Classic Film Review #23: Mad Max Fury Road

Available on Amazon Prime

High octane and absolutely bonkers, George Miller’s post-apocalyptic thrill ride reinvigorated, albeit briefly, a blockbuster genre that had grown increasingly reliant on superheroes. An intense viewing experience from beginning to last, Fury Road’s remarkably frenetic pacing quickly establishes the characters and stakes at the heart of Miller’s co-authored screenplay.

It's easy to turn your nose up at films of this nature, but it takes a lot of skill prevent them from straying into Michael Bay territory. Fury Road, for all its abrasive explosions and improbable near-death experiences, never overwhelms its audience or exhausts it with the sort of crass, misogynistic overtones that you're likely to get in other, less refined genre fare.

This is because Miller’s picture is, at its core, a socio-political film that forecasts a forthcoming ecological breakdown which, while presented here in an amusingly cartoonish way, does feel like an achingly familiar threat to the ongoing climate crisis we are currently facing. This lends Fury Road a disconcerting quality that is tempered only by the enjoyment that is caused by the frequency of its high jinx car chases.

Perhaps the most refreshing thing about this big, loud picture though is its female characters, led by Charlize Theron’s memorable Imperator Furiosa, who make for a refreshing deviation from the norm. Indeed, Tom Hardy’s titular protagonist, while also impressive, mostly plays second fiddle for much of the film’s near two-hour runtime.

All in all, Fury Road is much needed proof that the box office can be conquered by films that are as socially engaged as they are fun. It’s just a shame that its mooted sequel has yet to emerge, almost eight years after its original release.