Review

Mad Max: Fury Road reinvigorates classic film series

By Ryan Funes

September 17, 2015

It’s shiny, it’s chrome, it’ll blow your mind at 100 mph, it’s Mad Max: Fury Road, a film that has gone through so much buzz but still needs stressing of how important it is.

Many of us may know the place, it is what we all fear; A future torn apart by our own greed, a desert of death where everyone is vying for control of the planet’s last resources. This is the world of Max, a road warrior drifting from place to place, trying to survive the hordes of insane drivers and forget the sins of his past. Like his previous adventures, he finds himself wrapped up again in a conflict.

On one side, a cult-like warlord named Immortan Joe who controls all the water there is left, on the other side is Furiosa, a determined former lieutenant of Joe who is carrying his enslaved wives to a better place. Max and Furiosa find themselves together in the midst of this conflict, and realize that they will need to work together, against droves of Joe’s suicidal warriors, against rock riding maniacs, and against the very wasteland itself to find that land beyond tomorrow.

If one kept a pulse on Hollywood over the summer, then this film was inescapable. People were abounding with things to say about Mad Max: Fury Road. Many of which were true, but now that the dust has settled and the DVD release has come, it is now my turn to keep the memory of this film going strong, for everything you will hear is deserved by this film.

I plead in this review to not forget Fury Road in these years to come. I say with great sincerity that so much of this film is important for today in an industry where action in film can be taken for granted. A film that dances flaming vehicles across the screen and runs over your mind with its real, practical crashes and effects should never be forgotten and be appreciated for what it has done.

For all that director George Miller did with this film, not only did he prove that after over 20 years of working in the film industry and only making a handful of films does he still own his distinctive style, but he also knows how to keep it fresh and further the importance of his work.

Crazed violence in cars and psychotic diatribes are two things he has shown to do well in his movies, further coaxing you into the insane world of Mad Max, but what he does further is show the importance of the main focus of his film, and that is the women.

Though many will say Max is the star of this film, they are wrong. The metal armed Furiosa is the true hero in the end, staking everything she has and inspiring compassion and a drive for life in the women she carries, and risking everything to preserve what is remaining and pure in the wastes. The things you’ve heard of this film being feminist we’re not exaggerated at all.

And that may be one of the most important things about Fury Road. Amongst its amazing visual storytelling it has a lot of story underneath. The story of women being abused and treated as property by a dominating patriarchy is a story that permeates many societies today, and it comes across perfectly through the visuals and underlying acting of each person in the film.

One might look at the film and say that this isn’t their thing. One could look at it and say that it’s too violent or weird. But allow me to say to you today that it is many things. It is violent, it has heavy themes, and it is blood-racingly entertaining.

But the one thing all should remember is that this film is for everybody. Everyone can and should watch this film, for there are some things it speaks that we can all understand; if not as a duty to film itself then as a duty to yourself and others. Through the action one can find a glimmer of humanity in the wasteland, and hopefully that can reinvigorate some something in us.

5/5 Stars

Ryan Funes is a lover of all things movie, TV, video games and stories and wants to become a television writer someday. In his spare time he enjoys hanging with friends, tapping into his imagination, and watching cartoons of all kinds.