“Oh, what a day… what a lovely day!”
mad max fury road
lies:
Favorite world-building elements: Realistic depiction of trauma
One of the things that makes Fury Road so immersive is the way it presents the result of violence. Unlike movies in which characters shrug off what in the real world would be horrific injuries*, the inhabitants of the Wasteland experience the full effect of the bad things that happen to them.
Some examples:
- Angharad’s graze wound. When Max shoots The Splendid Angharad in the leg, we see a close-up of the injury. When Furiosa asks her how it feels, she says, “It hurts,” and it apparently is a factor in her subsequently slipping from the war rig and being crushed. In the world of Fury Road, even a relatively minor injury can have severe consequences.
- Avoidance of gratuitous on-screen gore. At the same time, the film avoids depicting injuries just to be shocking. When Angharad is dying and Immortan Joe orders her cut open to try to save the fetus, we see the scene unfold – but we don’t see the actual procedure. The movie only shows enough for us to understand what’s happening. That restraint reflects a maturity in how the film approaches trauma that contrasts with the adolescent gross-out porn of other action movies.
- Realistic emotional responses. The inhabitants of the Wasteland carry both literal and figurative scars of past experiences. Angharad has a history of self-harm. Max exhibits a degree of PTSD that leaves him unable to speak. I ship Max/Furiosa, and there’s a side of me that wants to believe there were sexy fun times in the back of the war rig during that one chance Nux and Capable had, but I appreciate that the film respects its characters and what they’ve been through enough not to force them into emotionally false situations.
- Furiosa’s chest wound. When Furiosa is stabbed with the gear-shift dagger, we see the pain of it in her face. Especially given how stoic she’s been up to this point, the increasingly desperate look in her eyes during subsequent events shows the effect it is having on her. Unlike less-realistic movies, where such an injury might lead to a) a quick clichéd death scene with a few coughs of blood, an exhortation or two, and boom, dead, or conversely b) lots of ass-kicking followed by a wince and some light-hearted banter in the denouement, Furiosa’s injury follows a steady and clinically realistic progression through increasing distress and eventual loss of breath function due to tension pneumothorax. That the true emotional climax of the movie centers on an act of healing, as Max decompresses her chest and then treats her subsequent exsanguination with a transfusion of his own blood, is a beautiful inversion of action-movie tropes.
George Miller financed the original Mad Max with his earnings as an ER doctor, and made the movie in part to explore the effects of trauma on people who encounter lots of it. Although he hasn’t worked as a physician in many years, his experience and willingness to hold the movie to a high standard adds greatly to the believability of Fury Road.
*No disrespect to Holy Grail. That shit’s hilarious.
Okay so one of my favorite things about Fury Road was this recurring idea of older women protecting younger women. LIke Furiosa is probably in her late thirties, she’s lived in this world long enough to establish herself and her war rig, and I have to imagine that took a lot of cleverness and hard work, especially given her “remember me” line to Joe. She puts all that at risk to save a group of younger women, all appearing to be in their early to mid twenties. She’s in turn embraced and protected by a group of older, wiser women.
I guys it’s just really great to see not only ladies protecting ladies, but generations of ladies protecting ladies. So often in hollywood movies, women of different age groups are pitted against each other. It’s an evil step mother complex almost, older women being brutal to younger ones, feeling insecure and threatened with younger women taking their place in society while they fall back into irrelevance. But like, these women protect each other with their lives and I am just so here for that.
YES
Ok, things I’ve found in the Mad Max artbook, comics and interviews that shed light on daily life with Immortan Joe and the wives:
– Joe doesn’t actually need his mask. It’s just an air purifier so he doesn’t breathe in dust and gas.
– Cheedo is the youngest, and also the only virgin. This could be because Joe has issues with sleeping with young girls, which is an interesting quirk for someone who otherwise has no problem with using and abusing human bodies. It could also be because Cheedo hasn’t menstruated yet; malnutrition, stress, and/or illness can delay puberty – all quite likely factors in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
– Part of the reason Cheedo is willing to return to Joe is because she hasn’t realized how horrific the reality of being his wife truly is; he has not yet forced himself on her.
– Splendid self-harms, creating deliberate scarification on both her arms and her face. This is basically her only means of rebellion prior to the escape (harming Joe’s ‘property’).
– Joe intentionally sought out one of the few historians in the world (Miss Giddy) to tutor his wives and give them a good education. Despite seeing his wives as his property, he clearly takes pride in having them be the best in every way, including in their intelligence and knowledge. Miss Giddy is more than just their caretaker; she’s their teacher and mentor.
– The wives regularly see Joe at his most intimate, not just when he wants sex. They see enough of him to know that he is 100% human and that he’s “full of shit.” This would imply that Joe is at his most relaxed around them, that he spends real “quality” time with them.
– The Citadel’s upper floors are climate controlled, and the girls are dressed accordingly, able to live in their sheer sarongs with little discomfort due to temperature or weather.
– Despite most of the books in the world being burned, Joe has collected what remaining books he can for his wives, likely to contribute to their education.
– Joe’s Gigahorse is designed to represent animalistic copulation.
– The five women we meet are in no way his first wives. He has been a slaver-polygamist for a long time, giving each wife three chances to produce a healthy heir before he divorces them and sends them out among the Wretched. Until Splendid, there was no ‘success.’
– When the wives escape, Joe blames only Furiosa, thinking that she’s fed them lies and intentionally undermined his relationships with them. This indicates that he probably thought they were devoted to him before Furiosa ‘got to them’.
– Joe legitimately sees himself as the savior of the wastes. Whether he actually considers himself divine is up to debate, but he certainly views himself as reasonable, benevolent and paternal to both his people and his wives. He provides for his wives (as long as the marriages last) and sees himself as a good husband. They are precious to him, but still objects in his eyes.
This confirms something I noticed on my second viewing: Immortan Joe is a NiceGuyTM.
I mean, he honestly believes he loves these women, and Splendid especially. He repeatedly tries to avoid even injuring them, to the point of flipping his car in an attempt to avoid running Splendid over when she falls. It’s obvious from the film (and confirmed here) that he tries to give them a life of comfort and ease. He’s genuinely upset over their loss.
And it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make him less horrifying or villainous. *His love, no matter how sincere it is to him, does not redeem his actions.* He loves them, he believes they love him back, he thinks he’s honestly providing for the wants and needs of those around him (not just the Wives/Sisters, but also the people whose water supply he controls). He’s just another narcissistic abuser with a power fantasy in which he’s the guy who knows best and everything he does is for everyone else’s own good.
I think that’s so much more believably evil than if he were simply in it to hurt people.
^^^^^^^^
So this was my absolute favourite moment in Mad Max: Fury Road.
Max can’t make the shot. Tries, fails, tries, fails, and there’s only one more bullet left.
No belittling, no defensiveness, no shaming from either of them. It’s just the best person for the job. He hands the rifle over to her, without discussion, to do what she’s good at in the critical moment, and does what he can to support her success – acts as a motionless prop for her shot.
Equals. Respecting each other’s skills. Relying on each other.
If this is madness we could do with a little more of it.
Disability in the Dystopian Future of Mad Max: Fury Road
Where I write about my two favorite things: our dystopian future and media representation!
(edited to add: note also, the enduring leg brace, from
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