a thousand miles of a thousand pictures worth a thousand words
elephants, gazelles, insects, rhinos, dogs, burrs
freaks
freakshow fun
the art of the freakshow
handicaps and maladies as character statements and exposition
all you have to do is show it and the story is told
stilts in the bog
prevalence of disease, growths and infection
tatoos and keloid scarring
design
white skinheads scrambling and scrabbling through contrasts
spiky vehicles
wrapped, not sewn
banners, flags, penants
what’s cool about a vehicle lego’d together, doubled-up and perverted into a motivated balance of function and form
curves and circles
spikes and rust
out of their minds
rock and roll, baby
with flame throwers
a mondo wall of amps – on a bigass stack of wheels
“drummer boy”
score as a pounding flowing fanfare of threat and doom
the steering wheel as a totem of power
what’s a driver without a steering wheel?
bolt cutters and tools as plot and character devices
one woman can’t use the bolt cutter in a downbeat moment
but two women can in an upbeat one
automotive paradigms as character statements and plot devices
the grill
bolt cutters
monkey wrenches
chains
steering wheels
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grease as makeup
logistics
monkey wrenches as steering wheels
car doors as traction facilities for a big rig
the mud of the road
a bloated clubfoot as a leadfoot
a road picture
never in one place for long
always moving
failure to prove yourself as you expected
searching for reason
searching for purpose
foibles of delusion
exposition on the run
the brothers
the heir
one angle on the bog
crows and ravens as classic harbingers
the name max
not just a trailer kickoff point
the performances
the mania of Mel
rat in a cage
scrabbling maniacally at the corners
echoes of the original
the gyrocopter pilot “sidekick” goofiness morphing into the war boy
masks
on max
on the villain
perversion and punk in that foreign, aussie and wild side way
nipple rings and chains on a sophisticated fat cat in a pin stripe suit
surgery in a moving vehicle
twisted coming of age
unabashed sex appeal of wet cotton with an aussie accent
disease, growth, plague and famine
this isn’t Dukes of Hazzerd or Cannonball Run – you don’t see this in America
miller
the whole world understands a pantomime
searching for meaning
miller AGAIN does to the car movie of the oughts what he did to the car movie of the 70s
he shows that it doesn’t just have to be about mindless stoic stares, you-llokinatme frowns, faux steely personas and sassy sidekick T&A chicks with a cause safetypinned onto their dangling tanktops
how could all the ideas that are welded into this film NOT have been thought up in the past 30 years by even the science fiction post apocalyptic road rager wannabes that followed suit?
feminism
if feminism is about equal rights between the sexes this film is not about that
it’s about the weak being the property of the strong
it’s about the meek being subservient to the bully
strong females, violent females do not a feminism parable make
nor do echoes of female paradigms such as mother’s milk or gardens and seeds
there is strong female imagery and sensibilities throughout – in both sexes -some of it sexy, some of it not – but these again do not a feminist parable make. none of it is exploitive.
motion
motorcycle leaps and hops
chains and “sea anchors”
bungie pole windshield wiper analogs
rhythm of violence
peripheral character beat wrap-ups
competing comrade in arms of the war boy
mucleman lieutenant of Immortan Joe
midget lookout
style of violence
spears with explosive charges
grenade lobs
manic machine gunning
surgical headshots
suicidal mania as exposition
gun hidden in a skull ornament
we see blood the most when there’s healing happening
automotive school
spitting fuel into a turbocharger
2 engines
all elements of it coming together to add to the others to create a completely plausible, smart, deep FANTASTIC ride
most of all, I remember the Road Warrior – the man we called max – and the genre that was planted that was old is now new again.