Mad Max: Fury Road - Lions and Tigers and Tom Hardy and Teal and Orange Oh My

xp you really can follow the plot visually. even the craziest chase scenes with acrobats and several things happening at once have very specific visual throughlines

the local theater was showing clips from other post-apocalyptic movies before the showing of Fury Road. I remember that UK-set movie Doomsday was one of the clips and it was just such visual garbage compared to what I was about to see

I took my dad one night and an hour in he told me "I have no idea what's going on" and asked afterward "isn't it good to have, y'know, a story?", but he was always very traditionalist when it came to film narratives. everything had to be linear and spelled out.

think also perhaps we were eased into the storytelling style of Mad Max by the previous movies, where the original MM had the closest thing to a structured storyline and then eased more full-throatedly into the full-on atmospheric worldbuilding by MM2.

A big reason some people find Fury Road perplexing is that it tells its story almost entirely through visuals, it reminds me of silent films. So many newer action films overload you on exposition, which I think people have gotten used to listening to while they scroll at home. It's unusual to have a film that you have to be looking at the entire time to understand what's happening.

Exactly, it expresses through immersion. It also rewards repeat viewings and diving into the details of each scene or even frame. In the video game sphere you have games like Elden Ring that are inscrutable and don't explain anything to you in a direct way, and I bet the same people perplexed by Fury Road probably would feel similarly about From Software games too

btw I hadnt noticed before but splendid falls from the war rig and dies because she slips on the blood from the wound she received from max's bullet

― nomar

as I said elsewhere, there's no universe in which Anya Taylor-Joy grows up to be Charlize Theron

at least we know for sure that Mel Gibson grew up to look like Tom Hardy

Hardy sucks too, FTR. He's one of the worst actors currently working, and Theron saved Fury Road from him.

rong

is hemsworth’s nose practical or CGI?

hardy was perfect for it. up himself, selfish, oddly timid yet fearless when it really mattered

He’s also super hot.

One of the best aspects of "Fury Road" was the bait and switch of dangling out Hardy/Max as its main character, but revealing that it's really mostly Furiosa's story, and she's a much stronger lead (in every sense). Maybe this new one, ostensibly about Furiosa, will turn out to be Max, subverting expectations once again.

Something that gives me hope, aside from Miller's track record, is iirc he did a ton of secondary story development for the last one, and iirc the Furiosa backstory was part of that development. Or maybe I am making that up. Regardless, this seems kind of like video game DLC, for better or for worse, but probably for the better.

By 2010, Miller intended to shoot Fury Road and Furiosa b2b, but dropped Furiosa when the rains cancelled that shoot and production moved to Namibia.

In 2015, he wanted shoot Furiosa and another spin-off or Hardy Max b2b, but Warner Brothers decided it made more sense to delay the 70-year-old man's production process by refusing to pay him for Fury Road, and by the time the legals were settled, he dropped the second one.

(circa 2002, Miller was planning to direct Fury Road at the same time as Happy Feet, shooting live-action during the day and reviewing animation at night.)

I bet the same people perplexed by Fury Road probably would feel similarly about From Software games too

― octobeard, Friday, December 1, 2023 8:31 PM (yesterday)

I recall somebody of a games forum saying Fury Road and Shadow Of The Colossus were pretentious for having a story

For NOT having a story

Just finished the oral history, it's very good. Not much scandal beyond the revelations that a lot of the crew didn't quite get Miller's vision but went with it anyway, a meddling exec forced the end of production before they filmed anything at the citadel and we only got those scenes because someone new took over and gave them the go-ahead to finish, and while Tom and Charlize weren't best pals (she seems like a true pro, he seems...methody), it also doesn't sound like it was a complete disaster. If anything, the book made me more in awe of Miller's achievement, how he just had the whole thing storyboarded out and the full vision in his head the whole time.

This is still maybe the only movie that not only do I rewatch with great regularity, but one where as soon as it's over I just want to start it again. Maybe it really does help that it's such a visually told story, and I spot new things every single time. Furiosa's journey at the beginning, everything being communicated w/her decision-making through Theron's eyes and subtle glances into the rearview mirror, waiting for the right moment. That kind of thing.

I also read the oral history! I loved it, but I wished it was juicier, and I wouldn’t have minded drilling wayyyy down into the details of the set design, camera rigging etc. And Tom Hardy’s quotes all sounded like they’d been written by his agent. When you hear what a genius Miller is etc it’s kind of hard to understand how he could make something like 3000 Years of Longing.

i liked 3000 years of longing!

Somebody had to!

I’m with dmac.

I liked it too. Not a perfect film but inventive and a good yarn.

thumbs up for me too

I have noticed that when I say I liked TTYOL certain friends clear their throats and change the subject.

we watched it the other night & enjoyed it

I also liked 3000 YOLo, a completely-in-character project for the producer / writer / director of Lorenzo’s Oil, The Witches Of Eastwick, Babe, Happy Feet, Flirting, Bangkok Hilton and 40,000 Years Of Dreaming.

Yeah, 3000 years of longing is great - not the total achievement that Fury Road is, but what is?

On top of everything else, it's one of the few films that acknowledged -- wordlessly but effectively! -- that 1) the pandemic happened and 2) people are still reacting to it as they do. Too rare in film/TV in general!

definitely of a piece with the fable-like qualities of Mad Max

also a genuinely great portrayal of raw horniness from Swinton

Having worked in Swinton it took me a while to work that one out. Prestwich is possibly hornier, idk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mp1NszGIuNo

New thread!

FURIOSA