Mad Max: Fury Road, again and always
Sep. 1st, 2015 10:03 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sasha_featherComparing Mad Max: Fury Road to Snowpiercer. This post contains small spoilers for both films.
In MMFR, there is a beautiful little scene where Capable is sleeping against Nux's shoulder. Nux notices a bug crawling on Capable and lets it crawl onto his finger. He looks at the bug with child-like curiosity and admiration before popping it into his mouth and eating it.
This world is about survival, but as the protagonists of the film venture out of the Citadel and onto the Fury Road, they also see things that are new to them and they experience wonder. Nux, brainwashed and uneducated, is the one with perhaps the most limited experience of the world. He doesn't even know the word for "tree".
While I loved "Snowpiercer," it was in many ways a darker tale and more confused in it's message. While Mad Max's characters quickly trust each other and form a team, Snowpiercer's characters have unclear motivations all the way up until the end. There are a few moments of wonder, but they are tainted by fear, distrust, and resentment against the oppressors. And there are some strange moments. When the main character, Curtis, discovers that their food source is bugs, he seems horrified and tells his companion to keep the knowledge secret. This information-smushing moment doesn't fit in with their revolutionary mindset. And contrast it to above, when Nux simply eats the bug as a matter of course. It's just life. It's survival, and even more, he seems to really appreciate that bug. Bugs are great.
The only reason Curtis would think that eating bugs was horrible or gross would be cultural, a relic of the old world. And with the horrors he's experienced he really has no reason for his reaction. So, there are some holes in the world building. There are other parts of the film that are great.
But after seeing MMFR (four times in the theater), other films just don't seem as great, you know?
In MMFR, there is a beautiful little scene where Capable is sleeping against Nux's shoulder. Nux notices a bug crawling on Capable and lets it crawl onto his finger. He looks at the bug with child-like curiosity and admiration before popping it into his mouth and eating it.
This world is about survival, but as the protagonists of the film venture out of the Citadel and onto the Fury Road, they also see things that are new to them and they experience wonder. Nux, brainwashed and uneducated, is the one with perhaps the most limited experience of the world. He doesn't even know the word for "tree".
While I loved "Snowpiercer," it was in many ways a darker tale and more confused in it's message. While Mad Max's characters quickly trust each other and form a team, Snowpiercer's characters have unclear motivations all the way up until the end. There are a few moments of wonder, but they are tainted by fear, distrust, and resentment against the oppressors. And there are some strange moments. When the main character, Curtis, discovers that their food source is bugs, he seems horrified and tells his companion to keep the knowledge secret. This information-smushing moment doesn't fit in with their revolutionary mindset. And contrast it to above, when Nux simply eats the bug as a matter of course. It's just life. It's survival, and even more, he seems to really appreciate that bug. Bugs are great.
The only reason Curtis would think that eating bugs was horrible or gross would be cultural, a relic of the old world. And with the horrors he's experienced he really has no reason for his reaction. So, there are some holes in the world building. There are other parts of the film that are great.
But after seeing MMFR (four times in the theater), other films just don't seem as great, you know?
no subject
Date: 2015-09-02 02:16 pm (UTC)And seriously, the biology of Snowpiercer just didn't work. It wasn't sustainable. Even bugs gotta eat. With nothing coming in, and very little photosynthesis, there would be no sides of beef hanging in the freezer.
I'm not sure that the food-economy of Mad Max exactly works either. The Citadel has water (but for how long?) and the Bulletfarm and Gastown because of trade with the Citadel. But where do the rock riders and buzzards get water? Is there infrequent rain? Where did the water go?
no subject
Date: 2015-09-05 03:38 pm (UTC)<3 appreciatin your thoughts