Mad Max: Full Reality

Inadvertently subverting subversion

Well folks, one of the all time great movie franchises is dropping a sequel next weekend, which is technically a prequel, which is also a re-launch. So it's entirely new AND derivative. Only in our modern time does that make sense. Or perhaps also in classical Greece (*Another* story about Zeus? But in this one he attacks some other nymph? Can we have some originality here?).

Of course I'm talking about Mad Max. Our Pre-Sequel is about the embodiment of girl power, Furiosa.

Probably does not make sandwiches

Mad Max is a big deal. It's the best kind of big deal, the kind of big deal that pervade's the public consciousness without being obnoxious. No winks. No faux irony, no inside joke. Everybody knows Mad Max, and even if they haven't seen it, they know what it *means*.

Here in Kansas we have those good old-fashioned nightmare ice storms; the ice is black, the terrain is sheer white, and we're seeing red; I've seen cars fly across the interstate, do a full 360, then keep driving in whatever direction they please, law and order be damned. I've seen cars rolling down highway overpasses and causing literal pileups. We inhabitants of the frozen wastes grip the wheel, grind our teeth, and go to work, remote "work" be damned. And in the office, as we come down from the adrenaline rush, and perhaps having beaten an interloper with a tire iron, we hear a fellow say, "It was like Mad Max out there." And we all know exactly what he means.

That's cultural pervasiveness, my friends. Mad max has been verbed, and nouned, and repeated, and thus gained immortal renoun.

The original Mad Max came out in 1979. The director, George Miller, was a doctor, but he was tired of all that money and wanted to make some poverty and art. So he took every penny he had and blew it all (literally) on ramming some cars into various objects for a B-movie. The result? A movie that was ok.

But hope remained. A few years later Hollywood came along, not the current lame-ass Hollywood, but the old, 80's Hollywood. The Hollywood that would throw $10 million at a one-time director and see what happened. So the second Mad Max got some real funding, and Miller set to work making Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.

It's a Great Movie. I watch every time I have a fever. I do this because once when I had a fever I had an extended lucid dream in which I was one of many nuclear apocalypse survivors, and crawling across the floor IRL and throwing up in IRL, I tended to the open wounds of my fellow survivors as they moaned in agony. This went on for hours.

Since then, I watch Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior whenever I'm sick. So, I've seen it many times, in various states of consciousness, and at various IQ levels. And every time, it's a Great Movie.

So I was pretty psyched to see the sequel/reboot that came out in 2015. I approached it with trepidation though, as I wasn't sure that Miller, now in his seventies, still had it. After making Road Warrior he kept making movies, action extravaganza's like… Happy Feet and Babe. Wait, what? Not kidding. Babe is one of my all time favorite movies, but it isn't an action movie. Had Miller entered into his gentle senility?

Also, there were rumblings that the new Mad Max was going Woke. This was back when going Woke was still somewhat original. There was going to be a female lead. One of the major themes was female-empowerment. Eve Ensler, playright and feminist best known for writing The Vagina Monologues, was brought on as a consultant to help Miller understand modern female suffering. In an interview before the release, she described the movie as a "feminist action film."¹ Oh boy. I was ready for one of my all time favorite franchises to be totally corrupted.

Was it bad? No way. Mad Max:Fury Road rocked, hard. If you haven't seen it, stop RIGHT NOW, rent it for four bucks on Amazon, and watch it.

Ok? Back? Great movie, huh?

Turns out, it wasn't a girl-power movie at all. Or if it was about girl power, then Miller's higher calling, his desire to make great movies, ultimately out-subverted the subversion. Or perhaps Miller had a secret agenda, and he really wanted to make a movie about male power.

Because that's what he did.

Mad Max:Fury Road pretty much perfectly explains the patriarchy and why it must exist, warts and all. And I mean literal, post-apocalyptic, radiated warts.

Dermatology was a lost art

I'm sure a lot of the girl-power guys writing paid praise on movie review sites would disagree, and perhaps the director himself, so let me explain.

Fair Warning: Total and egregious spoilers throughout. But you just watched the movie so it's cool, right?

We start with a juxtaposition: We have the post-apocalyptic world - Ruined, wasted, and dry. Then, atop a peak there is green. There is water. There is the kingdom of Immortan Joe. He's built a fortress on a rock that juts from the wasteland, and has somehow tapped a spring in that rock. He controls the water. He sometimes releases it for the beggars below. In a few quick cuts we see his kingdom; there are plants growing in aquaponics trays; cisterns filled with water; women being literally milked; young men training to be drivers and warriors; medical care; a shrine to Valhalla, shiny and chrome; engineering bays; a library; a harem.

In short, we see civilization. The difference between the diseased and squalid masses teeming beneath the fortress, and those within, is stark. Immortan Joe has taken the radiated and dying young men of the world and given them purpose, calling them his "Half-Life War Boys". They have organized religion, a bizarre Norse system, wherein if they die in glory a greater glory awaits them in Valhalla. They receive medical care, transfusions and such, to keep them going. Immortan Joe takes care of his warriors.

Cultivation, exploitation, rationing, conservation, religion, training, education - In this movie it's all the patriarchy because one man built it, Immortan Joe; he's the father of it all. Everyone benefits from the patriarchy, especially Immortan Joe. He's got the choicest babes (Which seem to be in short supply) for his harem. It begs the question though: Would anyone suffering the exploitation of Immortan Joe rather suffer the alternative? Outside? Amongst the ruins?

The Patriarchy

Then we're introduced to Furiosa, who's the actual lead of this movie. Immortan Joe is apparently an equal opportunity employer, though he'll find out soon why maybe he shouldn't have been. He's raised Furiosa to the top levels of power. She's one of his Warlords and she drives a WarRig - The barge she sat in, shiny and chrome, burned to roam; the Boys were beaten until bold; purple the radiated necks, sores so perfumed the winds were sick with them.²

The entire person of Furiosa, her power, her prestige, the trust Immortan places in her, subverts at once the the notion that women are just exploited chattel in his patriarchy. Like the real world, it's a lot more complicated. Some are slaves, some are free, and more often than we like to admit, whether we're slave or free has more to do with *us* than with those who rule us.

But turns out his trust was misplaced. The movie's first plot point is simple: Furiosa betrays Immortan, liberates his harem, commandeers a WarRig hauling guzzoline and breastmilk (lol), and roars into the wastes, heading east to find her homeland. We learn she was abducted from the "Land of Many Mothers", a matriarchy. Only "safe" men are trusted there. She’s going back. So compared with this hellish patriarchy we've seen, a paradise, right?

Wrong.

This is where the theme of the movie gets so pointed and imminently *applicable* that I can't help but think Miller hired the "Diversity and Feminism Advisor" entirely for the lulz. Furiosa is disappointed to find that the "Land of Many Mothers" is gone. The water has gone sour, the trees are dead, and the few people left remaining are men walking on stilts amidst the dry rot. Just past this ruin, they find some sign of civilization - A tower in the distance, and on it a naked woman, calling for help. All around her there are mirrors and CD discs making flashes of light. As Mad Max says, "That, is bait."

Furiosa discovers that the many mothers have been reduced to just a few. They’ve set up a trap using the remnants of their sex-appeal so they can lure in passing men, rob them blind, kill them, and wait for another victim. The matriarchy is a husk, a parched vagina-dentata.

The Matriarchy in one image. Our future, if we do nothing.

Here we have the great thematic juxtaposition of the film. On one hand, the patriarchy - Exploitative, yes, but abundant with wealth for all who call the fortress home. On the other, the matriarchy, an empty womb, dead, no abundance, no wealth, no religion, no future, with the last remnants of feminine beauty used only to lure in any foolish White Knight that passes by.

Next comes plot point number two, the last, wherein Furiosa, Max, and the Mothers blast back to Immortan's Fortress and seize it for themselves. They could never make civilization, they could ever only take civilization. Immortan is killed. The movie ends with Furiosa cranking open the valves to the precious water, which comes out in torrents and spills on the rocks below, to the delight of the starving masses.

We can only guess how long the water will last until it is spent, and soon Immortan's fertile fortress is reduced to a wasteland like the "Land of Many Mothers". Another civilization bites the dust.

It's a great action movie, yes, but it's more than that. It has a powerful theme that's entirely communicated with images. One doesn't have to notice the metaphor, but it's there. It's my go-to movie for explaining to my (Older) kids the appeal, danger, and ultimate result of feminism. Also, the complexity of patriarchy, in that for all that men have done wrong, we've done a whole lot right. We shouldn't be ashamed of this civilization we've built. We've built it with the help of our wives and daughters, whom in large part we build everything for, out of love. It's worth fighting for, hard, because the alternative is ruin. We're seeing that already.

So was Miller accidentally telling the truth? Or secretly telling the truth? I have no idea. But that's why I'm VERY curious how this next movie turns out. It's dedicated to Furiosa's rise to power. Will it be Woke? Woke for the retards, but anti-woke for wise? Or something else? We'll find out tomorrow!

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1. After watching the movie and absorbing the bigger meaning of the theme, I was amazed any competent movie critic could call it feminist at all. These people aren’t very bright.

2. I’m gonna stop. But I don’t wanna.