Fury Road Not a Mad Max Movie? And Anti-Man? I Call Bullshit.

[jackwabbit]

In response to the folks who say that Fury Road "isn't a Mad Max movie because Max isn't the main character," I call bullshit. Yes, there are other characters who share the spotlight with Max. One of them even surpasses him at some skills. And she (how dare it be a she!) is the grit stuck in the craw of the haters. Yes, Imperator Furiosa pisses some people (insecure males) off, because she dares to be an equal to Max. But equal is the key word here, and this is not an either/or scenario, folks. Furiosa being a badass doesn't make Max less of one. Furiosa being a main character doesn't make Max less of a lead, either. And his actions in regards to her and her motley crew make him more of a hero than most characters we are supposed to see that way.

He also has a character arc. In fact, other than Nux, another male, I might add, he's the only one who does. As badass as she is, Furiosa doesn't. She starts and ends the same way. Max, on the other hand, changes. He starts out the typical wandering vagabond. Then (never mind the details) he's captured. His escape attempt fails (nice touch, that), but he ends up traveling with a war party anyway, though sheer serendipity. This eventually leads to his escape and his encoutering the caravan featuring Furiosa. As a road warrior who lives only to survive (his own words), he initially refuses to help them. But in order to save his own skin, eventually he helps them in order to help himself. Somewhere down the road (literally), their battle becomes his own, and Max does the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing.

And then, wonder of wonders, this non-lead-character comes up with the plan that changes everything! Whoa! What a crazy thing for a non-lead-character to do! And in the end, his job done, Max leaves. And this is where I fell in love with this movie. I enjoyed every minute of it up until this, but this scene alone is worth the price of admission. Because this is the essence of Max. This is the truthfullness I alluded to in my earlier post. Max is a road warrior; a nomad. He is not a leader. He is not a politician. He is not a lover, but a fighter. He can't say with Furiosa (oh, the fact that there was no ship whatsoever in this movie was so refreshing!) because, to borrow from a song, he's a cowboy, and Marshall Dillion never hung his hat up at Kitty's place. This was so, so true to the Mad Max character, and I just died when I saw it. The coup de gras was his looking back nod of respect to Furiosa. It is one of the most beautiful things I've seen in movies in a long, long time. A simple nod. Not a kiss. Not a hug. And gods, not sex. Just respect. It shouldn't be so special to me, because it shouldn't be so rare, but both are true.


And you know what?

It made me want to cosplay Max.


Everyone wants to be Furiosa for Dragon Con, but not me. Despite my sex, I want to be Max.

I want to be the man who doesn't judge. The guy who doesn't have a problem giving a gun to a woman because she's a better shot. The man who does the right thing, and not because he's going to get sex for it. The guy who rises above my baser nature. The man who nods at a woman in respect.


Because what's that argument out there? Not all men? Isn't that it?

Indeed.

Not all men. Just Max*, in the best action movie I've seen in a long time.


Roll on, Fury Road!

-----

*Max, who is also crucial to the fight, thanks, along with Nux, who saves the day by being a martyr, actually - seriously, anti-man? Whatever.

Comments

[lolmac]

*glee*

I absolutely think you should be Mad Max for Dragoncon. Doo eeet!!

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

*fear*

Nah, not really, but intimidated for sure. I have nothing dieselpunk at all, except for maybe some of my Irisa stuff. I'd be starting from scratch...but hey, from scratch in three months? I've done worse. We shall see...

And I did just cut off most of my hair. I *could* go shorter... ;)

[poisonyoulove.livejournal.com]

Agreed with both your posts, this movie was amazing! And I'm not generally one to enjoy movies that are mostly car chases. ^_^
And most men I've heard talk about it found it completely awesome! It's just that tiny group of insecure d-bags who have a problem, no real men.

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Right? Exactly. Loved it so much, and not usually my type at all. So. Good.

And your second point is also true. I actually got into a conversation about it at work with a client tonight. He also loved it.

[charlie-bz.livejournal.com]

Best movie I've seen in a long while. Seen it 4 times and am ready to go again! As you stated in your other post, Furiosa is awesome. I also loved the Vulvani (?) - seeing a group of women mostly over 50 in action roles was so awesome I couldn't believe I was seeing it!

And Max. Insane Max who can barely string together a sentence but finds hope and his humanity thanks to Furiosa and the wives, such a great portrayal of this iconic character.

I loved The Road Warrior and this movie took everything I loved about that movie, threw it in a blender, added strawberries and other things I didn't even know I was missing to make one terribly shiny story.

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Yes. This.

I don't get the whole "Max is a weak character thing." Um...no. Just...no. And so much love for The Road Warrior. With strawberries!

[embolalia.livejournal.com]

This makes total sense! My friend Rachel is also going as Max - when I emailed the people we're headed to con with about cosplaying, I said something to the effect of "I'm going to do Furiosa, but you all can TOTALLY BE FURIOSA TOO," so no one would feel left out. And then the only one who was up for it was Ray, but to be Max :P

(I would only argue with the post above that I think Furiosa does have an arc, but that's based on reading into the movie what Charlize Theron has said about her motivations in the first half of the movie just being about punishing Joe and later about choosing to fight for the chance to rebuild and live. I'm not sure anymore if I'd have interpreted that without her comments, though.)

[jackwabbit.livejournal.com]

Oh, many Furiosas (or is the plural merely Furiosa?) is great! There's an actual amputee with a Furiosa prothetic coming to the meetup! I can't wait to see that!

And I'm super stoked to maybe possibly see what you and Ray have come up with (I suspect that, like me, Ray may be slightly of the mind that gender is bullshit - of this, I approve - mine changes often!).

Anyway, more to what I wanted to comment on. Yes, Furiosa does have an arc. I had only seen the movie once when I wrote this and I was more playing the counterpoint to the "Max isn't important to the movie" morons and understated some things here, such as Furiosa's arc. It does exist, and I agree that it's motivational.

I haven't seen much of Theron's comments, but I saw some from Miller and he talked about Furiosa's motivation being to punish Joe (not to save the wives) and I so agree. She's a lot like our Max in that she's in it for herself - more so than it seems - but that just happens to coincide with helping the others, so it works out. And then she starts to actually want to help and to rebuild, etc, etc, etc.

Oh, lords, but this movie is perfect.

P.S. - haven't (and likely wont') read the comic. Don't want to, for many reasons.