I've never been a great fan of action films in general and I think that's probably because of my upbringing and that I was brought up by my Mum who's love for film can be understood through the watching of any Lord of the Rings/Hobbit movie. The Lord of the Rings is probably the only set of films (although they aren't primarily "action") I like that contain any kind of action or violence. Come to think of it I don't have one preferred genre at all.
I've never seen the previous Mad Max films, though I'm thinking I probably should now, so I have no idea how this one pans out in relation to the previous three and I can't really write about that as much. I have seen Mad Max twice (ish) and the first time was when my Mums partner decided to sit and watch a ridiculously horrendous, pirated copy a couple of weeks back. I stuck my headphones in and tried to block it out because 1) I wanted to wait to see it in the cinema and 2) I could hear actual film makers half way across the world weeping at the disgusting quality of what I was (trying not to) watch.
I was first intrigued by my friend Georgia telling me that men were actually getting upset by how deceived they were by the film. This was motivation enough to go and see it because I'm all up for upsetting men who get down over an almost all-female lead cast. Cause, I mean, if there's anything to get really upset over.....
Not that that is what they were getting specifically pissed about but I'll touch on that in a bit.
For those of you who are unaware of the storyline of this specific part of the franchise it is essentially set years into the future. The world has turned to a desert wasteland and this guy called Max (Tom Hardy) is captured by the "War Boys", the army of this weird guy called Immortal Joe who rules over some weird civilisation. Gasoline and water are very rare, Joe has built this civilisation on the fact that he possesses a shit load of water and people choose to stick with him because this slight access to water may give them a chance to survive. Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) heads out with her rig to Gas Town to fetch back some gasoline for the civilisation but heads off the trail, heading East, in search of the Green Place. Turns out she actually nicked off with Joe's 5 wives (who he uses for breeding), basically sex slaves, Joe notices this and heads out wit his army of War Boys and a series of battles ensue as he catches up with Furiosa and tries to take back the 5 women, hence "Fury Road".
So in short, it's about a woman who, with the help of Max and a War boy named Nux (Nicholas Hoult), tries to free a bunch of sex slaves.
Half way through I had some weird epiphany and finally realised why it is I've never liked action films so much: there has never been such a large inclusion of women into the main cast.
Something so refreshing about this film is how many women are given lead roles and how included in most of the action they are, it's far easier to relate and is definitely a lot less testosterone fuelled.
The film touched on so many subjects without having to show them explicitly which was great as I didn't feel like the film makers were throwing subject matter in my face like "HEY LOOK AT THIS LOOK AT THIS TOUCHY AND SENSITIVE CONTENT I'M GONNA MAKE YOU WATCH".
Violence: It's not that I don't like violence it's just that with violence is probably some huge war scene and we've already established I'm not a keen duck on that one. There's a real lack of violence, in a good way, it was extremely tastefully done. The only gory scene lasted for about a second, right at the end of the film, it wasn't even disgusting and I'm pretty sure it was something everyone could see coming.
The matter of Sex Slaves/Rape: again, another topic that was touched on in a tasteful way. At the beginning of the film (as pictured above) we see the 5 wives cutting off these disgusting, metal belts that highly resembled a load of chastity belts, which is really rather ironic. I think it was pretty obvious to everyone what had been going on there without there having to be some horrid rape scene (y'know, just in case the audience were a bunch of morons and just so we all got the gist).
Sexualisation of the women: Even with a group of women, barely dressed in gauze, featured throughout the entire film, I spotted not one shot where they were presented in a sexual or dehumanising way. There was even a scene where a woman was stood plainly naked but they even treat that lightly aka not splaying a shot of her bare tits across the cinema screen for everyone to see.
I think in general the audience weren't treat like idiots.
There were some unanswered aspects such as how and why Furiosa came about having an amputated limb but I think it's pretty obvious that the depth to this character is reflected through how she reacts to situations regarding her disability. The removal of her prosthetic metal arm is often used as a metaphor for showing her at her weakest. Close to the end of the film when all seems lost, we see her remove her metal arm, essentially exposing herself. It really shows Furiosa at her most fragile state and is really a personal moment we don't experience with any other character.
I liked that although the film is entitled "Mad MAX", Furiosa seemed the focal point and sometimes even the main protagonist of the movie. I kept my eyes open throughout for any inequalities between the genders but guess what, that also was treat as it should. Men and women were working together to achieve one goal and they did it without one of them overpowering the other and I felt bloody empowered whilst watching it.
In general there was just great female representation regarding age, size and ethnicity. There was a slight hint at a love interest between Capable and Nux it appeared purely platonic and didn't overpower the central plot.
There is now FINALLY a film that puts women at the forefront without over-sexualising them or putting some weird love interest at the centre of the story and I'm bloody chuffed with it.
xxrachelhelen
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