On Mad Max: Fury Road

George Miller is often referred to as a visionary director. It could be argued that many directors are by the true definition of the word, but what this means is that Miller is creating cinema unlike what mainstream audiences are used to seeing. Happy Feet (2006) is certainly an unusual animated film. Babe: Pig in the City (1998), less so. Yet, what are referred to when this adjective is used are his Mad Max films. This now quartet of dystopian, Australian road movies, beginning in 1979 and with a thirty year gap between the last and this latest instalment.

Miller’s vision of the future certainly is imaginative. Larger than life figures populate his dirt red world where water is the most valuable commodity. Savage road crews fight for dominance of oil to keep their savage vehicles running. Amongst all of this is the truculent, terse anti-hero, Max Rockatansky, played here with intensity (the kind that hopefully doesn’t lead to racist enthusiasm) by Tom Hardy.

Visually, Mad Max: Fury Road is stunning. The detail in the action is The Hurt Locker (2008) like, although more fantastical as the world is far more detached from reality than The Hurt Locker. The heat and dirt is ubiquitous and the world all the more tangible for it. You almost feel you need to wash after the film.

The first film’s story about a policeman seeking revenge for the death of his family is briefly mentioned to tie the three-decade gap together, but this is more a redemption story for Max. Through saving the women he is saving the future.

As summer blockbusters go, Fury Road ticks the boxes you’d expect and then adds a load more and ticks them too. And this is why it’s far more fun to follow Max than anyone with a cape.