2015 (88th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee
Over the opening credits of Mad Max: Fury Road, our title character says in gravelly narration,
“my world is fire and blood” and he could not be more right. Set in the same
post-apocalyptic wasteland as The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, where oil, gasoline, and water are scarce, but not as scarce
as civilization, this adventure finds Max (Tom Hardy—brooding and often silent)
as almost a side character to the main narrative. The action really kicks off
when Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) smuggles a group of women away from
their captor in her massive “war rig” and is pursued by countless bad guys in suped-up
weaponized vehicles—and Max is forcibly brought along for the chase. That is
about all the plot there is in the screenplay written by director George Miller
with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris, but with a film as well-executed in
direction, cinematography, performances, visual effects, and costume and
production design as this one, that is enough.
The villain of Fury
Road, Immortan Joe, (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who was also a villain in
1979’s Mad Max) is a cross between
Darth Vader and Skeletor in appearance. He rules The Citadel with equal parts
cruelty and tyranny, giving the people of The Citadel little water to live on
and keeping women in a vault as his wives (or, put more bluntly, breeders). When
he discovers Furiosa’s betrayal, he sets out with a massive war party,
including, most memorably, a barge stacked with amplifiers and speakers and a
man whose sole purpose is to play heavy metal riffs on a flame-throwing guitar.
Immortan Joe’s minions are shirtless, chalk-painted men called War Boys, desperate
to impress their leader and die gloriously on the Fury Road.
Max, being “a Road Warrior searching for a righteous cause” after
all, eventually decides, albeit reluctantly, to help Furiosa, but not until
after they have an intense fight in the desert with the war party quickly
closing in and Max chained to both a car door and a War Boy called Nux
(Nicholas Hoult). However, despite Fury
Road being nominally Max’s adventure, it is Furiosa’s mission which drives
the story. She is our main character and Theron—who can perhaps be best
described as “super badass”—is the real star and standout in this movie. Her
performance is quiet, but perfectly measured; and our emotions—yes, there are
emotions in Fury Road—are invested
with her.
It might seem odd to call the gritty, violent, high-octane Fury Road a feminist action movie, but
that argument is not a difficult one to make. Max does his fair share of
driving and killing, but he does not swing in to rescue these women—they are
equally his saviors. The group of young women led by Furiosa are not damsels in
distress and this movie makes each of them feel like a full person and treats
them accordingly. Though they are not all experienced road warriors like
Furiosa, the women display other strengths like bravery and compassion. When one
of the escapees, Capable (Riley Keough), finds Nux in the back of their War Rig,
curled up in shame and humiliation at having failed Immortan Joe, she convinces
him through gentle conversation to become an ally in their escape. Fury Road is a movie about women
rescuing other women from male cruelty. 
When watching Fury
Road, you get the impression that George Miller was mostly left alone with
little to no studio interference or notes from the marketing department. There
are many unpleasant, grotesque images in this movie, but there are also many fascinating
and exciting ones, too. The costume design, production design, makeup and
hairstyling, and visual effects are all deservedly nominated for Oscars. Watching
Fury Road again I noticed more and
more intricate and impressive details. The score by Junkie XL was not nominated
for an Oscar, but it is a great nonetheless, and used to perfection. Fury Road feels like it was a true
collaboration between all of the people involved with the production both on
and off camera.
This fourth installment in the Mad Max series comes 30 years after the third, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and for fans of the earlier films Fury Road does not disappoint. However,
you don’t need to have seen any of the other Mad Max films to enjoy this one, since each film has its own
standalone story which is explained and changed slightly at the opening of each
movie. I was immensely entertained when I saw this film in theaters and again when
I saw it on DVD. Everything I had enjoyed about the film the first time still
had the same effect on me and my excitement for the film has not waned. This is
an epic film of tremendous quality, which is usually not the case with big
budget summer action movies or sequels. Fury
Road is a full bore, action movie executed with noticeable care and meticulous
thought at every turn.
Nominees: Doug Mitchell and George Miller, Producers
Director: George Miller
Screenplay: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris
Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult
Production Companies: Kennedy Miller Mitchell, RatPac-Dune
Entertainment, Village Roadshow Pictures
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Release Date: May 15th, 2015
Total Nominations: 10, including Best Picture
Other Nominations: Director-George Miller,
Cinematography-John Seale, Editing-Margaret Sixel, Production Design-Colin
Gibson, Lisa Thompson, Costume Design-Jenny Beavan, Makeup and Hairstyling-Lesley
Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, Damian Martin, Sound Mixing-Chris Jenkins, Gregg
Rudloff, Ben Osmo, Sound Editing-Mark A. Mangini, David White, Visual Effects-
Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver, Andy Williams
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