“Living for the Max” Series:
Welcome to the Living for the Max series. Over the past 45 years, there has been no other film franchise QUITE as inventive nor as consistently exciting as The Mad Max Saga….four films mostly chronicling the post-apocalyptic adventures of lone wolf Max Roxatansky played three times by Mel Gibson and most recently by Tom Hardy. As everyone has been directed by Australian cinematic genius George Miller, they have each reflected his unique vision while also being HUGELY influential on pop culture, more specifically the action genre. So needless to say, new ones don’t come around very often and when they do….it MORE than qualifies as a cinematic EVENT. Therefore over the next several months, I will be revisiting EACH entry of this beloved franchise every month leading up to the U.S. release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga on May 24! (Music playing over)
MAD MAX FURY ROAD – 2015
Directed by George Miller
Starring Charize Theron, Tom Hardy, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whitely, Riley Keoug, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter, and Iota
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Action Thriller (Audio clip)
As clichéd as it has been over the past nine years to lavish this film with gushing praise I gotta say after about the 6th or 7th rewatch - including three times in theaters - that it is 100% deserving of those plaudits. :) This film is LITERALLY the textbook definition of a "ride" in every sense and that comes very much from its simplicity. It's basically a straightforward A to B BACK to A story with a couple of detours mind you but it rarely slows down nor loses momentum.
And yes LIKE its two predecessors, the character of Max (Tom Hardy) is in fact the "Special Guest Star" in a story bearing his name. 🤔I know this was a point of some unwarranted controversy when this came out in 2015 as not only was Charlize (playing Furiosa) as prominent in the marketing but upon first watch, it was clear that Hardy's take on this character was even less dialogue-driven than Gibson but roughly 40% of the runtime, you could BARELY see his face. 😆
I mean despite the ways they start off, both 'Road Warrior AND 'Thunderdome concluded from the POV's of the supposed REAL protagonists via voice-over....Max comes into the lives of these folks and has a huge impact on their stories but it's THEIR stories at the end of the day. The primary storytelling note at the end of those movies is that the gasoline tribe safely got away with all of their supply intact and that The Lost Boys/Girls made it to Tomorrow-Morrow land respectively. AND what's triumphant at the end of 'Fury Road is that Furiosa and crew got back to The Citadel where she is now calling the shots....
Speaking of which, Charlize is fantastic here even with minimal dialogue herself....hers is a forceful, charismatic, and sufficiently sympathetic presence. It's very much a physical performance aided by pitch-perfect make-up accentuating those eyes and the bald dome plus the missing arm of course. SO much of what drives her presence here obviously comes from superior character design but when she shouts, screams, glances, grunts, grabs the wheel.....Charlize makes each moment count!
This is not taking anything away from Hardy as the titular Max - at first, it feels as if his take on this character is a BIT more slapsticky than Gibson's was since so much of the first 40 minutes we spend with this Max has him playing all types of comical frustration. He's running furiously through caves, grimacing under her blood-bank mask, or just....GRUNTING. 🤨 But Tom Hardy has always grunted or growled quite well, better than most....that's part of what has always made his screen presence so unique, he commands your attention as he does here. And as the story progresses, he's using those eyes to maximum effect to visualize how he's on the same page as Furiosa.
Bottom line, this is a story of action told in generally broad strokes....with Nicholas Hoult's sublime performance portraying warboy Nux as its not-so-secret weapon. As an actor, Hoult has just proven again and again that when he plays AGAINST his runway model-like good looks, he can be a truly special actor capable of pulling off anything on-screen. He has arguably the ONLY full-on character arc of the major players and it's no accident that his dialogue scenes with Riley Keough's Capable (hey that's her character's credited name) aboard the war rig truck roughly halfway way through are arguably the film's most touching scenes.
Every set-piece is masterfully executed and some even stand out as their OWN distinct vignettes both well-integrated into the story but strong enough to stand enough on their own if you just have 5 to 10 minutes on YouTube. 😁 Both the massive sandstorm and the long-distance firefight at night....these aren't just kick-ass action sequences but they're both just GORGEOUS to look at thanks to impressive color-grading. We just haven't seen deep blues or fire oranges like this before on-screen!
Moment of MADNESS (From the get-go, the Mad Max series has become widely known for jaw-dropping action sequences often made possible by death-defying stunt work. This would be THE best demonstration of that for this entry in the Mad Max saga.):
And the same of course goes for our two main leads as their relationship is firmly established within just their first hand-to-hand fight when they first meet - each approaches the other with feral aggressiveness at first, chains, masks, and missing arms be damned! 🫣 And we can see how that starts to ease up as they each begin to trust each other more. Simply put, cinema is first and foremost a VISUAL medium - Miller and crew never forget that, their storytelling efforts even THRIVE through it!
Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film):
Disappointingly, Tina Turner did NOT return to perform any AMAZING original songs this time around and we’re back to an original score comprising the music for a Max Max entry….but fortunately, it’s ONE hell of a kick-ass score! It’s conducted by one of the more prolific rising star composers of the past decade….that would be the Netherland’s own….STRAIGHT out of Lichtenvoorde….Tom Holkenborg otherwise known professionally as Junkie XL. Accordin to IMDB, Tom is a full-contact composer meaning tat he’s hands-on at every stage of the composing process…..good way of describing im as he has become very much a go-to guy for many a franchise in recent years including Deadpool, Divergent, and previous episodes Godzilla vs Kong and Batman V Superman….Guess the dude likes VERSUS movies. (Audio clip)
And his score here for this movie MIGHT very well be his best….which makes the fact that it was one of the few areas of this film which was NOT nominated for an Oscar all the more shocking…because it was deserving for sure. Just full-on balls-to-the-wall propulsive action music mostly driven by synthesizers and sequencers but with powerful string orchestration mixed in just to heighten the emotion. (Audio clip)
And for me, the musical highlight occurs about 50 minutes into the movie as Furiosa and Max have sort of joined forces as the war rig has stopped at a major pass waiting to be allowed safe passage by the dirt bike gang which Furiosa cut a deal with. Of course matters just get increasingly tense as several different convoys are now after Furiosa and crew….as they approach closer, she calls to Max to start the ignition and MOOOOOVE!!!! (Audio clip)
As they take off, the dirt bikes swarm around them, Max and Furious start shooting at them….and things just get crazy as the chase is ON with the score ramping up in the background. This is definitely the most aggressive piece of music we will hear for the remainder of the movie….violins scraping faster and faster, alternating with crushing synthetic blasts of sound which almost sound as if they could be reverberating from within the truck itself. This track is referred to as “Brothers in Arms.” (Audio clip)
Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):
Apparently since this film’s vaunted release, there is one aspect of the film which has received the biggest backlash and has possibly aged the worst in some folks’ minds – even those who love this film otherwise – and that’s Tom Hardy’s performance. I don’t know, I guess I have kind of noticed it at points…his accent and verbal affections seem to seem to change between scenes and akin to his Bane performance in The Dark Knight Rises, it even sounds at points as if the volume of his speaking voice has been dubbed too loudly given his surroundings. And I’ll say this…I DON’T think he’s quite as good in this role as Mel Gibson was in the previous three. But given that, I just don’t think it hurts the movie particularly…..it’s more of a purely physical performance and on that front he delivers and never holds the film back. Overall I feel like he still works for this film and beyond him, I don’t believe that ANY other talent was wasted in the production of this film.
Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):
We don't need any particular exposition scenes establishing Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's The Splendid Angharad (again how she was credited) as a character....we can see that all in how she handles herself as a human shield during one particularly intense high-speed exchange early in the story. This particular scrape-up might also be one of the more exciting setpieces in the film for that very reason. Just that LOOK of assured defiance which she gives Immorten Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne giving an impressive physical performance even underneath SO much cover-up) as she's hanging off the side tells us everything we need to know about her character’s mindset.
MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):
Of course the primary focus of George Miller's long-delayed opus isn't character growth....it's ACTION. ;) And thanks to top-flight technical work across the board, this fourth entry in the Mad Max Saga more than delivers in that area! This film deservedly won six Oscars for Sound, Production Design, Makeup, Sound Editing, Costume Design (of COURSE), and most importantly.....EDITING for Margaret Sixel (Miller's wife and long-time collaborator). Sixel had the unenviable task of whittling down more than 600 hours of footage shot over two years out in the desert into something cohesive relying mostly on storyboards, many of which were developed by Miller's twenty years prior. :o
That this film turned out as well as it did is something of a minor miracle. You had dozens of top-flight stunt crew (including several Cirque de Soleil alumni) performing most of the auto-based insanity in camera! resulting in a story which is mostly told THROUGH action which makes it all the more impressive! Just as an example, Zoe Kravitz' Toast the Knowing (wow ok, they really got wordy with these names!) during her moments of gathering up fire arms and ammo in the war rig...she's clearly adaptive and resourceful. (Audio clip)
It all really comes together beautifully thanks to the tireless efforts and creativity of TWO individuals….you heard that right….TWO folks. I’m referring to the Dynamic Duo who spent much of two decades crafting and finishing the Ultimate Action Movie. George Miller and Margaret Sixel are your CO-MVP’s.
Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Overall, George Miller didn't just deliver a satisfying, rousing action/adventure to rival the best of them, regardless of franchise....T2, Aliens, Hard Boiled, Die Hard, Skyfall, The Raid 2, Children of Men, Sorcerer, The Matrix....he directed a moving image work of art.🤗
Streaming on Apple TV and Max
And that ends another SHINY AND CHROME review!
