Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Australia/USA
directed by: George Miller
written by: George Miller, Nick Lathouris, Brendan McCarthy
starring: Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne
seen: 28th July, 2015, comment reworked: 28th August, 2017

At the very beginning thoughts like this crept into my mind: "What the hell is that? Who the hell is that? What the hell is happening?" My brain needed a while to start to grasp what was George Miller's ultimate goal. The first thing that got it was my heart: It was drawn in by passion (intense, driving, or overmastering feeling or conviction; ardent affection; a strong liking or desire for or devotion to some activity, object, or concept not dependant on rationalization) and it made me feel like I could follow Furiosa if necessary. (Charlize Theron makes me so much more happy in a role like this than in those basic "women power" films like North Country). Nobody, not even once during the whole film, uses the fact that Furiosa is female as a way to insult her. And that is so beautiful. I even managed to stay on my exercise bike for 82 minutes while watching Fury Road which is a record-breaking time for me. It is that much captivating.

Only later I began to realize that I'm watching a master class in showing, not telling. The subtle storybuilding nuances, where every opening situation is mirrored in a corresponding closing scene, where the original meaning is shifted and declares an evident character development. Characters, situations and ideologies are shown in medias res, the context can be deduced or imagined. This furious fantasy world works on a similar basis as Tarantino's Kill Bill - After I accept that gangsters and hitmen use katanas and follow honor codes, I don't have to question the logic of the story and everything makes perfect sense. The world of Mad Max work the same: It's crutial to accept that the civilisation reforming in the wasteland comes up with a few rules of its own. Dictator brings a special truck for drummers and a guitarist from hell on his war conquests. The man with unearthly strenght has wits of a small child and wears a necklace made from heads of baby dolls. The face of the most prized wife was scared by her own hand as an act of personal defiance.