This motive, shared with stories ancient and modern, forms the tightening thread that ties this massive action spectacular together. As the cranking, screeching and exploding machinery of internal combustion and post-apocalyptic politics grinds and batters around her, the girl, at first kept in a cage like an exotic purity, watches and learns from the surrounding violence, the way the world works when it isn't like paradise. She thinks of her mother's heroism and how, through changes of ownership of her and what change she can effect through her own force, she can honour her mother.
George Miller's Mad Max trajectory took a sharp turn from the Mel Gibson led original trilogy when he made Fury Road. While the resources wars McGuffins remained in place from Road Warrior and Thunderdome, Fury Road added some more human elements that allowed the likes of Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy and showed not only that the franchise could accommodate them but could also expand on them. Enter Furiosa's backstory: snatched from Eden and raised in Hell.
Furiosa is a split role. At first, for a lot of the screen time, she is played by Alyla Jones who presents a girl who must emote with great economy having reduced herself to muteness in protest against everything she sees. There is some trickery involved with a kind of face swap tech in play but she does move from a placid child's demeanour to an intense figure of self-restraint. A lot of this is in the eyes. As we wait for Anya Taylor Joy's full screen entrance we might well be wondering when her bludgeoning eyes will be turning up. As it is, this is not done in a simple cut but on a gradient. Once she is all Taylor Joy we know it (but are at a loss to point to when we knew it). Taylor Joy looks like she wondered about where Charlize Theron's muscular world weariness came from and set out to let audiences see it forming. Hers is the sole American accent in the cast. I'll give her a pass on this as she was brought up with two languages and a number of accents and probably chose a mix of what she felt comfortable with and how Theron spoke (Theron herself adapted her accent from her native South African to American). Considering she only has about twenty lines in the entire film, I'm not inclined to nitpick. (Kudos to the Brit Tom Burke for his flawless and effortless Australian turn.)
On that, Miller has often described his films as silent with sound added. This is an approach as old at least as Hitchcock (yes, apart from anyone who started in silents and changed with sound's advent) and it applies to moments in cinema that are primarily physical to begin with. Comedy is obvious. We can all name at least one silent comedy star. Supremely, though, it is in the realm of the action movie when we can celebrate this. Then again, action movies have since the sound era almost exclusively been deafening. This is no different with a gigantic scaled orchestral score and a sound design that uses the Dolby Atmos dynamics expertly.
Miller is also old school about CGI, though he has happily used it throughout his career, as long as it was on offer. The best I can say here is that the line between a CGI moment and a stunt, or between a stunt and an enhanced one is a blur. The action is so intense and relentless that the question tends to get lost in the cacophony. The sheer inventiveness and audacity in the design of the vehicles (which might also be termed wrecks in waiting). Since Road Warrior, the polished junkyard aesthetic of the Mad Max universe has been an active feature of the films from helicopters made out of old farm windmills to flamethrower guitars that spew fire with power chords or motorbike pulled sand skis that take to the air like hang gliders. The list of these in Furiosa is no less dazzling.
The other end of the human boosting in this outing comes in the form of Chris Hemsworth's Dementus. As the bad guy, and one who has Hemsworth's much drooled over looks and presence (and this time a prosthetic schnoz: why? don't know), he brings to Dementus' savage violence a persistent charm. Along with some of the best drawn villains of cinema, he must show why people of comparable strength and intensity would follow rather than challenge him. Hemsworth's worldly charisma and situational humour are as believable as that guy everyone knows who gets by on his cheek but, on examination of his words and deeds, might also inspire repugnance but for that. That needs to work. Reliance on the star's professional image and media smarts alone would have sunk him. I recently found out that this is the first Australian movie he's been in.
George Miller has formed a feat in his Mad Max films. What began as hardlined ozploitation vehicles for ... vehicles began, from the second instalment, to move from this plain and effective and income earning basis to something more substantial. Whether this was to hang the action on a fable about resources, heroism, pride or whatever might have arisen on a series of eye popping action sequences, or just to make entertaining cinema, it works. And, from Road Warrior on, each new venture calls to mind the kind of place we could leave for our descendants. And it's completely and utterly riveting.
Viewing notes: I saw this on Hoyts Xtreme Screen which is nice 'n' big (but I was still in the front row) with a stunning audio experience to boot. One point that's almost a spoiler: if you've seen the trailer for this film it probably featured a strident orchestral arrangement of the riff from David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World. I kept expecting this to turn up but, as impressive as the original score for this movie is, it does not, not even in the end credits, feature the Bowie music. I wonder how often this happens. I wonder if it was a limited rights issue.
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