply to maschinenbau :

While I do not disagree with you, it's like any fantasy or science fiction - one has to turn off that logical part of your brain when watching. 

wheelsmithy (Joe-with-an-L) said:

I have an opinion on Fury Road:

It is a strong feminine statement. For all Immortan Joe's posturing, and the War Boys (effectively, all his countless semen), they are impotent without the female. Furiosa and the wives represent this. They are the most precious resource, because without them, there is no future. This is why they are coveted by Joe. Look at his other progeny-a malformed, unhealthy Corpus Colossus, and a dimwitted Rictus Erectus. Joe has two of everything, but cannot prove himself as a man until he has a viable heir-hence the beautiful and virtuous wives. Furiosa steals what is most important to him. Challenging him in a uniquely strong, feminine way. I think it is brilliant.

Hence the significance of the line, "I had a baby brother, and he was perfect in every way!" They birthed the first progency born into the post-apocalypse that was not deformed and dying. There was hope for the future. But Joe's covetousness killed the child.

Even as Immortan Joe holds himself above everyone else, he still swerves and wrecks his car in hopes of avoiding running over his Wife - risking his life and the lives of everyone else aboard. He knows she is more important than any of them. But it's not enough.

And as much as it is a brilliant feminist piece, it delves into themes so deeply that it actually repudiates certain ideas that dominate contemporary feminist narrative. The story/moral is not "Women good. Men bad. Smash the partriarchy." We see that the men involved in the story are as objectified (arguably even moreso) than the women. We see how cruel and heartless this is to them. Max is literally strapped to the front of a car as a living blood bank.

But the full treatment of the Warboys is further telling. They are brainwashed into being child soldiers and treated as dispossable by the few men in power. Their greatest honor is to die... pointlessly.

Nux gives us a close-up view of the cost of this. He shows us the tumors growing on him and calls them his friends. These are his friends. Not the other Warboys. Not Joe. The tumors that are killing him. When he shows that to one of the wives, she treats him with care and sympathy, and it's something foreign to him.

Max is an uber-masculine character who's a badass survivor... but he is psychologically crippled. Our titular male hero has his scars on the inside and does not show them. His journey is about rediscovering his own humanity.

Hollywood Oscar-Bait plays lip service to these sorts of themes that a car chase movie tackles in a full, honest, nuanced, multi-faceted manner.

Beer Baron said:

Hollywood Oscar-Bait plays lip service to these sorts of themes that a car chase movie tackles in a full, honest, nuanced, multi-faceted manner.

Funny you should mention that, since Fury Road was nominated for 10 Oscars and won 7. It may not have been "Oscar bait" in the traditional sense, but it sure hooked it's share. 

NickD said:

I was going to say, the Gigahorse is like Joe; all flash, no substance. He's a paper tiger. Look at him throughout the movie, he's a dying old man who's still trying to make everyone think he's got it. ... the Bullet Farmer and People Eater are both openly contemptuous of him...

This just struck me. Those two men *are* both openly contemptuous of him, and yet they deferred to him and followed his lead to recover the Wives.

So... WHY?

Giving the movie the courtesy that it probably had reasons beyond just style... Why would they follow Joe? How did he have more power than the men with the bullets and the gasoline? What did Joe have?

Water. Immortan Joe had control of the water. He had hydroponic farms with vegetables. That's what made him powerful and why his followers treated him as a Deity and not merely a leader.

In reply to Beer Baron :

Or it's a just a chase movie with stunts, and guns, and fire. It can be so many different things to everyone.

Beer Baron said:

NickD said:

I was going to say, the Gigahorse is like Joe; all flash, no substance. He's a paper tiger. Look at him throughout the movie, he's a dying old man who's still trying to make everyone think he's got it. ... the Bullet Farmer and People Eater are both openly contemptuous of him...

This just struck me. Those two men *are* both openly contemptuous of him, and yet they deferred to him and followed his lead to recover the Wives.

So... WHY?

Giving the movie the courtesy that it probably had reasons beyond just style... Why would they follow Joe? How did he have more power than the men with the bullets and the gasoline? What did Joe have?

Water. Immortan Joe had control of the water. He had hydroponic farms with vegetables. That's what made him powerful and why his followers treated him as a Deity and not merely a leader.

That, and they're both businessmen. If Joe wants to indebt himself further to them, they'll be happy to collect on that debt someday