Mad Maxine: Fury Road 2.

'I thought you weren't insane anymore...'

OK, so, it would appear that there was something wrong with my Bluray copy of Fury Road- I was commenting based upon a truncated version. 

The first viewing, we were in the desert at night, where everything was shot in blue, & the next thing I know, Furiosa is dying, and Max resurrects her. 

I remember thinking, 'that's ninety minutes I'll never get back'...but as I looked at the cover, I realised it's a two hour film.  & I spent six pages lambasting the movie. 

Upon examination the next day, I noticed the disc had some crud on it, & on re-watching it again, I saw that there was an entire sequence involving the land of the ladies, talk of a green place, & and a return to the city showed at the beginning of the film.  So I had basically missed the third act. 

This version is much better- the director's cut.  You really need that third act to make sense of it. 

I don't do movie reviews, but this one raised issues that feed very directly into my book work, so I'll make an exception. 

Upon second viewing, I realised I was watching a giant dream. 

It's pretty obvious on second look, Max crashed his car in the beginning, and was knocked unconscious.  The movie that then follows is his own tortured hallucinations. 

Tormented by the guilt of leaving his people behind to die, his brain tries to cope in the comatose state by manufacturing a redemption dream, to heal his 'Mad' mind. 

So...I am commenting on the movie in that context. 

I understand the conceit- but there are problems with the dream; they perpetuate mythology that is outdated, anachronistic, and parts of it simply doesn't work. 

Some people don't realise it's a dream, because no one stands up at the end and says, 'it's all a dream'.  Nor should they!!  

So they take it literally. 

As George Miller is on record saying he wants us to view this as a feminist tract- then it doesn't really work as such. 

HOWEVER- if it is Max's mad hallucination (& this makes sense) then it does work. 

All the flaws, the dysfunctional sexual politics- are a part of Max's feverish hallucination.

Remember, most of the film is bullshit; stuff happens that is unlikely to happen in a real post apocalyptic world.  Watch the 'Quiet Earth' for a more accurate impression.

I think you will find, the world will end, and limp along with a whimper, rather than a bang.  An even better portrait of people under pressure in a fictional context would be 'Grapes of Wrath.'

If the bomb dropped in that story-  I really cannot see Woody Guthrie strapped to the bonnet of a model T.  This stuff in Fury Road- it's heightened.   

  

Completely unrealistic.  And TOTALLY justified in the mind of an unconscious madman.  

Trust me- I know about these things.  

All that stuff plundered from the first three movies- including the usual car chases, fist fights, muscle flexing (these apocalyptic brutes are very well fed and obviously very well trained), bullshitters standing on car bonnets playing electric guitars in front of Marshall Stacks, the head mutant dude with the toothy sleep apnoea mask, the overcooked dialogue and crap pants posturing, chest thumping, pole dancing & other balderdash...It's all bullshit.  

But it is meant to be- remember, this is all a feverish, mad dream. 

If you don't know it is a dream- just as I thought I was watching the full version the first time- then you don't have all the relevant info, and can go off half 'cock'ed.

Speaking of half cocked- let's face it, this was FURIOSA'S movie.  Max was supernumerary, superfluous.  What the hell was he doing in the movie??

I'll tell you; this was Max's psyche, battling itself.  His masculine, and his feminine self. 

As I said yesterday, these kinds of movies are not made for me; they are made for kids. 

But kids are vulnerable, & they take the movie on face value.  I know I did; & that is because, I forgot for a moment, I am a kid.  It's not just a matter of being a big kid who just can't seem to stay away from that actiony hero's in tights crap.  (I like escapism, but I guess I don't want to lose my mind completely. I am literally a child trapped in an adult's body, learning to grow up; so I view the movie in the same way a child would, but with the added advantage of an adult's vocabulary, & an adults insatiable desire for growth. 

Which is interesting, given that my issues give me a unique perspective from which to evaluate the ideas and themes contained therein, & what they might do to a child's mind.

I need to grow up, and liberate my sexual politics. 

I'm not saying all women are angels, and all men are pricks- I am saying, men could use a lot of work, and I think women are leading the way in that personal work. 

If we don't...we are doomed to an apocalypse like the one in this movie.

If this movie is intended to be a feminist tract, as George Miller claims, then I think it fails.  

Reason?  

Cast your mind back to the end of the film, when MAX saved Furiosa from certain death; I remember thinking, 'are you kidding me???' 

Because after all the other stuff in the movie I have seen before, and seen it done better in previous Mad Max films, this ending added to a bunch of OTHER crap I have also seen before- too often-

and that is the MAN saving the WOMAN.

Let me be clear- he didn't just SAVE her; she had some pretty serious injuries...we are talking certain death.  He RESURRECTED her from the dead! 

She was doomed- a definite goner- George was a Doctor, and he KNOWS the actual consequence of those injuries- that was a SUCKING CHEST WOUND, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, & a few minutes later, she's up and about like a jack rabbit!

Max was Jesus, and he resurrected the woman, anointed her, washed her clean, absolved her of all her sins, and went off on his merry way!

  

You're not gonna' believe this, but you can actually have a movie like this one where thematically,  the woman actually saves the man. 

You can even use 'actually twice in one sentence. 

We humans can do anything if we turn our minds to it. 

It would cost them NO EXTRA CASH to have Furiosa saving Max. 

It would cost no money whatsoever to remove Max, and have FURIOSA the hero- which she was.  

So, if it's a feminist tract- it was a tired, hackneyed short sighted attempt at one. 

A child will see this, and believe it.   

A feminist tract it 'aint. 

Remember, GEORGE started the whole 'feminist' ball rolling in a number of interviews on Aussie TV about 'strong women characters');  Forget the damsel in distress being resurrected by the testosterone charged chauffeur Max- would anyone like to reminisce about that BAREFOOT & PREGNANT woman Max finds in the desert with the other ladies?

If you can make a finely crafted toothy mask for the head bad dude, you can fashion a cool leather figure to go around a pregnant tummy in minutes flat. 

If Furiosa can fit a kill switch to her rig (that shit 'aint easy at the best of times), she can give her sistah some dignity by ripping the upholstery offen' her cabin seats, or protect her with some corrugated iron makeshift armour. 

Is that any more ludicrous than the flimsy thing she was wearing??  

That's all fine, & I swallowed it piecemeal like I swallowed everything else in the movie, but it doesn't make a movie a 'feminist tract' just because you say it is. 

I stand all my comments; the subliminal inference is that MAX is the saviour, & the women, the grateful victims.  Doesn't have to be this way; a woman could be busy saving the men.  This is what the kids COULD be hearing.  If you are going to dip your toe into something- why not be a real man, and go all the way- and make the woman the UNEQUIVOCAL HERO OF THE MOVIE?

Because let's call a spade a spade here- we all know who SHOULD have been the boss of this film. 

The women should have been in charge.  Savin' the men's asses, and taking over, in the hope that maybe the women folk would avoid the nuclear catastrophe the men brought down on everyone in the first place.  THIS would make a MUCH better movie.

 

Because frankly frankly?  Many women in real life do just that, save men's asses, & I would put my life in the hands of a woman before I would a man. 

In my experience, women have a helluva lot more guts than men. 

Indeed, I've seen more men fold like card-tables in the face of adversity than women. 

Not just me.

Now, again- women do not need me as their spokesperson; I'm no bargain, & I would be doing them more of a favour keeping my trap shut about women's business, in all likelihood.

But George started it.  

This is not lip service- this is not brown nosing to women- I expect no quarter, and want none given.  No free goes, no gift vouchers or special passes. 

I really believe all this.  It has cost me dearly to believe otherwise. 

Blood sweat and tears.    

Now, to restore the balance, don't think I have never met a psycho hose beast; I have.  But I think our children could use a few more movies affirming the fact that women are capable of saving men. 

For the men who want some affirmation that the crazy bitches are out there, they can bat off to some of that 'mental bitch gone whacko' porn, like 'Gone Girl', or what have you. 

I would have thought George Miller could have done something different, something interesting, that's all; Furiosa is lying there, on the brink of death, & only Max has the power to perform a miracle?  Yes, Christ was a man, but please...

You want my opinion?

I would prefer young people (& yes, young people are watching this movie- I know for a fact children are getting hold of it)  got a few new messages, like perhaps, ooo, I don't know...a woman can actually resurrect a man?

BUT THEN...this is a dream, right?

Remember?  This is Max, reconciling his male and female personalties, in order that he might go on to live a life as a healthier man, with a better understanding of, and respect for women?

NOW...if it was indeed a hallucination, a battle of identity in Max's mind...

Then THAT I buy.  

THAT kind of story- I understand.  

It's all a question of how you look at it.

I can see this movie, as a child, and as an adult. 

I see some flaws, other's do not.  It's a matter of opinion. 

I could tell you I wrote this entire review in order to thrash out some personal issues with regard to my sexual politics, like Max's feverish dream...

Or I could tell you I am simply trolling my own wall. 

When you are in the process of readjusting your sexual politics...you WILL make mistakes.  

& it will look a LOT like this film.  

Max's Mad mind. 

There will be times you will overshoot the mark, and OVERSTATE the rights and qualities of women by placing them on a pedestal, where many/most of them do not belong.  

Then having done this, you can tend to pull back, and become withdrawn.

Give NOTHING away. 

It's about finding a middle ground. 

In the ending...Max set Furiosa upon the pedestal, so she could ascend to the throne, and he, in the standard heroic fashion, went off to continue his work.  

& there is no doubt about it...Max has a great deal more to do on his politics.  

But he will not do it in a desert wasteland. 

Which is why I write this essay in the first place.  

The movie said things to me.  

It caused me to think some more about my identity as a man, and my relationship with women.  

I have a lot more work to do, raising this child, into a man.  

WELL into my adulthood.  

   

Perhaps that's why I don't have any children.  Because I am a child, and haven't learned to grow up. 

I was raised to see women as second class citizens. 

I am trying- like Max is- to evolve. 

To wander through the wasteland, to the green place. 

It is indeed about redemption, the movie got that right. 

But does the movie send out the right message?  You tell me.  Does it even need to worry about the message it sends? 

Why am I getting so hot under the collar?  It's only a movie. 

Movies plant seeds.  

I'm no feminist, and I doubt women round the world are in any hurry to take me on board as one.    

Next- George Miller doesn't give a damn what I think of his movie, & I am breaking one of my rules here, wherein I swore NOT to put shit on any movie, because the bastards are so hard to make, and even the worst movie ever made cost someone's blood, sweat and tears. 

& until I am working in the movie biz, my opinion is for shit. 

HOWEVER- on this occasion, I will break the rule, & cuss this movie out, because- & I know this is subtle- but frankly, I think we could use a few more movies where the woman saves the man. 

Forget about all the stuff I wrote about the usual car crashes and explosions- this is a fuckin' remake, & re-make means the same crap in different packaging.  Wanna' talk about maturity?  An adult recognises that.  I should can this crap about  “George Miller should have done this & George Miller owes me that because I loved the original”, blah blah blah...

George Miller owes nobody nuttin', except to serve up the same old junk if someone is stupid enough to pay for it, and pocket the bread. 

That's it.  Any nonsense I may be harbouring & smuggling into regular human discourse about him owing me something in this RE-MAKE is bogus bullshit.

 

I should pay my three bucks, watch the movie and be thankful I'm not living in a country that cuts the bejeesus out of films and beheads you for even watching them. 

But- it's about the kids. 

Maybe I am nuts for even suggesting it.

Messing with the status quo. 

But I reckon...a whole bunch more positive female affirmations might just help us avoid this apocalyptic future in which this epic is set.

That quote in the movie, from the 'First History of Man'??  “Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves.”

I don't know where you go geographically, but I can tell you where you go in practical socio-cultural terms; you could let women be in charge for a while...

So that we men, like Max, can take a back seat for a change, and learn how to heal.

We can all lie in our coma, and have an hallucination like this one, that we might heal, 

& allow the little critters in our heads to create a new consciousness...

They work industriously to heal the body of the patient.

Imagine good mythology, more positive, more healthy mythology doing this...

to create a better world.   

one that is not so against women. 

Unless, of course...

this everything around us, EVERYTHING- is all just a dream inside a mad man's head...

????