very fun read, & a fitting testament to the insane dedication it took to make this film.
haters be damned. this movie is perfect.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/12/movies/mad-max-fury-road-oral-history.html?fbclid=IwAR1WDxES7SHg8oClWZ2vKXD7lpK-GIuzux2tBRraB3YuzdUpX8IBPJqT0mk
The Road Warrior is still the high watermark for me.
I liked the film, and there's some great stuff in there, but the cinematography and CGI set it apart from the others in a bad way at times. It didn't have the grit of the first two films.
as an 80s kid who grew up watching the road warrior who knows how many times - the experience of a lot of guys my age - i was skeptical. in fact, i didn't even make it to the theatres to see fury road at the time, one of my biggest movie regrets. (aside - someone in charge please re-release this to theatres to get people back in the seats).
but for me, it surpasses the road warrior as the pinnacle of focused, pure action movie excitement while still giving something that has emotional heft.
with all due respect, & you sincerely get a lot from me, i feel the exact in terms of look & style. fury road has a weight & presence that really sets it apart from almost all other modern studio action films. to me, it's immersive and tactile & just the most fucking exciting movie i think i've ever seen.
For pure action, and pulling off the insane, Fury is tops -- but The Road Warrior plot and theme worked better for me. And as far as the look, I didn't think we were in the same universe as the prior films. And I haven't seen the b&w version of Fury Road yet, so maybe that would help me tune out of the filters and the too-pretty stuff added in post of the color version.
shareThe thing is, Road Warrior was a proper sequel to the first film, one that continued the story of Max Rockatansky, an ordinary man cast down by the very tide of madness he tried to stand against. Heavily modded muscle cars, mohawks and leather assless chaps, amazing aesthetic as they made for, were but the superficial trappings hung onto a brilliant and relatable story about a sane man living in insane times.
Fury Road, on the other hand, seems to be under the impression said trappings were the movie (hell, it could barely be bothered featuring a character named Max in any meaningful capacity) and that just adding image filters, CGI and explosions would make it better. The result is a whole lot of empty bombast.
that's what I was referring to in my second post. it would've worked better with only Furiosa and in a distant future long after Max's days. but when it comes to the action, I understand the urge to deliver on certain tropes as well as going further with them. Beyond Thunderdome continued the story too, but many ripped that b/c there weren't enough of those things. I just wish they had approached all of it in a less pretty, and not so hyper-stylized way, in this one.
shareNice article. The great Miller truly outdid himself with this beast of a film... A masterpiece.
Detractors be damned indeed