Analysis Of The Cinematic Masterpiece "Mad Max: Fury Road"

Abstract

Movies mold how we perceive the world; they carry special meanings to various aspects in life and help us to see the world and understand other individuals better. They use sociological aspects in life to convey numerous aspects that individuals encounter in their daily life. The movie Mad Max: Fury Road not only uses a captivating and fascinating story to capture these aspects. Filmed in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (formerly Australia), Max (Tom Hardy), who is a survivor and drifter joins hands with a former officer now a rebel warrior, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) in a pursuit to overthrow the tyrannical ruler Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays Byrne) who controls the region’s largest supply of water. In the film Fury Road, the main theme being delivered is Feminism. The film revolves around Furiosa’s demonstration of a heroine committed to save the people from barbarian ruling. Through-out the film Furiosa has a fierce outfit, a shaved head and can handle an 18-wheel war truck through a desert. Her character depicts a female warrior who is fighting for survival in a patriarchal environment.

Introduction

Movies mold how we perceive the world; they carry special meanings to various aspects in life and help us to see the world and understand other individuals better. They use sociological aspects in life to convey numerous aspects that individuals encounter in their daily life. The movie Mad Max: Fury Road not only uses a captivating and fascinating story to capture these aspects but also is a movie whereby complex movie languages are used to explain critical phenomenon in our social lives and the structure of our modern-day society (Schaefer, pp.166, 2007). Typically, movies possess implicit and explicit meanings. Explicit meanings lie on the surface of the movie and are easily identified by even a novice eye unlike implicit meanings which lie deeper in the plot of the story and are used by writers to portray deep insights on substantial flaws in our social systems and even the perfect picture of our sociological architecture is painted in here.

The movie Mad Max: Fury Road was initially released on 7th May 2015. Directed by George Miller, produced by Kennedy Miller productions and Village show pictures production Portrays Max, A drifter and survivor who lives in a post-apocalyptic wasteland called “The Citadel” who joins forces with Furiosa, a rebel who plans on overthrowing Immortal Joe a tyrannical ruler of the wastelands who controls the land’s water supply and oppress the people. This movie is an illustration of how our social structures work. It is able to sketch various aspects ranging from religion, gender, power struggles, and even the struggles that the lower-class caste of our societies undergo whilst delivering captivating storyline at the same time which utterly genius. I feel like there’s no better movie to pick than this if you want to analyze the architecture of our sociological systems

Overview

Summary annotation

Filmed in a post-apocalyptic wasteland (formerly Australia), Max (Tom Hardy), who is a survivor and drifter joins hands with a former officer now a rebel warrior, Furiosa (Charlize Theron) in a pursuit to overthrow the tyrannical ruler Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays Byrne) who controls the region’s largest supply of water. The film starts at an Oasis in the wastelands called “The Citadel” where the antagonist/ villain Immortan Joe is first seen. Immortan Joe is a tyrant ruler who controls the land and is surrounded by servants and covered in armory decorated with military insignias and medals. Joe has an army of War Boys which is typically cultic groups that worships him like a god considering their belief that Joe is immortal (where the name Immortan is derived from) and worship him with rituals that entirely revolve around danger and pure violence. Joe also enslaves a number of women who act as his wives. Max a lonely wanderer, finds himself captured by immortal Joe’s army. Meanwhile Furiosa (Joe’s officer) has smuggled out 5 wives held captive by Immortan Joe to free them from this tyranny whilst herself seeking redemption. Joe learns about his rogue officer and leads an army in pursuit of Furiosa. Max gets carried into the action as he is assigned to be a blood donor for sick war boy Nux (Nicholas Hoult).

The pursuit leads into a sand storm where Max manages to escape from the trail and brings along Nux who is chained to him. Max finds Furiosa’s heavily-armored truck with the 5 wives and tries to steal it but fails since only Furiosa is able to operate the truck. Max now teams up with Furiosa against Joe’s army which is closing in on them at a fast rate. Furiosa realizes that the only place with enough water in the wasteland was the Citadel so they make their way back to Citadel and on their way back they engage in a road battle with Immortan Joe’s army. Nux sacrifices himself in the battle to save the wives and although she’s injured in the process, Furiosa kills Immortan Joe and he is saved by Max after being given a blood transfusion. Furiosa and her team return to the Citadel and triumphant and Max shows the war boys and the citizens Immortan Joe’s corpse proving that he was actually mortal after all.

Reflection annotation

The movie contains vast sociological aspects ranging from gender, religion, cultural activities, social mobility and even family values. It also entails the use of symbols for communication and thinking which is a form of interaction (Korgen, & White, 2010). Gender stratification in the film is illustrated when Immortan Joe assumes control and enslaves the 5 women forcing them to be his wives, women are suppressed by the Male masculinity in this toxically patriarchal society and are perceived as the inferior gender and used as mere servants and aren’t involved actively in ruling. However, a slight turn of events leads to the creation of a female protagonist who seeks redemption from this patriarchal society. Proponents of the film assert that it portrays “the vast diversity of the female experience” showing “women as active players in their own stories” (Siede 2015). The religious aspect of sociology is also covered in the plot. The film has a subtle but powerful deconstruction of the merge between religion and power. The use of religion in the film reflects the actual use of beliefs and rituals to support inequality and male domination in the real world. The film predominantly characterizes religion as an ideology used for Hierarchal purposes, an ideology that supports unequal power relation and substantiates a violent masculinity.

Relational stories

The most compelling and interesting relationship in the film is relationship between Mad max, Nux and Furiosa, given their huge background difference. Nux pays his allegiance to Immortan Joe, he even believes that when he dies, he will go to a promised land in the afterlife “Valhalla”. On the other hand, Mad max is a loner who is haunted by the memories of his family whereas Furiosa seeks redemption. But still in spite of their vast differences in gender, religion, social class, ethnicity occupation, they become united and align themselves with each other to fight a common and dangerous enemy.

Analysis

Gender

The Bechdel test generally measures the representation of women in fiction. About half of the films meet this criterion. One of the requirements to pass this test is that fictional work should feature at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. In the film Fury Road, Furiosa talks with the wives he rescued among them; Splendid (Rosie Huntington), Toast (Zoe Kravitz), Capable (Riley Keough) and Fragile (Courtney Eaton) about their survival while they were fleeing from Immotan Joe. According to the results of the Bechdel test conducted, the film shows little representation of Gender inequality as per the guidelines of the Bechdel test. However, the plot of the movie shows multiple instances of gender inequality and female oppression. The society itself is patriarchal in nature and women are enslaved but as the storyline progresses, we see “the vast diversity of the female experience” showing “women as active players in their own stories” (Siede 2015).

Evaluating human behavior and social phenomena

Characters in the film, especially the war boys display erratic behavior. Throughout the film, the war boys kill, and torture the citizens and act in unacceptable moral codes. With this social behavior came oppression activities and the citizens of the Citadel were being forced to worship Joe and view him as a god rather than a ruler. Feminism as a sociological concept was greatly undermined.

Approaches to culture: ethnocentrism and cultural relativism

Filmed in a post-apocalyptic era, the culture is expected to be vastly different from the normal Australian culture. The society in the film has adopted a new religion where they worship their ruler and god Immortan Joe who is known to be “Immortal”. According to Korgen and White, culture can be expressed through religion. They worship Immortan Joe through violent rituals in which they believe that in paying allegiance to Joe they will live in Paradise “Valhalla” in the afterlife. Their cultural norms are quite unique and don’t display any relativism to other known culture.

Applying sociological perspectives

The major social institution presented in the film was government and government. Family structure wasn’t highlighted clearly. The government structure of the society in the film was purely dictatorial where gender stratification was widely practiced with masculinity having superiority over feminism. Basing on the structural architecture and organization the sociological perspective applied was Conflict theory where men reserved total control over the resources. This application led to complete suffering of the citizen who were at the mercy of Immortan Joe and even denied them basic need like water.

Reflection

In the film Fury Road, the main theme being delivered is Feminism. The film revolves around Furiosa’s demonstration of a heroine committed to save the people from barbarian ruling. Through-out the film Furiosa has a fierce outfit, a shaved head and can handle an 18-wheel war truck through a desert. Her character depicts a female warrior who is fighting for survival in a patriarchal environment. Since the start of the film, women were presented as servants to men and gender inequality was largely practiced but as the storyline progresses, we see a female racing through the barrier of inequality and against all odds defeats the patriarchy that was in place.

References

• Fust, N. T. (2015) Religion, Gender, and power in Mad Max: Fury Road. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/290978253.
• Korgen, K. O., & White, J. M (2010). The Engaged Sociologist: Connecting the Classroom to the Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press
• Schaefer, R. T. (2007) Sociology matters. New York: McGraw Hill
• Siede, C. (2015). If you like the return of The Jedi and hate the Ewoks, you understand feminist criticism. AV Club Retrieved from: https:// www.avclub.com/article/if-you-return-jedi-hate-eworks-you-understand-feminsts-224765