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Monday, May 25th, 2015 08:21 am
I have seen Mad Max. Come talk to me about it.
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Monday, May 25th, 2015 02:26 pm (UTC)
/twirls and twirls and falls in a heap

SO MANY EMOTIONS. SO MANY TERRIFYING FUTUREFIC THOTS.
Monday, May 25th, 2015 02:31 pm (UTC)

SUCH GOOD EXPLOSIONS.

... good lord, I somehow managed to miss re-granting you access when I went locked, wtf. FIXED THAT. I've been flailing about it all over my journal.

Monday, May 25th, 2015 06:20 pm (UTC)
REAL EXPLOSIONS! ACTUAL PHYSICS. REAL FLAMES
Monday, May 25th, 2015 06:52 pm (UTC)

Nope, I'm like 95% sure we met through [personal profile] rydra_wong's perfume roundups last year.

Monday, May 25th, 2015 06:20 pm (UTC)
SPLENDID
LESBIAN BIKER GRANNIES
SPLENDID HAVING THE MOST BADASS MOMENT OF THE MOVIE
SHE GIVES MAX BACK HIS FACE
MAX GIVES HER THE MAP
AND HIS BLOOD
AND HIS NAME
SPLENDID
NUX'S FINAL SCENE OH MY GOD
FURIOSA HOWLING IN THE DESERT AND HOW WE DID NOT IMMEDIATELY CUT TO MAX TO SEE HOW HE FELT ABOUT IT, IT WAS ALL HER

'REMEMBER ME?' AND THEN SHE RIPS _HIS_ FAKE FACE OFF

WHO KILLED THE WORLD //just collapses into fervent allcapsy babbling about every single frame
Monday, May 25th, 2015 06:49 pm (UTC)
Somebody in my theater clearly did not want to take the premise seriously and was laughing when Furiosa was sad in the desert and I was internally like EXCUSE ME, MA'AM.

Ohhh man. You could have heard a pin drop, except for the sobbing people. Then again we were at a daytime matinee on the Friday of a big holiday weekend, so I think the Yahoos were probably off on the freeway somewhere (appropriately!).

Somebody on Tumblr was talking about how the blood transfusion was a perfect reversal of, like, the thing that always happens in these movies where a woman has been exploited in some kind of bodily way and yet she must learn to love again. His bodily integrity was violated horrifically! And yet he also retained the ability to choose to make himself vulnerable in that way again! MAX.

YES
OMG SOMEONE ELSE SAID, HE TAKES THE THING THAT WAS EXPLOITIVE AND SHITTY AND THROUGH HIS _CHOOSING_ TO HELP HER MAKES IT SOMETHING HE CAN CONTROL AND MAKE GOOD
LIKE HOW NUX (OMG NUX) IS ALL BEREFT BECAUSE HE WILL NOT GO TO VALHALLA AND THEN HE WINDS UP DYING IN A FIERY WRECK ANYWAY BUT IT IS OKAY (_SORT OF_) BECAUSE IT IS HIS CHOICE AND HE IS DOING IT FOR SOMETHING REAL, THE LOVE OF A PERSON WHO CARES FOR HIM AND IT IS LIKE HIS TRIBUTE TO THE FUTURE AND HE GIVES IT UP SO THAT SHE CAN LIVE

AND IN ANY OTHER FUCKING MOVIE THE WOMEN WOULD HAVE BEEN DOING THIS WORK, IN THIS FLICK IT WAS THE _DUDES_

ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW _CHOICE_ WAS EMPHASIZED IN THIS MOVIE? INDIVIDUAL CHOICE? BECAUSE OH MY GOD. IT IS ALL ABOUT INDIVIDUAL AGENCY AND HOW EVERYONE DESERVES THAT AND HOW IT IS A FUCKING CRIME TO TAKE THAT AWAY.

The things he said while he was trying to save Furiosa were so, just. Leave me here clutching my face and rolling around.

Doesn't he say "There you are"? I was SOBBING too hard to make it out, I think. I was also fully expecting her to die because I did not think the movie could be THAT awesome.

(I also saw someone bitching that Max is the one to reveal the dead warlord's body and I was like EXCUSE YOU TWICE, she is WEAK and this is the MALE SHITTY PATRIARCHAL CULTURE, so yeah Max is going to go out there first and take the heat! and then be all, OH HEY CHECK THIS OUT and give the warlord to the people! IT IS LIKE THE LAST BIT OF PATRIARCHY BURNING ITSELF OUT THERE. AND THEN HE PASSES THE TRIUMPH ON TO HER AND SLIPS AWAY. WTF. HOW CAN PEOPLE NOT SEE IT)

Splendid. The quartet of gentlemen behind me were all, like, ready for Splendid to give birth in the truck and one of them was like PFFT, OF COURSE when she clutched her stomach and made a noise, and then the REST OF THE MOVIE HAPPENED and there was a silent sound of chagrin.

I LOVED the way the movie kept fucking with our expectations. LOVED. Someone else said this too, but I thought Nux was gonna be cannon fodder, and then I thought he would fuck with Furiosa et al while they were trying to escape, BUT NO! He becomes a PERSON. And then you cry when he fucking dies. Man.

Also, can we talk about the warboy's culture? It made sense. They did such a good job through Nux of illustrating why - given their material situation - this was both a reasonable worldview for the warboys to be involved in and an exploitation of the vulnerable by the powerful. Nux just wanted to drive one of the trucks, man. He was a teenager and his adolescence sucked and he wanted to feel meaningful in his endeavors.

Yeah, and they all are apparently sick and they KNOW they're going to die, so why not die in a way that makes your life meaningful? If your life sucks, why not go out in a blaze of glory? If there's nothing else. It makes perfect sense.
Monday, May 25th, 2015 07:27 pm (UTC)
He makes a bunch of what I frankly think of as comforting Minnesotan noises, which may be part of why I was face-clutching. It's just, like, mild soothing nonsense sounds like "there" and "okay" over and over. It was so warm. It gave me so many emotions.

YES. It was so totally natural too. Tom Hardy just did an amazing job with not really many lines at all (like SebStan in Winter Soldier). And I was SURE she was not going to make it, like Sam in Winter Soldier, and I was pleasantly surprised too! except I wasn't like ONE THOUSAND PERCENT INVESTED WITH MY WHOLE HEART then, so this was EVEN FUCKING BETTER.

....omg bicycles in that terrain? Nooo...for one thing, bikes give no protection from intense heat, if not radiation also, and you also lose a lot of calories and water (sweat) pumping the bike around, and you are SO vulnerable on a bike, especially if there are other assholes around with their deathmobiles picking off the people eschewing cars. You can't take heavy supplies on a bike, either, unless you're towing which slows you down, and it gets COLD in the desert at night and cars provide shelter.

I grew up in a semi-rural semi-desert area -- New Mexico -- and I don't think people who haven't lived in one realize how many different ways a desert climate can fuck you up. If you have a car in the desert, you have shelter from the wind/sun/cold, ability to carry enough water for a while, ability to travel hundreds of miles over unsupplied land and protection from wildlife and the weather. One thing that got drummed into me when going on even just a day hike in the mountains was ALWAYS CARRY WATER, A CANDY BAR, A SPACE BLANKET, MATCHES AND SOME WAY OF SIGNALLING because if you are caught unsupplied your chances of survival go in the toilet. And that wasn't even a postapocalyptic scenario!
Monday, May 25th, 2015 07:49 pm (UTC)
CAR AS STILLSUIT <3 <3

also car as hermit crab shell! And hideout! (HOW MUCH did I love Max frantically gathering all of Furiosa's many, many stashed weapons, and then ordering her to give up more, and then SHE HAS A KNIFE CONCEALED IN THE GEARSHAFT. YES)

And yeah, when I was growing up, even if you wanted to go to, say, Albuquerque which was "only" about 80 mi away, you needed a car, not only because there was just shitty Greyhound and the pricey airport shuttle back then, but because you just can't get through that terrain with nothing but a bike and what you can carry on it. I mean I guess you can if you're one of those long-distance endurance sport types, but they're also going to collapse when they get to the destination and that assumes nothing's going to be trying to pick them off on the way there.

(And OMG it looked like you could barely hope to survive those giant fucking dust storms, did they just roam the earth? or strike unpredictably? even in a BIG fortified car, Jesus)
Monday, May 25th, 2015 06:29 pm (UTC)
OH YEAH, MAX AS A _DUDE_ SAYING YOU KNOW WHAT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO DRIVE OFF INTO THE DESERT IN A SUICIDE RUN AT A LOST MIRAGE, HERE IS MY KNOWLEDGE, YOU CAN GO _BACK_ AND TAKE WHAT WAS STOLEN FROM YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE AND I WILL HELP, HERE IS MY HAND

I SAW SOMEONE COMPLAINING 'OH THAT GIVES THE MOMENT TO MAX' AND I WAS LIKE 'FUCK, WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK WERE YOU WATCHING"

BECAUSE NORANTI IS LIKE OOH YEAH, BLOW SHIT UP! AND MY GIRL DAG (I THINK IT WAS HER) IS LIKE 'YES AND THERE IS GREEN' AND THEY'RE ALL LIKE 'OKAY!' AND FURIOSA IS LIKE 'OH FUCK WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU SAYING' AND THEY ARE ALL LOOKING AT _HER_ AND MAX EXTENDS HIS HAND AND IT IS _HER DECISION_

(PEOPLE AROUND ME IN THE THEATRE WERE CRYING) (INCLUDING MY HUSBAND)

OH YEAH, ALSO CAPABLE IS ELVIS'S GRANDDAUGHTER, AND SHE AND GUITAR DUDE GOT MARRIED BECAUSE THEY FELL IN LOVE ON SET. OFFSCREEN AWESOME
Monday, May 25th, 2015 06:53 pm (UTC)
But also I cannot with super granular Feminist Readings on the internet sometimes

Yeah, I'm just like EXCUSE YOU PEOPLE IT WAS ABOUT FUCKING BLOWING UP THE PATRIARCHY. WITH REAL EXPLOSIONS.

it is significant that Max was a co-participant in a group undertaking as was Nux!

Seriously! ESPECIALLY since Max and Nux (similar names, heh) were given the 'female' arcs (supportive, self-sacrificing) and it was a total flip of the typical plotline and also showed that YES THERE ARE GOOD GUYS and PATRIARCHY SUCKS FOR EVERYONE and GENDER DOES NOT DETERMINE EVERYTHING.
Monday, May 25th, 2015 07:10 pm (UTC)
Seriously, Nux's exploitation was also a significant part of the world and plot.

It was so touching! So THEMATIC! He became a human! He already was human, he had just been so exploited and degraded and beaten down he had nearly forgotten! AND THEN HE CHOSE TO GIVE UP HIS NEW LIFE FOR OTHER PEOPLE. //sob

Also I cannot help being shallow about how adorable Capable was with Nux. Like: hello teenage boy! I feel compassion for you and ALSO I HAVE NEVER SEEN A BOY UP CLOSE MAYBE. My adolescence sucked too it was real real bad! Gentle face touches!

That little quiet scene between the two of them where they are just two little lost souls going OMG, who are _you?_ was one of my favourite bits of the movie, no lie. I mean yeah, there are AWESOME _REAL_ EXPLOSIONS and Guitar Dude and beatdowns, but there were also moments like that, and Dag and Noranti with the seeds, and Furiosa collapsing in the desert, that were just so emotional and punched me all the harder because they were these precious little connections in the midst of all the shit.
Monday, May 25th, 2015 07:13 pm (UTC)
wait I meant Furiosa in the desert meeting what was left of her people, fingers ran away with me
Monday, May 25th, 2015 07:12 pm (UTC)
I KNOW, and then apparently Charlize had adopted a BABY? So this baby was growing up in the middle of the film! She was doing all these stunts and this training while he was not yet sleeping through the night! IT'S LIKE EVEN THE MAKING OF THE FILM GOT IN ON THE ETHIC OF THE FILM ITSELF.