Analysis: Mad Max: Fury Road (By Hubert Osinski)

Mad Max: Fury Road (Textual Analysis)

The opening of the film is a plain black screen with the main protagonist, Max is narrating some of his past, telling the audience who he was and what the world has come to with cuts between his voice and the news. We some footage of a strong wind breaking trees edited in with a fade effect whilst the radio says “We have become half-life” (non-diegetic), this connotes that the destruction was from a natural cause which was most likely influenced by humans. We realise that it’s the protagonist speaking because he says “My name is Max” during the narration. The audience can only hear Max’s dialogue with the purpose of the audience creating their own picture of what the world looks like. Beginning a film with a black screen builds suspension and makes the audience more curious and eager as for what they’re going to be presented with. Diegetic sound is used to create the effect of loneliness and emptiness. This is shown through the whistling of the wind which connotes the lack of human activity else we would hear very human sounds like chatter, footsteps, and cars.

The scene is established with a LS of the protagonist beside his car, looking at the scenery. There is a pull focus on a 3 headed lizard, this gives the audience an idea of the twisted universe that the film is set in. It is also a convention of both fantasy and sci-fi as no such creatures exist in our world today. The establishing shot has a long duration, this is to emphasise the apocalyptic state that the world is in through the huge scenery/mise-en-scene of an empty desert. The whole scenery was created through CGI (Computer Generated Imagery) because it costs less than setting up an actual set to film in, therefore it doesn’t have as big of an impact on the budget.  Another part of the mise-en-scene would be the car of the protagonist. The car looks like it has been made from scratch, with stuffed tyres indicating/connoting that the road is dangerous place, minding the title of the film (Fury Road).

So far the plot seems to be linear with a single plot strand, with events that only occur during the same time (no flashbacks or different plots introduced into the film). This effects the younger demographic as it makes it easier for them to follow the structure of the narrative as there is only one plot. Another type of shot that we see is a CU of Max, our protagonist, catching the lizard in his hand and swallowing it whole. Whilst the lizard was climbing his clothes and the closer it got to his head, the louder the diegetic voices in his head got. This indicates that there might be another plot strand later on in the movie, something like a flashback because the voices were people blaming him for their death. The eating of the lizard connotes that sources of food aren’t easy to find and that nothing can come to waste.

Todorov’s “5 stages” theory applies to the narrative of this film. The narrative begins with the equilibrium, everything is calm and we see no signs of imbalance, the protagonist is simply narrating and looking ahead. The disruption of the equilibrium is recognised when we see the protagonist getting chased by other humans, rushing into his car and trying to get away. This connects to the binary opposite of two types of humans, those that gave up to the new system, and those who are fighting it and are willing to do anything for their own survival. In this scene Propp’s theory is presented through Max, the “hero” who leads the narrative and appears to be on the quest for his own survival. Another part of the theory would be “The goal/objective” which in this case seems to be getting away from the people hunting him and surviving, which seems to be a theme that is emphasised throughout the film.   

We are introduced to some action during the first few minutes of the film, this is a common convention used in action films as it introduces the audience to some of the conflicts that typically are seen throughout or make up the narrative. Later on in the movie we see some conventions of the Dystopian genre, one of them conventions is the main “hero” who doesn’t want to be the hero at all, but is somehow dragged into it anyway. Another Dystopian convention could be seen through the chase sequence which connotes a lawless society. Lawless societies are often used in Dystopian films because it shows a sign of corruption and Dystopian films are all about setting the film in an environment which the audience doesn’t want to be in. The lawless society creates the ideology that the only way we will ever go extinct is through human influence, as in this extract we are presented with humans hunting humans.

Max is represented as a survivalist that has been on the road for months with no break. We see this through his messy hair and restless facial expression. His clothes are also covered in dust and seem to have decayed on him, connoting that he has no time to waste.

We never see the end of the chase sequence because of the use of ellipsis. Ellipsis is used in editing to skip boring parts of the plot that the audience shouldn’t, or doesn’t want to see. It also lets the film jump straight to the action, in this case we don’t see the protagonist being taken to the next location, and instead he is already on the spot, getting tortured. As soon as the character is captured and after 20 seconds of calm footage we break off into another chase scene with dare-devil stunts and near death situations when the protagonist is hanging onto a rope far off the ground, this makes it clear that action is one of the main genres of the film.

So far in the narrative all the characters are male, creating a stereotype in which men are the more dominant species and have more influence than women. Another stereotype seen is that men are animalistic with a single instinct which in this sequence is to capture Max. Their animalistic features are also seen through their costume as the characters are pale and shirtless which connotes that they’ve been stripped from their human characteristics.

The camera work and editing in the second chase sequence are used to create anticipation or prediction. We see this through the camera slowly moves closer to the protagonist’s face before he breaks free from his chains and tries to escape. Editing creates suspense through the long duration of the shot. These techniques are used to build suspense and create a climax for the audience, but sometimes they are used to create an anti-climax in which the suspense is built but the character ends up not escaping or is stopped by the antagonist or the villain’s helper which is another part of Propp’s theory. Slower editing also calms the target audience because it makes the footage less extreme. Building suspense is a typical convention of the thriller genre.

The target audience for this film would be male teenagers 15+ because of the use of violence, cars, and guns throughout the film. The film was also released as a video game shortly after the famous movie which would attract the male dominated gaming community to buy the film on Blu-ray or DVD. The film was a major hit in the box office therefore people would be more likely to buy the game, expecting a similar thrill they got in the movie.