Mad Max: Fury Road: We Are Not Things.

Warning: Spoilers.

Mad Max is a film that I’ve been waiting for for a long time. As a woman who loves action films they end up being disappointing - full of unexamined toxic masculinity, unnecessary violence, and women being nothing more than a sexualised backdrop. It would be easy to not watch the film and from afar judge its violence as gratuitous and its scantily clad woman as objectified but that would not do justice to the film. It is a loud, exciting mess of a film that saw the car chases in Blues Brothers and wanted to steal their shine. But more importantly it was one that treated women as capable people and that, in the ridiculous day and age we live in, is something to be admired.

In preparing for this review I have read around to see what other people thought of the film; I’ve heard many call it feminist and those who have tried to argue that it’s not. What people need to understand about this film is that first and foremost it is a Mad Max film. It seems a crazily obvious thing to say but it’s important to remember because that is what causes any non-feminist failings in this film. Miller didn’t set out to write a ‘feminist masterpiece’ he set out to write a fuck long car chase, with women escaping from an oppressive douche, led by a woman because it would have been a different story if they were led by a man. Its Miller’s understanding of women as Actual Human Beings and him hiring a female activist to help give context to sexual violence and slavery that is what led to the vast majority of the film being good for women.

We live in a world full of beautiful women on television and film and often they are objects, they are dismissed, and they are assumed to be useless. Yet in Mad Max that is not the case at all. Each wife contributes to the story in their own way, they all have their moment where they help save each other, and they are constantly supportive and loving to their fellow wives. It is rather misogynistic to shrug off these women, as actresses and as characters, simply because they are beautiful. It assumes that the objectification forced on them by the world we live in and the world they live in is one that is deserved due to their attractiveness. Rather than focusing on their looks or their lack of clothes I would prefer to focus on how they were immensely protective of their sisters, of how they were smart and cunning and used their status as ‘things’ to trick men into helping them break free.

Rather than trying to dismiss Charlize Theron’s shaven head and painted face as something that does little to hide her beauty I’d rather focus on her incredible acting. I want to focus on how awesome and badass her character was, and how Max was simply there to take her place in case she got murdered in the name of helping save the wives. I would love if we could talk more about how her only having one arm was not her defining feature and how it was not even remotely an impediment for her and what that means for women in the audience who have been told their disability will always limit them. I want there to be more praise for the fact that Theron’s character was simultaneously competent in battle and fierce in her driving whilst being a constant loving character for women, a character who is full of hope even in a Wasteland, and who fought so hard in the face of death that it almost won and took her.

I will even throw in a few lines about how great of an ally Max, and Nux, were. How he barely questioned the women’s leadership, their skills, and their decisions – bar one time where what he said made the most sense and that Furiosa being a leader and doing what was best for her group didn’t mean she gave her power over to Max. This is how male allies can be for women – unquestioning in their support. His character has had his film, he’s told his story, and so this film was another where he was just happy to help and be along for the ride – leaving Furiosa to have the final glory.

With incredible practical stunts – all credit to the brave stunt people in a ridiculously dangerous film – the film is more a dramatic piece of art; its bright colours and in your face characters make for an intense film, especially for action lovers like me. But what it wasn’t was violent where it didn’t need to be violent. The deaths were what you’d expect from people fighting across cars during car chases – and the women who died did so because they were fighting as much and as hard as the men were, and died just as much. More than that though there was no unnecessary displays of violence against women. In one scene a dead/dying woman’s pregnant belly gets cut open with a knife to check if the baby is still alive; now in a lot of films misogynistic directors would milk it for all the gore that it’s worth but instead it is completely off screen – in its place is a shot showing the woman who had cared for her holding her hand as she lay there dying.

On top of that the film centres around wives that were used specifically for breeding – misogynistic patriarchal wasteland that it is – yet none of the rape and impregnation is shown on screen. Again women are used to seeing rape used as an unnecessary plot device, shown in excruciating detail purely for shock value, and yet here, where it is a large part of their stories, we start the story After. We follow them shortly after they’ve escaped because that’s what’s important. The focus is on Furiosa’s bravery in rescuing these girls, and Max getting caught up in it, not on their rape and slavery. Even when there is a fully naked women in the film she is only ever seen from a distance and again a more misogynistic director would have happily aimed to get close up shots of her sexualised body. Here it is matter of fact because she is there as a gauge of how female friendly passers-by are.

Not even from a feminist perspective but simply from a woman’s perspective it was lovely to see strong women, capable women, women protecting other women from violent men, and women doing all they can to help other women, especially in the face of danger. It made a point to explain that any violence from the women was solely down to necessity, survival, and that if and when they reclaimed their world it would be a peaceful one. It was an anti-capitalist film, an arguably anti-violence film, anti-rape, anti-greed, and so much more, joy of a film. Yes, it could have been more feminist. Yes, it could have been less violent. But it was a huge, giant, happy leap towards a better type of action film, and for that I am very, very glad.