Are You Talkin’ To Me?
A Film column by Jamie Hill
Max is still mad. It might be 20 years since we’ve last seen him but he still hasn’t taken a chill pill.
He’s not a ‘bit peeved’ Max nor has he become ‘slightly miffed after stubbing his toe’ Max. No he’s still angry as hell. And he’s not going to take it anymore.
And he also likes blowing stuff up as much as he used to. Look at him in that picture. He loves blowing stuff up. He doesn’t feel at home unless he’s surrounded by a lovely orange fireball and the stench of ignited gas fumes.
This time, in George Miller’s latest imagining Mad Max: Fury Road, he’s joined by someone equally as angry in the form of one-armed Charlize Theron who plays Furiosa - a woman trying to get a group of wife-slaves away from some evil big bad. And she’s just as tough as Max. Maybe even tougher as she manages to fight the good fight with just one arm.
You might have noticed that Max is no longer played by Mel Gibson and has been replaced by Tom Hardy. This comes after a terrible decade or so for Mel, in which he really did go a bit mad and started ranting at police officers and whatnot.
But, don’t worry, Max is still Max with Tom Hardy doing a great job of looking pretty damn angry for most of the movie.
It’s also still the world of Mad Max. There’s still loads of leather. Loads of spiked up vehicles and motorbikes in a post-apocalyptic Oz that thrives on adrenaline and mohicans. And death and misery and more death and more misery.
For a non-stop thrill-ride of a film with more things blowing up than at a hot air balloon convention, it’s actually got a lot more to say than you think. You could say that, despite its excellent visceral violence, it’s pretty thoughtful and at times even beautiful.
And that’s the most surprising thing about this latest Max incarnation. It does the action sequences brilliantly. Choregraphed like ballet squeezing the most out of every vehicular set-piece. But the fact that you end up caring and feeling for these characters that you thought would just be one-dimensional against the chaotic backdrop of the post-apocalypse is the biggest masterstroke of all. It also quite cleverly shoves in your face some issues that’ll make you think about the environment and female empowerment without you even noticing. Explosions at the same time as expanding your mind. Good stuff.
If you want one-dimensional characterisation but excellent vehicular mayhem stick with your Fast and Furious franchise but if you want a bit of intelligent film-making that still presses all the buttons for adrenaline fuelled action then Max is very much your man.
Let’s hope that Max doesn’t take such a long holiday in between films next time.