forthwritten | Mad Max: Fury Road

So I like films with sensitive explorations of gender, and I like films with explosions, and Mad Max: Fury Road combines these to pleasing effect.

The setting makes no sense whatsoever - setting massive amounts of, presumably fractionally distilled crude oil on fire in what's meant to be a post-nuclear apocalyptic wasteland doesn't seem like the brightest idea to me but what do I know about massive flames coming out of trucks or, indeed, worldbuilding. What's even happening with Gas Town? It's all pretty confusing.

I loved the dusty, cobbled-together aesthetic - VW Beetles soldered together to make truck cabs, people making ad hoc repairs out of anything they could find, the understanding that you didn't waste metal but should find a use for it. It's something I loved about Tatooine, and something I love about this.

FURIOSA. I have a lot of feelings about Furiosa. She's terrifyingly competent and brave and resourceful and determined and tough - all the characteristics of a male action hero, but on the body of a slim shorn-haired woman with a really cool looking prosthetic arm. Her war rig has a skeletal left arm painting on the side. It's her vehicle; she's left a human mark on it as she straps metal around her shoulders.

For a film with very little dialogue, it passes the Bechdel test. The women characters are so interesting, and all have backstories I want to know about. How did they all end up there?

In terms of problematic stuff, I am not keen on the way that the good guys' bodies were portrayed as non-monstrous while the bad guys' bodies were. Furiosa's disability is not really remarked on, whereas there are some quite obvious scenes where various bad guys' disabilities and prosthetics are presented as something monstrous and unhuman. I think this is seen more clearly through Nux: the War Boys are deathly pale and move with arachnid grace, but by the end Nux's flesh is looking much more skin coloured.

I am very impressed that it ended up being a bunch of beautiful young women, a bunch of tough, wise old women, and Furiosa with men that were distinct hangers-on who both started off being there under sufferance. No one actually wanted these men there; they were not in charge; they had to prove themselves useful or be left to die in the desert.

I actually bit my hands in joy when it's revealed that Furiosa lives. I am so, so happy that she didn't die - that her story arc didn't end with her sacrificing her life to save everyone else, but instead ended with her being lifted into the Citadel, making eye contact with one eye with Max as he slips into the crowds. It's not an arc usually given to female characters and I am so, so pleased to see it.

SO. Did you write meta? Do you know if anyone's written interesting meta? I really liked

happydork's review and this review by

yasaman but would like to read more!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I FINALLY saw it on Tuesday, and have not written anything about it. But I know there were a bunch of people who did, and I will be hunting down their posts over the weekend.

Thank you! Did you enjoy it?

I did, very much.

I found that sometimes there was so much action and fast moving stuff on screen I felt I wasn't keeping up, but afterward I was able to slow it down in my head and process it.

I went with my dad who said as we left that it was the perfect action film, with cars and explosions to get boys to watch, but then you realise it's got a female lead, and most of the good guys are women.