my favorite thing about this is that each of them is walking in a different direction, it’s like these girls are off to conquer the entire goddamn world
The point of going back to the Citadel, for Furiosa and Max anyway, was never about surviving or succeeding. Neither of them actually believed that they would make it.
The point, for them, was the run itself. Because it was the attempt to succeed that would redeem them.
There is no safe haven in which to seek refuge, no hidden Eden to which you can return. The utopia of your youth is gone, and it doesn’t matter whether it was destroyed or it never really existed beyond your idealizing memories. You cannot ride away into the sunset and find a magical land of escape, safely separated from your old, ruined land by an ocean (of salt).
You must turn around, face the reality of your broken world, and fix it. Or die trying. Only this can save you.
“Whatever was the center point of that shot had to be in the center of frame. In the faster cutting that [George Miller] has got your eye won’t have to shift on an Anamorphic frame, won’t have to shift to find the next subject when you’ve only got 1.8 seconds of time to do that. That theory of not having to move your eyes and being able to fast cut and it just goes bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, takes you into it, and the is basically the whole of the film. All we would hear all the time on the coms was George [Miller] saying “PUT THE CROSS-HAIRS ON HER NOSE! PUT THE CROSS-HAIRS ON HER NOSE!” and you put the cross-hairs on Charlize [Theron]’s nose. You didn’t offset to grab any of the information in the background, the camera had to be in the center, it was very disciplined that way, everything is symmetrical.” – John Seale, DoP
Just some impressions from the making of Fury Road to remind you that they used as less CGI as possible. Thank you George ♥
George Miller the realest person you’re ever gonna meet.
are you fucking kidding me that was two straight hours of ACTUAL EXPLOSIONS
The best part is that, from my understanding, there were quite a few scenes where George Miller said “No this is too dangerous we’ll do this in post” and the rest of the crew was like “NO LETS DO IT NOW WE CAN DO IT”
are you telling me this was fucking cirque du soleil in the desert with fucking explosions
Tom Hardy described it as slipknot meets cirque du soleil
What’s really incredible about Mad Max: Fury Road is that our titular, brooding White Male Lead in an Action Movie™ is given no opportunities to appear badass or heroic unless he’s working as a team or directly helping the women.
We see Max alone in the desert, all brooding and action-hero-y, clearly haunted by a tragic past… and he’s immediately captured, chained, humiliated and spends the next half hour tied up and useless while Furiosa is off getting shit done.
Then he gets free and he comes in waving a gun around and embarrassing himself. It’s not until Furiosa calms him down, wins him over, and he starts following her orders that he’s allowed to appear properly badass – in an action sequence that begins with him handing her a gun, and which progresses with the two of them working as the ultimate teamwhile the girls help him as much as he defends them.
Then they’re in the Night Bog. Max fails to hit the Bullet Farmer and instead becomes a prop to steady Furiosa’s shot. Then he runs off on a solo mission and it doesn’t even merit screen time. Some dude lone wolfing it to kill a scary bad guy? Who cares. Let’s watch Nux running in front of the rig and the girls cooling down the engines instead.
Then comes the final chase. Max is undeniably awesome, but he is only allowed to be awesome because all of his efforts are dedicated to helping and protecting his weird new family. And the instant he hears Furiosa is hurt, all of his badass moments are pivoted around reaching her. He fights a hundred war boys, jumps over trucks, swings off poles, sets of explosions, beats someone with a flamethrower guitar, just so he can be there to catch Furiosa once she has killed the big bad Immortan Joe.
And, of course, his biggest heroic moment in the film isn’t even a cool action sequence or taking out a villain – it’s saving someone’s life. It’s being selfless and compassionate. It’s expressing love and humanity. It’s acting as a nurse and donating his blood. Max’s triumph is fixing something that’s broken.
Then, at the end, instead of being rewarded with a sexy girl and something else cool like most action heroes, Max gets nothing.He gives everything to Furiosa – his love, his loyalty, his fighting skills, his blood, his name – and he takes nothing in return, nor does he feel he is owed anything. He is content simply to help her, and thanks to this love and selflessness he was able to achieve some kind of redemption.
In Fury Road, a man’s heroism is not determined by how strong or tough he is – it is defined by how willing he is to love, help, support and protect others, particularly women, while demanding nothing in return.
It’s interesting doing these press junkets and having people come up to me and say, ‘All these strong women, strong women.’ It’s like well, we’re just actually women in this movie. We had a filmmaker that understood that the truth of women is they are powerful enough, and that we don’t want be put on pedestals or made to be super, unnaturally strong and capable of doing things that we’re not capable of doing, but what we are capable of doing is really interesting, and really informs a story like this especially. — Charlize Theron
just moving along like everyone else 