How long has it been since we last saw Max Rockatansky, a.k.a. Mad Max, on the big screen? Let's see: Ronald Reagan was President, desktop publishing was considered cutting-edge technology and Madonna was going on tour for the first time.
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, we're talking about 1985, back in the days when MTV still played music videos. Tina Turner's “We Don't Need Another Hero” was the hugely popular theme song from the last Mad Max movie, Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome. Turner starred as the wicked Auntie Entity and Mel Gibson as Max. Remember when Mel Gibson was a major-league movie star? Yeah, OK, it was a long time ago.
If you don't remember all the particulars of the Mad Max story, don't look to director and series creator George Miller to help you out. Mad Max: Fury Road, the new installment of the saga, has very little time to spend on refreshing your memory. All you get is the very basics: We're in post-Apocalyptic Australia, where civilization has broken down into various freaky factions and wandering warrior Max is continually haunted by the voices and ghostly faces of the people he tried – and failed – to save over the years.
The atmosphere is familiar, but Max is not. He's now played by Tom Hardy, who was 7 years old when Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome opened. Almost immediately he announces, “In this wasteland, I am the one who runs from both the living and the dead,” and he will spend the next two hours proving that.
Miller set a sort of high-water mark for action movies with Mad Max: The Road Warrior 33 years ago and he seems determined to surpass it with Mad Max: Fury Road, which is almost entirely devoted to one long, complicated, occasionally harrowing and frequently astonishing road race through the desert. The high-speed chase begins shortly after Max is captured by the followers of a power-mad lunatic known as Immortan Joe. He's played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who portrayed the sinister Toecutter in the first Mad Max film, back in 1979.
Immortan Joe's followers are so anemic their skin is like chalk, and healthy specimens like Max are perfect for transfusions. So when the treacherous Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, rescues Immortan Joe's quintet of wives from his harem and takes off for an oasis she calls The Green Place, Immortan Joe's men hit the road to hunt her down. Max is dragged along as what's called a “blood bag,” but it isn't long before he's embroiled in the battle himself, first attacking and then attaching himself to the feisty Furiosa.
It's impossible not to be impressed by Miller's ability to keep the tension high and the excitement crackling. Although there are a few points when Mad Max: Fury Road leans a bit too heavily on digital effects to augment the action, the stunt work throughout the film is astonishing and some scenes seem to be drawn fresh from your nightmares.
Immortan Joe's troops not only have firepower, they are accompanied by percussionists who bang relentlessly on enormous drums and a demonic-looking guitarist whose power chords cause his guitar to shoot streams of fire. There are also daredevils who ride atop long poles attached to the tops of vehicles, giving them the ability to swoop down on their victims, grab hold of them and whisk them up in the air.
Miller's vibrant visual sense extends to every aspect of the movie's design, including several eye-popping sequences in which he uses ravishing monochromatic effects to show us the fierce beauty in this warped world.
Hardy has no difficulty putting his own stamp on this iconic role, giving us a Max who is alternately shell-shocked and shockingly brutal. A man dedicated to survival at any cost, but still vulnerable enough to help Furiosa and the traumatized wives make their escape. With her shaved head and blackened eyes, Theron seems right at home as Furiosa, who may be missing part of one arm, but finds creative ways to compensate for it.
It remains to be seen if audiences will be nostalgic for Mad Max after three decades. But if they are, they'd better buckle up. Mad Max: Fury Road is one hell of a ride.
