Go Watch Mad Max

Mad Max- A brief review and comment.

First off, what a fantastic film. It has to be the best action film I have ever seen.

I kid you not.

From start to finish it’s intensely gripping and for an apocalypse based film- it’s beautiful.

It’s a cinematic event, coming out of that film I was left wildly entertained and completely awestruck.

Never before have women been portrayed so well in an action film. Director George Miller has women in all possible character roles, soldiers, protectors and even the main (if not title) character is a chick. He does this however without forgoing traditional damsels in distress and mothers/milk machines. BUT despite presenting them as weak and oppressed, they are defiant and ultimately take back control of their selves and their destiny (#girlpower).

What is genius is the fact that Miller does this all under the conventions of a traditional action film, which of course it still totally is. The setting, acting and stunts make this a simply incredible movie. Even without the revolutionary feminist content, it would still be one hell of a trip to the cinema.

I feel it’s necessary you know that 80% of the stunts were totally real, they literally only used CGI to take out the rigging, enhance the landscape and delete Charlize Theron’s arm.

I KNOW.

Even the way it’s filmed is incredible, a great deal of the action is sped up, adding to the thrill of the chase and making the characters seem cartoon-like and inhuman. You would think that this would make it difficult to follow the story and know where to look, NOPE. The cinematographer was commissioned to keep the focus of the shot in the center of the screen at all times, making the experience totally inescapable, and bloody good watching.

It’s a bad ass action film, and for the majority of people that’ll already be enough to get them to the cinema. Throw in all the original franchise fans, and that’s already quite the hefty film following. This is why George Miller is a GENIUS, the women in this movie are so well integrated and believable, I didn’t even question their presence or think it unusual, as I’m sure/let’s hope all those cinema goers didn’t too.

It’s kinda sly but clever and I love it. Hopefully more movie makers will follow suit in future and maybe there will come a day where people won’t ever even consider blogging about it, as it’ll just be the norm. Doesn’t that seem like a nice world folks?

Eve Ensler was brought in to consult on the female roles in this movie. She totally hits the nail on the head in the quote below (and she wrote The Vagina Monologues, so she knows her stuff).

“One day, we won’t have to sneak it. One day we will be overt. One of the great things about this film is that when you have women on your side, you have a better chance of surviving. It’s clear that we’re all served better when women are equal. We don’t want to dominate. We just want our stories to be given equal consideration—to also get a spot on the playing field.”

Full Interview on Time.com