I am old enough to have seen the original Mad Max when it had its US debut back in the early 1980s. It was a crazy adventure thriller, basically one long car chase, with a lot of death and injuries. It was set in a dystopian future.
Fast forward 35 years and a new Mad Max is released. It is also a crazy adventure thriller, basically one long car chase, with a lot of death and injuries. It is also set in a dystopian future. I wasn’t all that excited about seeing it until I read comments online about the public reaction to it. It turns out there were some men pissed off because, while it does have Max in it, and he plays a big role, the main protagonists are a group of women escaping from captivity. This made me want to see the movie. I like seeing strong women overcoming harsh situations and thought that would be a good twist in the story.
After an opening scene showing the capture of Max, the movie turns its attention to Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron. She is leaving the Citadel, the enclave of the tribe, in a huge tractor-trailer. She is driving it to another enclave across open desert. She is a hard ass truck driver with short-cropped hair, black makeup covering the top half of her face. She has a large group of vehicles going along with her for protection. Mid-way through the trip across the desert she veers off course. She convinces those escorting her that there has been a legitimate change of orders.
Max meanwhile has escaped and is following the same route. He eventually engages with the escorting vehicles, who have realized the truck driven by Furiosa is going rogue. Mayhem ensues as you might expect, with a three-way battle between the escort vehicles, the truck and Max. Eventually Max is left unconscious near where the truck has escaped, now temporarily safe from their pursuers.
This is the scene Max finds when he awakens.
Along with Furiosa are 5 young women. They have been hiding in the truck and Furiosa has planned all along to help them escape. From what, we aren’t sure exactly. Later we find out they are the 5 wives of the evil leader of the tribe. One is pregnant.
They are all supermodel thin and minimally dressed and this is ok in the scheme of the movie. They were pampered captives, coddled and protected, not forced to do anything physically demanding or harsh so it makes sense that at the beginning they act that way. Unable to do much but be scared. They try to help but aren’t of much use. Furiosa is the only warrior.
Fast forward to the middle of the movie. While Furiosa and Max have been fighting non-stop the five women have been looking worried and scared. They are minimally involved with the fighting. They have helped a bit in tending to some wounds and fixing some things on the truck. They have loaded a gun or two. What they haven’t done is evolve and develop. This in spite of the fact that along the way they have met up with a tribe of older women who are fighters and warriors. Do they learn from them and take their place as they fall in the fight? No, they don’t.
Fast forward to the end of the movie and, spoiler alert, good has triumphed. And the 5 women? They are basically the same women we saw at the beginning of the movie. Why is that a problem? Because they and their truck were under attack for the past 2+ hours of the movie and they didn’t transform into warriors, into mechanics, into drivers, into intellectual leaders. Do they learn from the older women and take their place as they fall in the fight? No, they don’t. Do they learn from Furiosa, Max or Nux, an unlikely hero who joins their ranks? No, I don’t think they do.
Max and Furiosa don’t develop either. But in some ways they don’t have to since they are already where they need to be given the plot of the movie. Actually there is only one person in this movie who does evolve and develop and that is Nux, the character who starts out as a villain and becomes a protector and hero for the women.
One might ask, so what? Why can’t some not end up being warriors? That is true, and if one or two of them didn’t that would be ok. But when none of the five make any progress in becoming warriors and war is the only thing happening in the movie, then a great opportunity is wasted.
And that’s why, in the end, I was disappointed in the movie.
Review © 2015 Marty Coleman
So in the span of about 48 hours in a long desert car chase… 5 women who lived decades as harem slaves are somehow supposed to transform into ‘warriors’ who can not only shoot but AIM at moving targets? Know how to use a firearm or melee weapon? Stand the iron will test of close combat? Yeah… right… totally plausible.
I found just the opposite… that somehow over about 2 days Mad Max goes from someone who barely functions above instinct and can’t even express himself though a full sentence somehow transforms into this team leader who can formulate a plan to go back. Somehow he’s now socially skilled to convince a group of people to head back directly into danger. That somehow the cure for this PTSD is 2+ days of battle and the trauma of loosing some of his new ‘friends’.
yes, because none of it was realistic so them transforming or not were equally valid choices within a completely implausible scenario. The writer and director chose to have them not transform and I think it was an opportunity lost.
I think it may have been a bit much to have them develop that drastically, in the sense that it may have been unbelievable. They can’t get stronger or practice fighting because they sit in a vehicle all day and all night. To their credit one of them carried on the tradition of growing plants from the older clan of women, another sacrificed herself (albeit accidentally), which I think is a very noble thing and indicative of HER development from a coddled infant-like woman into an independent and brave warrior-like woman.
There is some truth to that. My feeling is that since the whole thing is unrealistic in the first place, having them become warriors (or at least some of them) in a short amount of time wouldn’t be out of place in the plot or character development.
This movie was great, all 3 times I saw it. Loved how the breeder slaves had some knowledge of their environment and weren’t totally useless. A strong woman partnered up with a madman and liberated the girls and her people. Nicely done!
Want to nit pick a flick, try age of ultron instead. Boy was that awful to sit thru after seeing fury road.
This wasn’t a woman coming of age movie about 5 former slave women who become senators in a 2 hour movie. It was a 2 hour movie about a woman who partnered up with a madman to liberate a small group of women, and in doing so liberated an entire culture.
Seent it 3 times. An instant classic! Can’t wait for the next one!!
Now age of ultron, if you want to find fault in something, plenty there!
Yes, it was that. But it also had the opportunity to show the 5 women’s development out of slavery into something more and I think the writers missed that opportunity.