"I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land. Most of all, I remember the man we called Max, the road warrior. To understand who he was we have to go back to the other time."
Turn of the century, Namibia: Mad Max: Fury Road is only three months from principal photography and everything's falling into place. An array of custom vehicles have been imported from Australia, fine-tuned within an inch of their pistons. The leading actors, Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver, are about to sign their contracts. Then literal disaster strikes - it's September 11th 2001. Fury Road is soon shelved due to ballooning costs and the impending invasion of Iraq.
The fact that the Fury Road we know and love exists, never mind its new prequel Furiosa, is beyond a miracle.
Director George Miller’s attempt to shoot the film twenty-three years ago wasn’t his last, by any means. His second try happened in 2010, with the intention to film in the desert at Broken Hill, Australia where he shot most of the original Mad Max movies. But sudden rainfall had caused a desert bloom, with all a sudden outbreak of flora and fauna making it impossible to create the post-apocalyptic wasteland he needed. Gibson had essentially aged out of the role of Max by then. His potential replacement, Heath Ledger, died suddenly in 2008, with Tom Hardy eventually landing the title role alongside Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Principal photography finally, once and for all, began in 2012.
And the rest is history.
The pre-history of Max began in 1979. On the release of his first movie, Doctor George Miller, who had shot the film (with close friend and fellow film student, Byron Kennedy, producing) following the completion of his residency at Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital. He had mixed feelings about a career in cinema. Miller said recently: "When I made the first Mad Max, I had never been on a set before. We had such a low budget. And even though the film worked, I really thought I could never make a movie, it was too bewildering. And I remember I spoke to Peter Weir (director of Witness and Master & Commander), who had done his third feature. And I explained to him how difficult it was. He said, 'George, don't you realize it's like that for every movie?'"
So onwards the good doctor, now fully fledged filmmaker, went, delivering Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior to cinemas in 1981. It was here the legend was born, that of Mel Gibson’s Max and of the visceral production necessities needed to deliver such a film - seriously, check out this behind-the-scenes footage:
The Road Warrior was an even bigger hit than the original. But when Hollywood came calling for a third installment, tragedy struck: Max producer Byron Kennedy was tragically killed in 1983 in a helicopter crash, while scouting locations for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. After losing his best friend, George didn't want to go on. But out of respect to Byron, he ploughed ahead with the help of another George, veteran Australian film and theatre director George Ogilvie, completing the movie and dedicating it to his late friend. Though the least fernetic of all the Max films, it retains for me a personal soft spot, not least for managing to catch a certain 80s zeitgeist with its Tina Turner theme song smothering my memories of the summer of 1985 - of which I still covet my twelve-inch vinyl copy from Golden Discs of yore.
"We don't need another hero!" Well, we got one, anyway. Nearly 80 years of age, George Miller has returned to the desert, extending his film-making miracle further with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth film in the tales of Max, and the first in which Max doesn’t exactly appear (no spoilers). That’s how much of an impact Charlize Theron had in Fury Road - her character can carry a whole movie. And I mean her character, as here Furiosa is played first by young actress Alyla Browne, then Anna Taylor Joy. Spread over twenty five years, her epic story of survival from childhood kidnapee to bad-ass amputee desert rigger is - dare I say it - how a prequel should be done: drive right up the arse of the movie that came before you, re-casting be damned. Because when the filmmaking is this stunning, the audience will give you a free hand.
Miller doesn’t waste a moment, making this two-and-half-hour wasteland epic feel like an enthralling ninety minute vehicular smash up; one that, but for the roar of engines and crunch of bones, plays with all the visual punch of a silent blockbuster.
Thirty odd years ago, I saw George Miller give a talk at the Adelphi Cinema in Dublin as he was out promoting the release of his new 1992 film, Lorenzo’s Oil. It had been nearly a decade since his bittersweet experience at the Thunderdome. It was inconceivable at the time that he’d ever return to Max. Little did he (or any of us) know there was still oil in them there desert hills, blood, bullets and the roar of war-rigs - crude, unadulterated cinema.
Furiosa is in cinemas nationwide from Friday, May 24th.
Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
