Last night my wife and I saw Mad Max: Fury Road. Holy crap.
To have a film look so gorgeous, be so crazy, and retain the right elements and tone of films shot between 1979 and 1985 is a major achievement. Though they’re apples and oranges, I see Fury Road upping the ante for the new films in the Star Wars franchise.
Director George Miller has long been an enigma to me. He studied and completed his residency to become a medical doctor, working on film sets in his spare time. Not only did he eventually write and direct the first three Mad Max films, he also wrote both Babe films and directed the second (yes, the talking pig movies), and wrote and directed Happy Feet (yes, the penguin movies). Lorenzo’s Oil, The Witches of Eastwick, and a segment of Twilight Zone: The Movie are in there, too.
If you like the Mad Max series, make sure to see the documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation! It chronicles the early years of Australian cinema in a visually interesting way. The films profiled are so insane and graphic that I didn’t feel comfortable sharing a trailer here. As crazy as Fury Road felt, it’s nothing compared to some of the films from the region in the ’70s.
Nice work Mr. Miller. I’m glad a few more films planned in the series, too. Can’t wait for Mad Max: TheWasteland.
Song referenced: We Don’t Need Another Hero (from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome)
Stephen Quirk 