Mad Max: Fury Road

http://www.peterpound.com.au/mad-max...oncept-design/

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Wow.

What's really interesting to me is the timeframe. Look at the dates scrawled in the edges of those sketches - almost all of them are 1997-2002. And aside from minor changes to the physical props most of them are identical to what we saw onscreen. That's 15 years back, a different industry of CGI capability, a different continent of the shooting location, and different lead stars.

Miller wasn't kidding. This really is exactly the same movie he had brewed up 15 years ago when Mel Gibson was still the star of it.

Found this on YouTube. It combines the Brothers in Arms score with clips from the films. It's a pretty awesome tribute.


BTW, I actually listened to the track while watching the final chase in The Road Warrior. Man, it cranked the epicness of that scene up to eleven!

My son and I saw the film and I found it expectantly disappointing.
It was basically one long chase scene with a story that could not be any less engaging to a viewer. Think about it.. does anyone care who Immortan Joe is having children with?? Is there anything about this which would prompt Max to behave the way he did? Where is the necessity for redemption? Max has already gone that route in RW...

Hardy was terrible in the role, all grunting and groaning with zero personality. Jeeze was he terrible!
The vehicles were ridiculously overdone for any post apocalyptic environment. Let alone one with limited gasoline and material resources.

I think what bothered me the most while watching the film is realizing the time for Miller's vision of post apocalyptic society is so damn dated.
There is nothing visionary or interesting about it anymore. The costumes look clownish. Like a bad music video that was inspired by The Road Warrior.
It was a fresh design in 1981 but looks horribly dated today. This is coming from someone who saw Road Warrior in the theater in 1981 at eleven years old and absolutely loved it! I've seen the film way too times! :lol I am a dyed in the wool Mad Max fan.

Just because you had a story you wanted to tell twenty something years ago doesn't mean it should be told. The film was basically a darker version of Beyond Thunderdome with all it's silly characters.

I've been wondering what reviewers are getting paid to claim this film is exciting or interesting. It was a real dud.

I enjoyed it precisely because it felt right out of the eighties. I actually think there is depth to observe
inside the chases and economy of vocabulary. Actors and film makers also work in the visual of course.
I don't think reviewers are getting paid to give positives reviews at all.
I didn't care for Jurassic World much at all, but it is reviewing well and clearly I am in a minority on this forum.
Sometimes we are just out of sync with the populace and reviewers, being human and all and it's ok.
Plenty of hot films I have seen over the years were duds to me. Top Gun, Beetlegeuse, Batman 89.

Yeah, I think the 'throwback' aspect of Fury Road today is part of the appeal.

We aren't really looking to it to be what MM#1 (or even #2) was 35 years ago. At the time that was a big notch more realistic. Decades later we've had a lot of movies explore semi-realistic takes on the near future since then. Miller could have done something closer to that vein again but I don't think it would have been what the originals were. That vision of the future has slipped farther from reality than it once seemed and also just seems very dated in general. (Not that I blame Miller. Several decades of time always do that to an influential piece of artwork).

George Miller's over-the-top nightmare imagery in Fury Road is fun now because most other movies with this level of exaggeration (we got plenty of them in the past, especially MM ripoffs) don't stand up to modern eyes in terms of production quality, stunts, SFX, etc.

Even the writing & character development of Fury Road, although very sparse & minimal, have a solid quality that the ripoffs don't. When a movie is done well there will be a subtle difference in feel between a character that was made simple by choice, or simple by laziness or inability. The Fury Road characters felt simple by choice IMO.


I'm saying that this isn't what MM#1 or #2 was, but nothing ever will be today. Not from Miller or anyone else. Miller went back to MM and basically just ran with whatever aspects of the old movies that he (and modern technology) could do really well/better today. Me, I'm glad he did it this way.

Feraud said:

The vehicles were ridiculously overdone for any post apocalyptic environment. Let alone one with limited gasoline and material resources.

I think what bothered me the most while watching the film is realizing the time for Miller's vision of post apocalyptic society is so damn dated.
...
I am a dyed in the wool Mad Max fan.

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??
Then you knew what to expect, no? Without these things it might be a new and interesting George Miller apocolyptic film, but it wouldn't be a Mad Max film.

Gasoline and materials were scarce in that world, yes; for most. But Immortan has spent, what we can surmise from his age and his position, the majority of his life acquiring these things and hoarding them. The guy had two manufacturing plants under his control, for cripe's sake: the Bullet Farm and Gas-Town. They funneled resources to him. While the rest of the world might be wanting these things, the Citadel didn't have to worry about it.

Are the cars exuberant? Yes! Absolutely! And they would be too if you're part of a culture that likes to show off its might and material prowess!

Really it's the same story Miller has told twice before in the Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome. Max gets pulled into a situation that he doesn't want to be in and the whole thing turns into a big chase scene with Max as the reluctant hero, Fury Road just happens to have a much larger chase scene (the whole movie basically). With each movie Miller has made the costumes and cars more absurd.

I loved the movie for the sheer epic quality of the chase but I will admit that, given how the role was written this time, any actor could have played Max. Hardy was almost comatose at times and did not display the presence or charisma that Gibson brought to the role. Miller it seems is not interested in exploring the character that much and really hasn't since the first movie.

What else is there to know? Max, at this point, is man of legend to people in the Wasteland and the movies are treated that way. People are really hung up on the continuity of these things, and I get why, but even the original movies were treated like glimpses into the adventures of a man called "Max" who came from nowhere and helped others, and went back to nowhere. He's almost a continuation of the "Man with No Name" character that Kurosawa started way back when. Hell, in Fury Road, no one knows his name until the end (Furiosa calls him "Fool").

I agree Hardy doesn't quite have the screen presence that Gibson does but it works in the movie's favor because he's an observer in all of this. Furiosa starts the movie but Max is the catalyst that keeps it going. It would be even more distracting had you had a man of Gibson's caliber just sitting next to all these other players and the audiences' eyes just drift to him constantly; you'd be left wondering "Why's he even there?" Where with Hardy, I feel you know why he's there and accept it because it's so muted.

Oh I don't know it might be nice to have Max have an actual conversation with someone and maybe learn to cope with the demons in his past. Even though I enjoyed the movie I have no desire in the next movie to see another take on the same story with Max in a state of stasis just getting beat up and helping some poor smucks who are being terrorized by another weird villain who needs a wardrobe consultant. In Fury Road the character of Max has been reduced to such a one dimensional level he's not really that interesting as he was in the past.

Was Gibson really that brilliant? He had fewer lines in the road warrior than hardy had in fury road.

He really wouldn't be "Mad Max" anymore if he learned to cope with his problems.:lol

Maybe that will be the movie to end the franchise: "A Man Named Max" or "Mr. Rockatansky". The world takes a turn for the better, civilization starts to rebuild itself and Max takes up a desk job.

astroboy said:

Was Gibson really that brilliant? He had fewer lines in the road warrior than hardy had in fury road.

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Which makes it even more evident that Gibson had the presence and charisma to carry the movie.

PoopaPapaPalps said:

He really wouldn't be "Mad Max" anymore if he learned to cope with his problems.:lol

Maybe that will be the movie to end the franchise: "A Man Named Max" or "Mr. Rockatansky". The world takes a turn for the better, civilization starts to rebuild itself and Max takes up a desk job.

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Really how "Mad" was Max in RW and Thunderdome anyway? He seemed more capable of handling things than those he encountered. He was a loner but not quite so "odd" as Hardy's take.

"Mad Max" is like "Dirty Harry", it was meant as a cool film name to sell tickets.

CessnaDriver said:

"Mad Max" is like "Dirty Harry", it was meant as a cool film name to sell tickets.

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Exactly.

I think this bit of trivia ties into the current topic about not just the design of the vehicles, but how Max is portrayed:

Instead of the reboot being a remake of Mad Max (1979), revealing how Max Rockantasky became The Road Warrior, George Miller decided that the reboot will take place in the post-apocalyptic Australia, years after the new Max (Tom Hardy) lost his family, because he did not wish to do a remake or retell the story that had already been told and had wanted to update the universe and the wasteland and wanted new moviegoers to remember Max as a man with nothing to lose after losing his family.

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First off, the vehicles are suppose to be over the top because of the world. Miller has stated that he wanted the art direction to be beautiful because anyone who lived in the wasteland would try to make their world with whatever beauty they could find. Not to mention, for the cars, I agree that for Immotan Joe's armada, they're designed to invoke fear AND are his personal branding.

So, basically, it wouldn't have matter if it was Tom Hardy, Mel Gibson or anyone else playing the role of Max, as it was Miller's intention to remind us that Max is someone who is a lost soul who has nothing to really live for except for those moments where he helps people. I mean, Max was a police officer. He used to care and help people before the world went completely nuts. And as Max himself stated in the first film, he tried to leave because he was "worried that (he) would become like (the bikers), a terminal crazy." Him losing his family is pretty much drove him past that line that made him being the human being and a former shell of a man. And that's what we got with Fury Road. At this point, Max doesn't care about anyone or anything, basically being nothing more than an animal. And it was his interaction with Furiosa, The Wives and Nux that makes him a human being once more, giving him something to actually care about once again (much like how Nux's interaction with Max, Furiosa and The Wives turned him from a run-of-the-mill, suicidal War Boy who was willing to die for Immortan Joe into a person that cared and gave his life for a much better cause: for people he truly cared about) .

The only thing that people miss about The Road Warrior, Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road is that the whole "pulled into a situation that he doesn't want to be in and the whole thing turns into a big chase scene with Max as the reluctant hero" is Max's last trait from his past life. Those moments end up being necessary for Max, as its the only thing that keeping him from becoming a complete monster like Toecutter, Lord Humungus, Aunty Entity and Immortan Joe. Its those moments of him being a reluctant hero that pretty much gives him a reason to live as well. And at the start of the film, it was one of those moments that lead him to be completely overrun with guilt for failing to help, and Furiosa's cause to help her and the Wives, though not what he wanted to join, ended up becoming his chance at redeeming himself in his own eyes (he probably feels like he's unworthy because he still carries the guilt of not being able to save his wife and son from the first film and the failure of helping those who he has hallucinations of in this film multiplying that guilt). In one of the trailers, he himself states, "I was a Road Warrior looking for a righteous cause." We don't know if he was just saying that as a means of explaining what he was looking for during the events of Fury Road, or if that line (which I don't know if it was present in the film or not) was meant to explain basically who he has become: just someone looking to help and each event has given him a reason to go on. Essentially, he's forced to face the question, "Are you going to help these people, or are you going to become a completely cold-hearted ******* like everyone else?"

Or at least, that's how I see it. To me, each event is Max's way of remaining a human being in a place and time where humanity is a weakness in the eyes of those who are powerful and prey upon the innocent. He does what he can, and when he messes up, he feels guilt about it. And when everything he has is stripped away, only the cause is the last thing he can hold onto.

astroboy said:

Was Gibson really that brilliant? He had fewer lines in the road warrior than hardy had in fury road.

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I think where Mel delivered is when he had to transition from isolated loaner to guy who had no choice but to help in RW. And he conveyed that in his acting as opposed to dialogue. I think he delivered that respect big time. And he had some solid swagger in Thunderdome. Honestly rather then try and wedge this movie into the previous, I just consider it a reboot of sorts.

I think Gibson's Max in RW is pretty overrated in the savior sense. He makes a great "root for the bad guy" protagonist but that's about it. His actions were about 90% self-interested from start to finish.

He "spared" the gyro captain by leaving him in the desert chained to a log in a pretty unsurvivable situation.

He rescued & returned the dying guy to the compound on the promise of all the fuel he could carry.


He drove the tanker after first rejecting the job and then accepting when he had literally no other choice (in his own words).

What else was Max going to do at that point? Stay behind at the compound with no wheels or anything, and get killed by the Humungus's crew? He was wearing black instead of white but that didn't make him any friend of the bad guys. They wanted him dead as much as anyone by then.

It wasn't a great idea for him to hitch a ride with the good guys and let someone else drive the tanker either. (Were they even willing to take him along if he didn't drive the tanker by then? He had already rejected their offers to join them earlier.)

At the time Max made the decision to drive the tanker he didn't know the whole thing was a huge decoy full of sand. He thought their trip was over if the Humungus's crew succeeded in hijacking it. His life seemed to be riding on the tanker no matter who drove it.

Batguy - That Max was doing the whole thing selfishly, but I think that to him it was a fair trade. Yes, he needed gas, but as it was pointed out in the film, he could have easily taken that gas, fuel up the tanker and drive away. Seriously thinking about it, the tanker would be a better road weapon, a rolling fortress if you can scrap together enough metal to re-enforcing every inch of it. Yet, Max didn't. To me, that's a sign that though he started it as a selfish act, it brought the tanker back on good faith, and that because he completed the task, the reason behind whey he didn't drive it when the offer was made was that he thought to himself, "I've already helped these people and I've got my reward. Onto the next task." In the scenes leading up to him going to get the tanker, he seemed like he was making an effort to connect with them, but not fully connect with those people. Afterwards , when they had finally accepted him, he got afraid of caring for them and decided to run. It's like he still cared, putting up this false front of just being no different from the typical scavenger with the exception that he wanted all the fuel he could have for his car so that they wouldn't care about him when he left. It's like he wanted to make sure they didn't like him, to keep his distance from them, but he still wanted to make sure that they got what he needed. So,yes, it is a selfish act, but not the selfish act we think of it (it's he's trying to fulfil the psychological need to do the right thing, the thing that made him want to be a cop in the first place, that thing that makes a person want to be good).

But then again, I could be wrong with this interpretation, but it doesn't make sense that he would have interaction with the Feral Kid if he didn't want to be liked by at least one person in that group if it was all a selfish act.

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