At the end of the day, Mad Max: Fury Road is the perfect culmination of what makes the Mad Max franchise so iconic: uncompromising vision, kinetic and hyper-focused filmmaking, and a double-shot of gasoline-soaked insanity for good measure. Despite the entire film essentially being one long chase sequence, it was carefully crafted in order to never let the action feel dull, excessive, or useless at any given point. On top of that, Mad Max: Fury Road came out as one of the most visually stunning films of the entire decade, with an impressive soundtrack to boot. There's even a social relevance driving the heart of the narrative, with Charlize Theron's Imperator Furiosa representing a militantly rebellious style of feminism, rejecting male dominance and the toxic masculinity of Immortan Joe's warboy culture. The production clung to a strict adherence to practicality in its filming, resulting in a non-stop chase sequence that feels simultaneously absurd and over-the-top as well as realistic. The movie's inspired production design was instrumental in creating a unique vision of the Australian wasteland, one in which the strong exploited the weak, a central theme of the film. George Miller's unshakeable vision allowed him to return to a world that hadn't been seen since the 1980s, injecting it with the same nitrous-fueled energy that had made the original films so popular while reinventing the character of Max for a new generation. It's difficult to pin down exactly what it is about Mad Max: Fury Road that makes it the best of the franchise. Related: Mad Max: Fury Road - "Shiny And Chrome" Meaning & Mythology Explained As a result of a $4.5 million budget, the action in the second film was much more high-octane, with increasingly complex stunts and multi-layered car chases. This marks a shift in Max's character towards a traditional Western archetype the lone gunslinger with no place of his own. While the first Mad Max movie presents Max's plight as a quest for revenge, The Road Warrior is the first in the series to introduce the recurring idea of Max as a legend of sorts, with each film being narrated by a character that he's helped in some way. His self-centered motivation is put to the test when he discovers a compound of survivors besieged by a violent gang of motorists known as the Marauders, and reluctantly decides to help them. The second film in the series, The Road Warrior is an exceptional sequel because it manages to take everything that works about the original and dial it up to 11. It picks up with Max, haunted by the memory of his family, wandering the wasteland as a drifter concerned only with survival. While budget restraints prevents the movie from having the full on post-apocalyptic feel of the later installments, the insanity that runs through the veins of the franchise is very much prevalent in the original film. Each explosive car chase was meticulously staged and shot due to the lack of resources required to do them multiple times, making for a movie with practical action that was complimented by the very real sense of desperation felt by the cast and crew. The result is a movie that borders on the edge of societal collapse, with Max's spiral into madness contrasting against the slow descent of civilization into chaos.īecause of the shoestring budget, Miller and the crew were forced to rely on guerrilla filmmaking tactics to make the wasteland action feel real and palpable. While it's one of the movies responsible for the post-apocalyptic craze in fiction, Miller originally didn't intend for that to be the case, only choosing to set the film in a dystopian future because he believed that it would make the violence more realistic. Related: How The Mad Max: Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition Transforms The Movie
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