Mad Max: Fury Road

Director: George Miller 2015

Reviewed by: Gail Spencer

Back in the day, films were made from concepts and ideas, with little revenue and the popularity would justify a couple of sequels. The original Mad Max (1979 and hereafter MM)was made for $200,000, put both Ozploitation and Mel Gibson on the map (he had made a soapy soppy TV movie with Piper Laurie called 'Sam' before MM, but the post-apocalyptic outing of George Miller made him a megastar). Prior to the need for risk aversion in film making, the likes of MM were cult hits and made tons of money. Figures on The Numbers (dot) com suggest that the release of Mad Max: Fury Road will inspire a new found interest in the original three. Prior to the onset of found footage and The Blair Witch Project, MM held the record for least outlay/most receipts ratio. It spawned two sequels (the third starring a camp Tina Turner at the height of her eighties success and a top hit to go with it). This release is supposed to be an addition to the triumvirate as opposed to a (yawn) remake of a well-loved classic. 

Mad Max: Fury Road is an incomprehensible mess as a narrative with relatively little time or patience with character development or motive concerning itself mostly with pace, action and production design. A fantastical amount of machines were made for the film and it takes place in the context of a car chase and escape mission. This will appeal to the video games market and it is consciously aware of the predominantly male, young target audience who will whoop it up. 

There are continuity flaws which are gapingly sufficient to drive a manmade diesel fuelled truck through, the biggest example is the consistent and irritating switch of a semi oiled/clean face of Furiosa, played by the ever gorgeous Charlize Theron, who is rescuing five wives of the arch villain who regardless of cramped conditions, tons of dust and dirt, manages to adorn pure white clothing and flawless skin throughout the proceedings. . 

It begins with the hero Max (played by the wonderful and brilliant Tom Hardy, worthy of much better) making, or rather breaking his way out of an imposed existence, reminiscent of the production design and story premise of Apocalypto where there is a barely controlled madness overseen by an oligarchy of despots, with, in this instance, those in control depriving the citizens of water.  Max spends most of the film wearing a hideous metal face mask on the front of a car driving at a squillion miles an hour being chased by at least twenty more cars, one of which has a guitarist on top of it playing a guitar that omits fire.

The consistent  and irritating flashbacks we are given POV Max, have no context, structure or explanation, mostly in the form of a deranged child. Everyone is stark raving mad with no historical context presented of a better existence, but just the need for hope and redemption. 

The noise is the biggest star in the feature. It was/is deafening, but the effort in the machinery, the action sequencing and the driving skills impressive sufficient to be breath taking. The makeup and costumes, very impressive and the 2nd and 3rd AD's (assistant directors) will have worked very hard. It is worth seeing for the spectacle that it is, but in spite of its impressive action, it lacks the staying power of the original: all effort is made after viewing to get the noise out of the head of the viewer. 

There is a controversial pop video somewhere with the scene of a scream being blown into the face of an old lady with sufficient force to ripple the skin. Go prepared for similar treatment and effect. 

Some number crunching: Mad Max in 1979 cost $200,000, but to date has taken $99,750,000. This is a budget to takings ratio of 498/1. Mad Max: Fury Road cost $140,000,000 to make and has taken (at time of press), $229,989,536. To be the equal of its predecessor, that figure would have to grow to 69 billion, 720 million. Yeah, right. That's doable. Somehow somewhere the cult classics of now, tapping into the social mores of now are being made, or thought about. Pray that is the case. 

On general release now.