I watched Mad Max a few days ago after hearing so much discussion about how good the movie was. I’m going to discuss the movie generally and won’t be giving any spoilers. While I did enjoy the movie, I was dissapointed at how the world was created. I loved the idea but so much more could have been done. Don’t you hate when that happens? When you watch a movie that you love it’s potential but it just doesn’t reach it? Well the world of Mad Max was like that for me.
by Koroa on Tumblr
But on the topic of Furiosa (the main female lead, Charlize Theron) she was exactly what I wanted in a female warrior. She is currently my favourite main female character EVER. She was a female lead that was not sexualized. Yes. Let that sink in. She was a badass, kick-ass woman who was NOT sexualized. They have her fight in the movie, dirty, gritty, and unrestrained fighting. What I also love about the movie is that no-one questions her gender, or her rough appearance, or underestimates her ability to fight. Not even the villains. They know that she’s powerful and they try to outsmart her. While the director of this movie didn’t intend on making a feminist movie, this movie has definitely made massive waves in the feminist community and many others. Tumblr is currently exploding with so much fanart of Furiosa, fanfiction, etc. They have gripped onto this movie (that I thought could’ve even been better in terms of world-building) because we have been given something we rarely have before. A badass female lead who is not sexualized, who is gritty, and has her own well-established arc independent of the men in the movie. And there are many other female characters in the movie who all have their own arcs which I was happy to see too. To be honest, it’s probably the first action movie I have seen with SO many established female characters. It was sad when I realised that. It really stood out to me how many women were on screen and I was annoyed that it looked ‘different’ and ‘odd’. I can see why so many people are obsessed with her and what she represents as an action hero. Her character particularly impacted me considering how disappointed I was with Black Widow, as an action hero, in the Avengers.
So while I was very impressed with Furiosa, the movie made me feel a bit ‘ergh’ in terms of the world and story. I felt like there could have been more complexity and depth instead of so many action sequences (I love action but… as long as it does not sacrifice the story/world). I wish they had taken some more time with the writers to push it to that next level because then this movie would have been legendary. But Furiosa makes the movie. She makes me want to see it again. She makes me recommend it to others. The movie should have been called “Imperator Furiosa”. She is the reason it will be remembered.
I’ll finish my little rant here and leave you with a quote about Furiosa. Have you watched Mad Max? What did you think of the world? What did you think of Furiosa?
– Ermisenda
“Yes, Furiosa exists in a lineage (see above), and, yes, plenty of other action films have featured female leads. But what’s notable here is how Furiosa being a woman both is and isn’t integral to her character. (In the same way that her missing arm both is and isn’t integral to her character.) In Alien, the character of Ripley was written as a man, then cast as a woman, which was a breakthrough at the time — but also a kind of cinematic drag act. Why can’t a woman play a man’s role? Well, sure — but the better question, only now being asked, is, Why can’t a woman’s role take the place of the man’s role? Furiosa could never be played by a man — the character would make no sense — and not, as with many other female action heroes, because of the kind of costume she wears. She is not simply Indiana Jones in hot pants or Lolita with armor-piercing rounds. Furiosa is a woman, and she is a hero, and she’s cool as hell, and she’s simultaneously recognizable and revelatory as all three. If you’re an action fan and you can’t admit that you’d eagerly watch ten more Furiosa films in the next ten years, then I’d have to ask again if you’re an action fan.”
Ermilia 
I would like to study ‘the semiotics of the female role’, to explore what we mean when we depict a woman, and how we interpret when we see a woman depicted, from the simplicity of the internationally-understood symbol on a WC door, to the complexity of a movie role. I would like to dig down beneath gender politics or culture and uncover significance…
I think that would be fascinating. I’d love to read something that researched that well.
Maybe one day I’ll do it. Maybe one day I’ll take a degree…
Simply to be a female lead, for once by virtue of my character alone, rather than one presupposed by stereotype, or by circumstance, or worse, by a depraved thirst for something that quenches a social anemia having nothing to do with my gender at all…? To simply be me… to simply be written as me… to have the world love me for who I am… who they read… oh, how sweet would that be?
The very moment a depiction occurs it takes on significance, it becomes something other than what it purports to represent…
Amen.
To be honest I thought they did a good job of the world building. It was meant to be a world as mad as the titular character. It was a twitchy mix of the left-overs of the modern world and more ancient themes. I loved the idea of riding the roads of valhalla and the heavy metal march music of the enemy war party was inspired.
Even Furiosa was driven nuts by the world she lived in. The shock of finding her faith was in vain left her willing to risk everything by crossing the salt only to have Max come up with something madder.
But to the idea of the film as a feminest movie…. Pleeease!!!! While we have Furiosa we also have the three ‘wives’, models-come baby factories, subject to one too many standing in the sand playing with water shots, the film is neutral at best.
Or is that four wives, I saw the film a couple of weeks ago.
I too really enjoyed the world but I wanted more from the world. The first… half an hour? to me was brilliant. I loved seeing how the workers interacted, how the war boys had half lives and took blood donors, seeing the mothers giving mothers milk, the breeders, etc. I wanted to see more of the structure of the society and maybe Furiosa’s past in the citadel. I wanted to see more of the villain and how he ran things in his citadel. I would have been happy to sacrifice 30 minutes of action for more of the world. As I mentioned in the post, I love action but not when sacrificing story/world. I hope that makes sense. I too loved the boys riding to valhalla and the heavy metal march music of the war party.
Well a feminist movie doesn’t mean that all women have to be in ‘dominant’ non-sexualised roles. Yes there are beautiful young women in scraps of clothing (‘the wives’) but they are not merely there for you to gawk at. They try to help Furiosa and they end up contributing to their liberation instead of squeling in the background or just making out with the male protagonist. Feminism in media/movies is about varied portrayals of women and womanhood. To portray us as people who are complex, who can be weak but also strong, good and bad, flawed, etc. To tell our stories independent of the male characters story arcs too. Plus the ‘baby making’ aspect of the wives or ‘breeders’ is VERY feminist. Furiosa’s goal (and the movie’s plot) is to liberate these women who have been made to breed against their will, their value has been set to baby-making and they don’t want to participate. There is also the scene when the villain goes into the breeders room and you see the old woman yelling ‘we are not things’. To me that communicates a lot of feminist issues. Plus did you see how many old women were in the film? I have never seen so many badass older white-haired women on screen (except for a villain in Firefly). But I’m constantly bombarded with old guys with guns in action movies etc. This is what I have gathered from my readings at least.
Thanks for commenting! And it was five wives originally. 🙂
Truth! The old women were badass it has to be said.
With regards to the world they were in, I know they didn’t explain too much but if they did they would have committed the cardinal sin of excessive exposition. The hints they gave I thought were detailed enough and if you want to know more I suppose there will be a novelization.
I suppose I can’t get over the opening shot of the ‘breeders’ with them all scantily clad, washing themselves beside the truck. I felt too… Michael Bay to make it take any of the other feminist aspects of the film seriously.
Yeah I guess… but I didn’t necessarily need more explanation but… maybe a sub-plot that explored the other aspects of the society? You know? I think I definitely would have liked to have read this as a novel. 🙂 Give me MOARRR details!
Haha yeah that scene was very Michael Bay. I guess for me the feminist aspects drown out that scene instead of the other way around. 😛
The movie was on my list. And after reading your review, I will go see it. And I agree about Charlize Theron. She is a great actress.
She is brilliant! 🙂 You should. 😀