Movie Analysis: “Mad Max: Fury Road” — Themes
This week we launch a new bi-weekly series in which we will be analyzing movies currently in release. Why? To quote the writing mantra I coined over 5 years ago: Watch movies. Read scripts. Write pages. You will note which one comes first. Here are my reflections from that post about the importance of watching movies:
To be a good screenwriter, you need to have a broad exposure to the world of film. Every movie you see is a potential reference point for your writing, everything from story concepts you generate to characters you develop to scenes you construct. Moreover people who work in the movie business constantly reference existing movies when discussing stories you write; it’s a shorthand way of getting across what they mean or envision.
But most importantly, you need to watch movies in order to ‘get’ how movie stories work. If you immerse yourself in the world of film, it’s like a Gestalt experience where you begin to grasp intuitively scene composition, story structure, character functions, dialogue and subtext, transitions and pacing, and so on.
Let me add this: It’s important to see movies as they get released so that you stay on top of the business. Decisions get made in Hollywood in large part depending upon how movies perform, so watching movies as they come out puts you in the same head space as reps, producers, execs, and buyers.
This week’s movie: Mad Max: Fury Road, written by George Miller and Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris, directed by George Miller, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.
Our schedule for discussion this week:
Monday: General Comments
Tuesday: Plot
Wednesday: Characters
Thursday: Themes
Friday: Takeaways
For those of you who have not seen the movie, do not click MORE as we will be trafficking in major spoilers. If you have seen Mad Max: Fury Road, I invite you to join me in breaking down the movie to its component parts and analyzing why this movie kicks ass in almost every single way.
Perhaps the central theme of the story has something to do with feminism. This has been discussed quite a bit among bloggers and film critics witness these articles as examples:
Women and Hollywood: Oops! I Made a Feminist Manifesto
Grantland: The Masterful, Maniacal, Surprisingly Feminist ‘Fury Road’
NPR: The Women Pull No Punches In Fiery, Feminist ‘Mad Max’
The extent of this theme extends to the visual nature of the storytelling as per this article:
The Dissolve: The feminine desert of Mad Max: Fury Road
However to look at the movie strictly through the feminist lens misses out on the larger context, something we have touched on this week: Matriarchy vs. Patriarchy.
The society Immortan Joe has helped create is patriarchialism gone mad, a cult with Joe as Father ruling over the masses. The power structure is top-down and autocratic. All of the leaders are men. All of the warriors are men. Meanwhile women exist to provide ‘mother’s milk,’ several of them literally strapped to milking machines, and to bear children, specifically Joe’s sires. The fact Joe has five wives underscores his role as Father-In-Chief, speaking to his potency as a male, while diminishing the value of women, reducing them to sexual objects and potential bearers of Joe’s children.
Counter to this heightened masculine dynamic, there is a strong female presence: Furiosa, the Wives, and the Vuvalini (which reads suspiciously like ‘vulva’). The Wives with the potential to carry life in their wombs. The Vuvalini who have protected seeds, carrying potential ‘life’ in their hands. Procreation and creation. Yes, Furiosa gives orders along the way, but all in service to a greater good — getting the Wives to safety. By the time Act III rolls around, the determination to go back to the Citadel is a decision made by consensus, a choice springing from the group, not a dictator.
Two male characters get thrown into this mix: Max and Nux. Both are changed by the female perspective of reality. The image of Max washes blood off his hands with mother’s milk is instructive in this regard.
That sets the table for a larger discussion of patriarchy vs. matriarchy and feminism in MM:FR in general. There are, however, other themes including family and redemption. Feel free to post others you find in the movie.
Let’s see what we can discover in exploring themes at work in Mad Max: Fury Road.
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