Mad Max: Fury road Analysis
Survival, The primary theme of Mad Max: Fury Road is survival and maintenance of mankind in the face of apocalyptic events. The theme of humankind is outlined by Max starting the film a non-domesticated wandered, at that point rediscovering his previous dignity by joining forces with Furiosa.
Miller is telling a symbolic story, not a linear one. That story happens to be about war and its aftermath, slavery, the objectification of human beings, and PTSD. The medium he uses to tell this story happens to be an action movie, more specifically a car chase. However, an interesting underlying subtext of the film is how Miller takes our expectations and subverts them. We hear action movie and we think San Andreas. We hear
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They have been crammed into a tiny, hot, waterless space under a tanker truck in order to escape their rapist. At least two of them are pregnant with their rapist’s babies (Miller). They are not a pampered harem they are prisoners, who are risking their lives to escape sexual slavery and give their children a different life. And look at the scene again: Max does not focus on the women; his attention is on the water. Water is even more precious than gasoline in this version of Mad Max a fact underscored later on when Max washes his bloodied face with breastmilk and they have a whole host of it. To go even further, Miller is showing us a scene that could be sexy in the way as I saw in the movie models in see through clothes spraying water on each other, with the water a stand in for a different liquid substance (Gallagher). But Miller subverts every aspect of that cliché. In this case, the hose full of water is just a hose full of water the most precious thing they could have in the Waste. The diaphanous dresses are their prison uniforms. Given that no one else in the film is dressed like this, I think it’s safe to assume that these are the clothes required by Immortan Joe. The first thing they do even as they are drinking water they take turns freeing each other from hideous chastity belts, reclaiming their bodies. They are no longer things, they are not a harem, and they are not Joe’s slaves. The Splendid Angara drives …show more content…
Nux has been trained to live for a fiery death, and he gets it, but he gets it on his own new terms. Having experienced something like real love with Capable, he sacrifices himself to kill Rictus and save the woman he was maybe starting to hope he had a future with. This is terrible, and I felt it more than any of the other deaths in the film, but it also allows him to transform his destiny. Rather than being a slave to Joe’s war machine, he is a free and independent young man who sacrifices himself for others by his own choice
The only real way to truly understand a story is to understand all aspects of a story and their meanings. The same goes for movies, as they are all just stories being acted out. In Thomas Foster's book, “How to Read Literature Like a Professor”, Foster explains in detail the numerous ingredients of a story. He discusses almost everything that can be found in any given piece of literature. The devices discussed in Foster's book can be found in most movies as well, including in Quentin Tarantino’s cult classic, “Pulp Fiction”. This movie is a complicated tale that follows numerous characters involved in intertwining stories. Tarantino utilizes many devices to make “Pulp Fiction” into an excellent film. In this essay, I will demonstrate how several literary devices described in Foster's book are put to use in Tarantino’s film, “Pulp Fiction”, including quests, archetypes, food, and violence.
...the predominant theme of disorientation and lack of understanding throughout the film. The audience is never clear of if the scene happening is authentic or if there is a false reality.
In conclusion, by using the production elements of both allusion and symbolism; director Tim Burton has created the film in such a manner by making deliberate choices in order to invite a certain response. The film is constructed and given greater depth through the allusion to elements from other genres and ridicules the suburbia’s materialism and lack of imagination, which in turn enhances the invited response.
In The Pathos of Failure, Thomas Elsaesser explains the emergence of a new ideology within American filmmaking, which reflects a “fading confidence in being able to tell a story” (280) and the dissolution of psychologically relatable, goal-oriented characters. He elaborates that these unmotivated characters impede the “the affirmative-consequential model of narrative [which] is gradually being replaced by another, whose precise shape is yet to crystallize” (281). Christian Keathley outlined this shape in more detail in Trapped in the Affection Image, where he argued that shifting cultural attitudes resulted in skepticism of the usefulness of action (Keathley). In Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Roman Polanski’s Chinatown, this crisis of action is a key element of the main characters’ failure, because it stifles the execution of classical narrative and stylistic genre conventions.
It is evident that Max tries to escape his reality and get lost in a world where he can find freedom from his complex troubles, much like every other child in the world today whom does not know how to deal with such chaotic and complicated thoughts. Max, unknowingly comes face to face with all his emotions through the lives of others, helping him to come to an understanding in his escape. In the film “Where the Wild Things Are” Max’s sister ignores him, he feels his mothers new boyfriend is taking her from him and he is overall portrayed as a lonely, lost character. Max is told by his mother that he has gone out of control, which essentially is the last straw in initiating him to run away to where he eventually ends up where the wild things are. According to the article “Fantasy - Necessary for Sanity and Morality” in order for proper development, “A child needs to understand what is going on within his conscious self so that he can cope with that which goes on within his unconscious.” This can be attained by daydreaming through stories and scenarios to ...
In one particular scene, director was truly a great one, featuring special focus on his dad life and the Colorado River. It was so cool to highlights of the movie by one of his favorite poem written by his dad when he was born, the Important Place. Also, this film was a good length, not excessively long but long enough to tell the story. This is really important today there were no such unwanted scene in the film, which literary the most closely and accurately delivered. In my opinion, this film is forced to possess the characters of a great aspect, and turns to make for quite the adventurous. There was no special character encounter rather than his dad, learned something from the secret Colorado River. Another great aspect of the film was the special footage that were introduce in this film was an enjoyable aspect to be a good documentary film, and that’s how this film is different from the rest.
Gina Marchetti, in her essay "Action-Adventure as Ideology," argues that action- adventure films implicitly convey complex cultural messages regarding American values and the "white American status quo." She continues to say that all action-adventure movies have the same basic structure, including plot, theme, characterization, and iconography. As ideology, this film genre tacitly expresses social norms, values, and morals of its time. Marchetti's essay, written in 1989, applies to films such as Raiders of the Lost Ark and Rambo: First Blood II. However, action-adventure films today seem to be straying farther away from her generalizations about structure, reflecting new and different cultural norms in America. This changing ideology is depicted best in Oliver Stone's Natural Born Killers (1994), which defies nearly every concept Marchetti proposes about action-adventure films; and it sets the stage for a whole new viewpoint of action in the '90's.
It is comedic because of the way Anderson creates Max's character to be so controlling and obsessive and adding humor to the things that he does. The way Max thinks he is higher than everyone else and the way he presents himself with such dignity adds humor as Anderson directs the film to show the adult's reaction to Max’s attitude. One scene in particular when he gets his trampled bike and puts ketchup on his head to make it seem like he got hit by a car in front of where Cross lives just shows how extreme he is and hilarious to see. Not only does he bring humor to the film, he also creates drama in his social interactions. By sending Blume as a messenger between him and Cross, it resulted to the intimate relationship between Blume and Cross that brings in the tension and sympathy for Max. He is an open book and if he is sad or upset he will easily show it through either his words or actions. He makes the audience feel bad for him as he gets his feelings hurt. The drama raises to it's peak when there is a war between him and Blume over Cross which added a feeling of tension into the
Think about your favorite movie. When watching that movie, was there anything about the style of the movie that makes it your favorite? Have you ever thought about why that movie is just so darn good? The answer is because of the the Auteur. An Auteur is the artists behind the movie. They have and individual style and control over all elements of production, which make their movies exclusively unique. If you could put a finger on who the director of a movie is without even seeing the whole film, then the person that made the movie is most likely an auteur director. They have a unique stamp on each of their movies. This essay will be covering Martin Scorsese, you will soon find out that he is one of the best auteur directors in the film industry. This paper will include, but is not limited to two of his movies, Good Fellas, and The Wolf of Wall Street. We will also cover the details on what makes Martin Scorsese's movies unique, such as the common themes, recurring motifs, and filming practices found in their work. Then on
Society becomes so rationalized that one must push himself to the extreme in order to feel anything or accomplish anything. The more you fight in the fight club, the tougher and stronger you become. Getting into a fight tests who you are. No one helps you, so you are forced to see your weaknesses. The film celebrates self-destruction and the idea that being on the edge allows you to be beaten because nothing really matters in your life.
One can learn from Tony’s mistakes. One can learn that family comes first. Society can also learn that taking shortcuts in life sometimes lead to a dead ends with no u-turns. This film showcases the time line of how a drug lord could rise to power from nothing. This film also shows how that same power one gets from becoming a drug lord could be taken at any time. Studying how to analyze a movie has definitely changed my perspective on how I view movies. I actually look at all the detailing in movies. I look at the camera angles and how they affect the scene. I even start to question why the director did not use a different angle for certain shots. By using film theories and criticism one can generate enough ideas in order to understand the movie better. When a film is being captured the director focuses on certain angles and lights to get the meaning of the scene to the audience. Just like everything in life has a meaning, everything in film also has a comparison meaning. This course has widen my intellect on how movies affect our societies. Movies can play a major role in how we act or how laws are even created. Movies has the same power as music. I say movies has the same power because one can look at a movie and want to become whatever he or she saw in the movie. One major skills that I developed in this course is being able to focus. Before this course, I could not focus on anything at all. I was the type to focus on three or
The people of this post-apocalyptic society always want more. Whether it be perfect babies, power, or water. This strong notion of consumerism and greed in Mad Max: Fury Road is Miller’s critical reflection of our societies values and beliefs. To demonstrate, in our society people
When you stop to think about it, our ability to understand what goes on in a typical Hollywood film is shocking. Images jump from one to the next with little to no linearity. Perspectives jump around as if a person is spinning and floating around, and music and sounds emanate from nowhere and everywhere at once. The lights dim. Your body shifts about to get comfortable. It’s not bed time however. It’s time for a movie! The strong correlation between our film watching setting, and our dream making setting is too closely tied to be considered mere coincidence. Colin McGinn, author of The Power of Movies, in chapter four titled “Dreams on Film”, says “A child has to learn to read before a literary narrative can be processed, but watching a film requires nothing much beyond the capacity to dream” (113). McGinn argues that the reasons we are able to understand film so easily and readily, is because of our ability to dream. In dreaming, we create visual fantasies that seem to reflect memories and images we experience in our own lives. We might wake up in a heavy sweat, a confused state of mind, or a smile on our face, and it is these same emotions that can be brought about by film. Our ability to create and consume film stems from our innate ability to imagine and understand dreams. Robert Rodriguez’s film adaptation “Sin City” is a perfect case study of how film and dreams are interrelated.
“Entertainment has to come hand in hand with a little bit of medicine, some people go to the movies to be reminded that everything’s okay. I don’t make those kinds of movies. That, to me, is a lie. Everything’s not okay.” - David Fincher. David Fincher is the director that I am choosing to homage for a number of reasons. I personally find his movies to be some of the deepest, most well made, and beautiful films in recent memory. However it is Fincher’s take on story telling and filmmaking in general that causes me to admire his films so much. This quote exemplifies that, and is something that I whole-heartedly agree with. I am and have always been extremely opinionated and open about my views on the world and I believe that artists have a responsibility to do what they can with their art to help improve the culture that they are helping to create. In this paper I will try to outline exactly how Fincher creates the masterpieces that he does and what I can take from that and apply to my films.
...n (Director) mistakenly seems to believe can carry the whole film. On the strength "based on a true story", he has rejected attention-grabbing characters, an imaginative plot, and unforgettable villains.