![]() It was really amazing of him to know that he needed a woman to come in who had experience with this." Speaking with TIME in May 2015, Ensler remarked on Miller's active efforts to imbue the fourth Mad Max feature with an empathetic and informed feminist sensibility: "I think George Miller is a feminist, and he made a feminist action film. Eve Ensler, the Vagina Monologues playwright who also works with female survivors of violence around the world, served as a consultant on Fury Road's script and was enlisted by Miller to work with the Fury Road actresses to discuss the world their characters were escaping from. Director and co-writer George Miller made the conscious choice to ensure all of the actresses playing the five wives spent time learning about and understanding the life, headspace, and endured trauma of a woman who has survived sex trafficking and abuse. We know now that Fury Road's feminist underpinnings are no accident. The same can be said of Nux, who transforms from a mindless drone drunk on the promise of glory in death, fueled by toxicity of all sorts, to become a helping hand and working in support of these women. He may be aiding Furiosa and the wives in their mission, but she and the wives are ultimately saving him. With no family, no roots, no ideology to guide him, Max is weaker and more prone to succumbing to his own demons he needs protection. But where this kind of hardened, silent, cold masculinity would be presented as an asset in the hero achieving his goal, the Fury Road Max is symbolically neutered. At the start of Fury Road, Max is the traditionally masculine action hero we have seen in past Mad Max films and what we'd expect to see presented in other action movies. While these women are never made to be responsible for healing the emotional or psychological wounds of their male allies, Max and War Boy Nux ( Nicholas Hoult), it is obvious as the movie goes on just how profound an effect being surrounded by Furiousa and the five wives has on them. These women seek to change the system in this post-apocalyptic world, fighting to the death if it means getting closer to achieving a restored balance of power. Fury Road sees women as fighters and nurturers, idealistic without being blinded by their optimism, ready to work for the good of all over one. The Vuvalini leader, Keeper of the Seeds ( Melissa Jaffer), holds the seeds which are the key to restoring crops, life, hope. The Vuvalini, Furiosa's all-female family from a previous life, still live and fight together as a group. The five wives and Furiosa work together, a single unit with a common goal of getting to the matriarchal "Green Place" and capable enough to fight off marauders or fix the War Rig charioting them there. Where the men of Fury Road are so unscrupulous in their need to satiate a hunger for singular glory - be it a War Boy asking to be witnessed as he sacrifices himself in an act of violence or Immortan Joe demanding to unquestioning support as he seeks control - the women are united. Like Mad Max, these films utilize familiar elements from their respective source material, while not being beholden to established continuity.Fury Road is an action movie, yes, but it's really a movie more interested in presenting a case for an immediate redistribution of power in times of great and dire need so that power is in the hands of women and, if possible, a collective. Thankfully, some franchises have realized the potential of telling more stand-alone stories, with Joker, Logan, and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse being the most notable recent examples. TV-wise, Doctor Who does the exact same thing, because otherwise alien invasions would be seen as a common Earthly occurrence - removing a lot of the show’s relatability. This can be seen every other year in both DC and Marvel comics, where an in-canon event resets the universe, often returning characters to their ‘classic’ iterations and allowing new readers the chance to keep up. As fans of any large franchise will know, continuity resets are very common because, at a certain point, maintaining a consistent canon becomes a box-ticking exercise as opposed to a creative pursuit. As a result, the series can be viewed out of order - no run-up required - which increases its accessibility tenfold. ![]() This mythic approach to storytelling is very refreshing in an age of continuity-heavy franchises, allowing Miller and his team to tell the best story possible without worrying about where the events fit in a rigid Mad Max timeline or a wider narrative context. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |