Mad Max: Fury Road
(2015), directed by the filmmaker George Miller “delivers the sort of
jumbo-sized entertainment that makes you spontaneously break out in
appreciative laughter: The breadth of his imagination and showmanship makes you
giddy” (Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald, 2015). Full of destruction, violence and
weird scenes, Mad Max is a prison escape post-apocalyptic action adventure
film.
Mad Max is also
part of the exploitation cinema where the main themes are sex, romance,
eroticism, violence, crimes, and drugs. The exploitation and the abuse are
represented by the two antagonists: Furiosa (Charlize Theron) who is a feminist
hero, and the Immortal Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) who is an evil leader of war boys
and woman sex slaves.
The whole film is
about Mad Max helping the hero of the story, Furiosa, to free a group of young
women sex slaves from the Immortal Joe. This can be understood as a feminist
revolution as all of these women are fighting against their oppressor without
taking care what they look like and if there are any chances to win. A woman
can be heroic too, and they can also fight for themselves and the rest of
society. Max’s role is quite important though because he is not the hero even
though he is also fighting, and his behavior transmits that violence doesn’t
make him more masculine as the Immortan Joe does.
“Mad Max: Fury
Road will leave you speechless, which couldn’t be more appropriate. Words are
not the point when it comes to dealing with this barn-burner of a
post-apocalyptic extravaganza in which sizzling, unsettling images are the
order of the day” (Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times, 2015). So in conclusion,
even though this fantastic film will leave you speechless, it is an
exploitation film, and women are shown as sexual objects, and it mainly
represents how women are getting more and more powerful. And that also
describes today’s society where women can be the hero too.
Bibliography:
Kenneth Turan
(2015) ‘Mad Max’ kick a post-apocalyptic extravaganza into overdrive At:
http://beta.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mad-max-review-20150515-column.html
Accessed on: 15/12/2017
Illustration List:
Image 1. Mad Max:
Fury Road [Film Poster] At:
https://www.imperialcinema.co.uk/films/mad-max-fury-road/ Accessed on:
15/12/2017
Image 2. Mad Max:
Fury Road [Film Still] At:
http://beta.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-mad-max-review-20150515-column.html
Accessed on: 15/12/2017
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