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| Theron as the badass Furiosa. |
Some reviews would have you believe that the new Mad Max
film, Mad Max: Fury Road, is
somehow
feminist due to its badass female character, “Furiosa,” played by Charlize
Theron. In fact, some Men’s Rights groups have called for boycotts of the film,
incensed as they are by Theron’s turn as a dirt-spattered, shaved-head,
gun-slinging, ace truck driver determined to screw the postapocalyptic patriarchy.
This fact alone suggests that the film is doing something
transgressive with its representation of women and women’s agency.
Unfortunately, Furiosa’s fury is not nearly enough to deem this film “feminist.”
If anything, the feminist buzz around the film is dangerous, as it blinds
audiences to all the heteropatriarchal banalities we have gotten so used to in
action films.
Additionally, the film is just bad. The original Mad Max
movies (which I have only heard about, never seen) were mostly car chases with
little to no plot set against the backdrop of a red-hazed postapocalyptic
landscape populated by maniacs and murderers. In that sense, the new film is
not really a re-boot of the original, but more a homage to it. Little has
changed: the film has more car chases and less plot or character development
than a “Fast and Furious” film (of which I have seen at least 3, so that’s saying
something). This film dazzles the viewer with sped-up action sequences,
frequent vehicular fires and explosions, and a flame-throwing electric guitar,
all of which serve to make the film seem excessively “cool”—but ultimately degenerates
into visual chaos and confusion that is nearly migrane-inducing.
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| "Immortan Joe"--is he creepy enough for ya? |
From what I could glean, “Max,” who is introduced in an
initial sequence of explosions, lizard-eating, and foot-chases, is a survivor
of the apocalypse and its now-vicious inhabitants. As in many postapocalyptic
films, the future is now run by the worst kind of criminals who enjoy torture,
death, and power. They run the world, including its natural (and unnatural)
resources: water, oil, and bullets. Max is kidnapped by the “War Boys,”
disciples of “Immortan Joe,” a ghastly, Beetlejuice-like weirdo who controls
the water—and the sexiest women of the colony, forcing them to father his
children. Wives past their sexiness in life are forced to pump breastmilk for
Joe and his war boys like cows in a dairy farm.
Imperator Furiosa sets off the events of the film by
taking the sexy wives and hiding them in a large tanker, pretending to be on a
mission to Oil Town. When she veers off course in an attempt to get the girls
to safety (all of whom look like models and are, naturally, scantily clad
throughout the film), she sets off an insane, hour-long car chase/battle
sequence during which she meets Max and they become allies. In the second half
of the film, Furiosa reunites with her home colony, an all-female colony, only
to learn that there are only about 10 survivors, most of whom are elderly, and
that their home, “the green place,” is now despoiled and dried up. They have no
choice but to go back, fight the gangsters of Water Town, Oil Town, and Bullet
Town (very creative names), and take back Water Town for the people.
Throughout the film, I grant you, Furiosa is a total
badass. Charlize Theron, despite starting out as a model, has shown over and
over again that not only is she a versatile and convincing actress, but she
likes a challenge. As Furiosa, she is probably one of the most interesting
female characters in an action film, postapocalyptic or not, to get on screen.
By contrast, Max, played by Tom Hardy, says about 10 lines in the film, and
outshines Furiosa in no apparent way whatsoever.
On the other hand, it’s hard to ignore the fact, as a
feminist viewer and critic, that the film centers around the fight over women’s
bodies. What makes the bad guys “bad” is that they are nasty old men who want
all the hot chicks for themselves. The film seems to suggest that this is a
result of the postapocalyptic order, rather than acknowledging that this is
happening RIGHT NOW. The girls who escape, the “wives,” have some agency, but
overall they are dainty, in need of saving, and, as mentioned already, wear
incredibly revealing outfits, as if Furiosa were capable of getting 50 guns for
the trip to the green place, but it didn’t occur to her to get a couple of
coats and pairs of pants for the girls.
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| I've dubbed them "the sexy wives" aka the breeders. These women need saving. |
Then there is the fact that none of the powerful
compounds have any women warriors—aside from Furiosa. All the “towns” or
compounds are run by degenerate men who cannot function without breathing
prosthetics or who display other striking health conditions, such as missing
noses or legs bloated with postapocalyptic edema. Their warrior army, who,
throughout the film, call out the war cry “Valhalla!”, are all men. Meanwhile,
the women of the former “green place,” a colony not expressly described but, it
is hinted, was a peaceful place focused on cultivating the land and sisterhood,
cannot survive.
Clearly, in the postapocalypse, peaceful people aren’t
tough (or something). Why not make the colony strong and vital? Why not have
100 survivor women to take back to Water Town? Or even 50? Instead, we get a
paltry handful (maybe 10?). I’m always
left wondering if the filmmakers consciously decided to keep the green colony
survivor group small, or is it simply that the filmmakers could not envision an
entire colony of tough, brutal women survivors to begin with?
Instead, on the journey back to Water Town, about half of
the green place survivors are killed in brutal ways on the road back to
redemption. Luckily, so is Joe, his bloated body presented to the remaining
leadership of Water Town as proof that his reign is over. Furiosa and Max share
a final, farewell glance that is, thankfully, devoid of any romantic overtones.
The movie at least gets that right: there is no sexual tension between our two
heroes. They are joined in their mutual quest, for as long as it lasts, and
then they go their separate ways.
For myself, I wish I could have my $12 back, and I wouldn’t
even need one more parting glance to know that a true postapocalyptic vision
would be one where women are part of the power structure, actively molding it
and controlling it. Instead, this film, like so many others, suggests that the
new world order would simply be the one we have now.
