Mad Max: Fury Road: Eyes Wide Open

           

Not a moment is wasted in Mad Max: Fury Road and not a moment is spent anywhere else but on the edge of your seat. George Millar reboots his post-apocalyptic franchise thirtyfive years after the original Mad Max was released and spends over ten years in pre-production in order to get this film made. But the outcome is well worth the wait. George Millar constructs exhilarating visual candy with a surprisingly strong narrative. The excursion you embark on as a viewer is something entirely different from the previous Mad Max trilogy.

Mad Max harnesses the most oscar wins in the year 2016 boasting six little gold men for the visual and sound aesthetics of the film. George Millar’s wife, Margaret Sixel, leads the editing team to victory with what Millar exclaims to be the very needed “touch of a women.” Millar claims that the editing differentiates the film from every other action flick of the time. Within the 120 minute runtime there is over 2700 individual cuts compared to an average film that tops out around 700 cuts. Needless to say the film is paced at an exhilarating fast rate that doesn't give you a moments rest in the full two hours. But Mad Max is a far distant relative of any chaos cinema counterpart that can be epitomized by any Michael Bay film.

The cutting is congruent making the narrative easy and a thrill to follow. This is due to Sixel who keeps the action center framed in every cut. The viewer's point of interest never changes throughout the film, and what Millar wants the audience to see will come barreling right at them. With each cut also comes a new pulsating sound effect. In every action packed scene (almost the whole film), cuts will jump out like a jack-in-a-box. With a film that boast such visceral triumph one would imagine a lacking narrative. Simply not the case.

Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy, as Furiosa and Mad Max, lead stellar cast of men and women. In a story where a group women fight against ownership from their cruel tyrant leader Immortan Joe, gender is characterized with flexibility. We are introduced to men and women in the beginning under the reign of Immortan Joe, where they are defined as objects. Men are used for war and violence while women are used for childbearing and caretaking. But as the film progress we see some many of our characters break these normative gender barriers.

Mad Max passes the Bechdel test with ease but it is important to mention that this film isn't apart of a “feminist agenda” that some point it out to be. Although it does have strong feminist tones with a staff that boasts the likes of Vagina Monologues creator Eve Ensler, its effects are subtle. Much of the films “made for feminists” make the mistake trying to advocate for the importance of women by telling audience rather than showing. Mad Max is visceral masterpiece and subtly reinforces the importance of gender equality and destruction of “normative” gender roles. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels overdone. Mad Max: Fury Road puts audience member in A Clockwork Orange’s torture chair, eyes glued open and all, without anyone ever realizing.