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George Miller

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – George Miller (2024)

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At least this second Mad Max revamp is again from the original director. As the title suggests, this time there is no character called “Mad Max” as there was in “Fury Road“.

As it should be in a Mad Max film, we are looking at a dystopian future in which violent gangs with monstrous vehicles fight over water and gazoline. Early in the film, a girl is kidnapped from an oasis and held captive by the frivolous gang leader Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). By the time she grows up, “Furiosa” is played by Anya Taylor Joy who -needless to say- has the role a revenging one girl army. Well, perhaps not entirely one girl.

Miller again presents enormous monster trucks, hundreds of motor bikes, weird gang members and brutal villains driving through vast deserts with here and there an industrial stronghold. Again there is not too much of a story and again the movie is fairly enjoyable, but not as great as the originals.

Three Thousand Years Of Longing – George Miller (2022)

Alithea (Tilda Swinton) is a happy, single “narratologist”. When in Turkey for a conference, she buys a bottle which proves to contain a Djinn (Idris Elba).

The Djinn likes to tell stories, Alithea of course does so too, so the film is presented as a story in which stories are told. We hear how the Djinn found himself trapped in a bottle three times, all times ’caused’ women. As the Djinn tells his story, so does Alithea culminating into a shared life.

Miller’s film is slow and somewhat dreamy, romantic in the sense that the two spirits find their similarities.

Mad Max: Fury Road * George Miller (2015)

Two years ago I felt like rewatching the original Mad Max trilogy. 30 Years after the third part (and 36 after the first!), the original director comes with ‘part 4’. Unfortunately he did/could not get Mel Gibson to play Mad Max.

“Fury Road” opens with the raw and apocalyptic feel of 1985 film, but soon evolves into nothing much more than a road trip through the desert. This time there was no need for Miller to build elaborate cities or Thunderdomes, just some fancy cars and weird characters. Even Mad Max seems to just happen to be present at the events in the film and hardly has the part he had in the original films. It almost looks like Miller wanted to make the weird vehicles again, but did not care too much about a story.

“Fury Road” is not boring and has some amusing findings, but it does not come anywhere near the films of three decades ago.

Mad Max trilogy * George Miller (1979/1981/1985)

I am sure that I did not see the “Mad Max” films when they were just out. I was just four years old when the first part came out and 10 when the last did. Still I remember that these films were quite something for my generation. I only remembered bits of the last part and especially Tina Turner playing in it. Curious what I would think about these film (almost) 30 years after they were made, I decided to watch the trilogy.
The first part is quite boring. Mel Gibson is Max and looks like a teenage policeman in some desert. The first part does not have much of apocalyptic scifi elements, a bit more so of this is in part 2. Max became “the man with nothing to loose” and apparently is no longer an officer of the law. The bleak future progressed into a world in which there is nothing but desert. The life of old largely disappeared, but the need for oil is as big as it was, but it is much harder to get. Therefor different gangs violently try to lay there hands on fuel. Some group has created some sort of enclave eround an oil pump, of course other groups have plans with it too. The punker-gangs of the first part became even more furious, the rest of the world savage-like wanderers. The opening scenes of “the road warrior” (as part 2 is subtitled) make the bridge to the third part in which we find Max entering the desert city of Bartertown in with Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) rules, or does she? Bartertown has a violent set of laws, but people with an argument get “a fair fight” in the thunderdome in which “two men enter, one man leaves”. Max enters and leaves Bartertown and has some other adventures.
The “Mad Max” films do not look as dated as I expected. Part 2 and 3 are still as gloomy and apocalyptic as I remembered. Not as exiting anymore perhaps, but they still are entertaining films with a couple of nice, critical references to modern society.