6 Lessons That Mad Max: Fury Road Can Teach Future Action Movies

Lesson 5: Excess Has To Have A Point

Nothing in the movie theaters right now is as excessive as Mad Max: Fury Road. Flaming-throwing guitars, big ass explosions, an army that brings its own soundtrack, this is a thumping, roaring, crashing, banging film, with sweeping character types, a rich apocalyptic landscape and almost no respite from the thundering violence that occupies every turn. But for all its excess, Fury Road is a cohesive and well-put-together film, relying not just upon big explosions but adequate character development and the nuance behind those explosions.

It comes in at exactly two hours long, a comparatively short film when you take into account Age of Ultron and its fellows. The excess is never…excessive, instead using its mad mentality to treat of contemporary issues while still giving us our fill of flame-throwers and roaring engines.

Fury Road takes on issues of capitalism, industrialization, religious mania, feminism, and the effect of patriarchy on the whole of society. The patriarchal construct here is damaging to both the women who are treated as property and the young men, the warriors, who are duped into sacrificing their lives for Joe by being promised a place in Valhalla. Puncturing contemporary fanaticism and the military industrial complex in one fell swoop might seem remarkable in a film that also features a flame-throwing guitarist and an army high on blood, but it manages.