Many of us, yours truly included, saw the original 'Mad Max' movie back in the 1970's. It was iconic, and with its sequels began a new wave of guy-movie dystopian epics that endured for a long time. Here's one of the original trailers.
I've been interested to follow reports about the 'remake' of Mad Max that's scheduled for release tomorrow. (You can watch a recent trailer here.) Unfortunately, I've already heard enough to make me decide that I won't bother watching it. Aaron Clarey has argued the case against it very well over at Return Of Kings. Here's an excerpt.
If you were like me, the explosions, fire tornadoes, even the symphonic score surrounding “Fury Road’s” first trailer made your attendance a foregone conclusion. It looked like a straight-up guy flick. No ******* around. Perhaps even a little, hidden acknowledgement from the director that when the **** hits the fan, it will be men like Jack Donovan Mad Max who will be in charge.
But then my spidey senses started noticing a couple things.
Charlize Theron kept showing up a lot in the trailers, while Tom Hardy (Mad Max) seemed to have cameo appearances. Charlize Theron sure talked a lot during the trailers, while I don’t think I’ve heard one line from Tom Hardy. And finally, Charlize Theron’s character barked orders to Mad Max.
Nobody barks orders to Mad Max.
Sure enough, what I suspected (but desperately wanted NOT to be true) was confirmed with two articles in the past week. One, Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues” was consulted by the director to consult the female actresses in Fury Road about what it’s like being sex slaves. Her presumed expertise in this area was based on work she claimed to have done in the Congo. Work I investigated and deemed “fishy” in a recent podcast (around the 1hr 6 min mark).
Two, of all the outdated, obsolete, Baby Boomer leftist rags, TIME MAGAZINE just comes outright and says it.
“Here’s a surprise: Tom Hardy, a.k.a. Mad Max, isn’t the star of Mad Max: Fury Road. Charlize Theron is. An even bigger surprise? Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler consulted on what turns out to be a very feminist film….Theron, not Hardy, leads the charge; she also does the majority of the fighting.”
. . .
The truth is I’m angry about the extent [to which] Hollywood and the director of Fury Road went to trick me and other men into seeing this movie. Everything VISUALLY looks amazing. It looks like that action guy flick we’ve desperately been waiting for where it is one man with principles, standing against many with none.
But let us be clear. This is the vehicle by which they are guaranteed to force a lecture on feminism down your throat. This is the Trojan Horse feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to (vainly) insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength, and logic. And this is the subterfuge they will use to blur the lines between masculinity and femininity, further ruining women for men, and men for women.
There's more at the link.
You know all those portrayals of dystopian post-disaster reality that the movies portray? I have news for the movies. I've been in such realities. I've seen them. I've smelled them. I've lived them in more than one African nation plagued by war, or famine, or other disaster. I know what dystopia means . . . and what it does not mean, ever, is any kind of female physical ascendancy. It simply doesn't happen. Women don't have the strength to endure against men who want to take anything and everything they have. I've seen it time and again. I've stopped (the hard way) men trying to do that to women . . . and it was never enough, because when you turned your back, there were always more desperate men with nothing to lose (and nothing to care about) who were prepared to renew the attack.
Any movie that tries to portray a woman kicking male ass and taking male names under such circumstances will get nothing more from me than scorn, derision and contempt. It ain't gonna happen, people, not in a thousand years. If you don't like reality, I'm sorry, but that's your problem, not mine. I've been around the block too many times to be in any doubt about the real world. It's a cold, ugly, hard place when the chips are down.
No. Mad Max: Fury Road is off my list of movies to see. I don't like watching propaganda, and I won't watch lies.
Peter
I don't have your experiences in social breakdown, but I do have a bit of experience in the martial arts and street fighting when necessary. I have never once seen a woman beat a man in fighting, empty handed or with weapons. It certainly can happen, I suppose, but it's the exception to the rule. These movies with female 'warriors' defeating 30 men attacking at once fall into the fantasy / comedy genre. Completely unbelievable. Hilariously written. Waste of time.
ReplyDeleteIt is a movie. I am sure Peter that a hell of a lot of men action movies are full of weapons that never need reloading
ReplyDelete; heroes with the ability to dodge full auto incoming while galloping across an open area picking off their adversaries with a compact handgun; outracing explosions, surviving impossible physical stunts and such.
The original Mad Max was a classic tragedy that was completely ruined with its follow on unbelievable sequels.
Some of us might want to see a flick first before we make such a judgement call.
Thanks for the heads up. I saw the trailers and wondered why Charlize Theron was receiving so much air play. I thought it was to show off the buzz hair cut, lol.
ReplyDeleteHad no clue that the Hollyweird feminist take had taken over this film - I too will pass on this movie.
Thanks for the warning... saved me some money.
ReplyDeleteVery disappointing to hear this. I might, at some point, buy the movie on DVD, but I won't be spending money I can't afford to watch this in the theater.
ReplyDeleteI think it's possible, just, that you are overreacting. Loder, of REASON magazine by way of MTV, seems to think the flick is decent, and REASON isn't typically easy on Feminista fantasies.
ReplyDelete(http://reason.com/archives/2015/05/15/mad-max-fury-road-is-where-the-action-re)
I think, though I have no figures, that the demographics of action film audiences have shifted since MAD MAX, and there are more women watching, if not in the theaters then on disc. Giving them a fantasy figure to project into isn't necessarily bad storytelling. It isn't realistic, but what about a MAD MAX or AVENGERS is realistic? Are the Wuxia films like COME DRINK WITH ME feminist propaganda?
As for hiring the author of the twat monologues, I suspect that is a publicity stunt, intended to checkmate the usual Feminista hooray about sexism in films like THE EXPENDABLES.
Maybe I'm wrong. MAybe Hollywood has gone the full THELMA AND LOISE on this. And I'm not going to watch it in the theaters. The last film I went to the theatre for was JIRO DREAMS OF SUSHI and the one before that was CASINO ROYAL. These days most theaters have the personality of the box Ikea furniture comes in, and are a nuisance to get to, so I seldom bother. But I'd wait until the audience reactions were in before I put it on the Index Expurgatorious.
"Just walk away and there will be an end to the horror."
ReplyDeleteGerry
@Gerry: Hahaha!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate the irony of an actress playing a name-taking ass kicker while in a relationship with a spouse-abusing conceited shithead (who also happens to be an admirer of los bros Castro and "No-neck" Chavez). But perhaps Théron's PETA membership should have been a clue regarding her thought processes.
But I can't complain too much ... already got some enjoyment out of Fury Road: searching for "Furry Road" as a joke led me to the following featured here a few months ago.
Thanks for the heads up, Peter.
ReplyDeleteThe reality is that none of the principals associated with this film have ever been more than 50 yards away from a flush toilet, have never been in a fight in their adult life, and have damn' sure never had to use a firearm for any reason at all. Then they let this reality bleed into fiction until you can't tell one from the other.
As for barking at Mad Max, that's a good way to lose a few teeth.
I personally am a little disappointed at your attitude. You have always struck me as man who prefers to make up his own mind as opposed to simply believing someones else comments and thus accepting any hidden agenda they may have by default.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I have read the same article and as with all 'film critics' their comments must be taken with a hearty dose of salt. I intent to go an see the movie with an open mind and decide for myself.
@Sven: The old proverb says "Once bitten, twice shy". When it comes to feminazi's, I've been bitten far too often to be willing to take them on trust any longer. Deceit is in their blood, and the accounts of having Eve Ensler as a consultant are enough to make up my mind for me, right there. (Have you ever read - never mind seen - her "Vagina Monologues"? Sheesh . . . !)
ReplyDeleteIt may be a perfectly good action movie, but with an ideological overhang like that, it can't possibly be what it should be.
At the minimum, I'll wait until I can rent it for $1.
ReplyDeleteAn actual remake of Mad Max with the budge and SFX of todays movies would have been cool. I was less enamored of the sequels and a sequel with a Max as a supporting role holds no interest for me.
I guess we'll see what those willing to fork out theater prices are saying.
I struggle with my stand on Hollywood almost every time I read an interview or see a story about some Hollywood celeb. I enjoy the movies, and for example I really enjoy Charlize and Leonardo but I despise her boyfriend and hence her judgment. And I despise Leo's environmental hypocrisy so much I find it difficult to justify giving them my monetary support. If I don't then I miss out on some potentially excellent films.
Sure - my measly contribution amounts nothing given their wealth but it's mine and I worry about stuff like that now and then.
Not having Max as main character tells me that they bolted on Max's story since the story they wanted to tell would not have gotten green lighted. As soon as they did Max was pushed to the side so they could have the feminist action hero movie they really wanted. Max as just a clown that can't do anything right.
ReplyDeleteIt will be gone from the multiplex in two weeks and on Netflix soon after. Will we see another Mad Max movie in the future? Don't count on it.
Anonymous @ 6:49
ReplyDeleteYou have just summarized the plot of every movie made by Hollywood in the last 15 (25?) years.
Man as a clown who can't do anything right with a feminist action hero saving him from himself, while pushing the agenda they really believe.
-- Steve
I think you're doing a disservice to the film. I'm pretty sure I saw that the RoK guy hadn't actually seen the film yet.
ReplyDeleteWhile Theron definitely gets colead with max, and is the initiator of the plot, it's max who makes the crucial plot decision for the climax.
Baring some "one stab mooks", any time one of the females fights a guy in extended melee, the guy is shown as physically superior. The female badassery? Its in skill with firearms.
It may not be the best of the max films, and maybe you will still be disappointed by its portrayl of max, but it is a very good chase film, and one that is truly a glory to watch.
Remember, if you're not stealing from Hollywood, you're paying for Hollywood...
ReplyDeleteFor me it's not so much what they're selling as WHO is selling it and if Eve Ensler goes bankrupt because I didn't buy a ticket or rent the film then I'm fine.
But if we do buy tickets that fund her in even the smallest way she considers it agreement with her position and an endorsement of her conclusions.
Deny her that support!
If there was a feminist message I sure the heck missed it. It was a great action flick with honest vehicle chases that you just don't see nowadays in the age of CGI.
ReplyDelete