We Asked An Actual Australian What He Thought Of ‘Furiosa’

The Mad Max film series is as much an insight into elements of the Australian psyche as the now-celebrated band Cold Chisel.

Both of these have arguably taken on a life outside of the authors that are much larger than themselves. For the Mad Max universe, there are multiple real-life re-enactments and the whole ‘Apunkalypse’ theme is so well-trodden now that you don’t really need to have much in the way of exposition as we already know what to expect.

Much like you would expect a Tolkeinesque high-fantasy universe to have elves, dwarves and wizards; with an apocalyptic wasteland you expect there to be mohawks, leather fetish gear and rusty muscle cars with anti-personnel modifications and hotted-up engines that sound like rolling thunder.

And likewise to the ‘medieval with magic’ trope, the Mad Max universe has long since entered the realms of the fantasy epic, with a bank of lore and any grounding in a strict reality long since dispensed with to the chagrin of some of the original fans.

From the wide-open and seemingly inhospitable landscapes to the cult-like worship of the machine, George Miller absolutely nailed a certain Aussie male outlook on the world in the original 1979 Mad Max and then dialed it up past eleven on the 1981 sequel.

This mindset still pervades, not a week goes by that I don’t have a chat with an Aussie farmer about why they’ll keep their 79 Series or 200 Series Toyota Landcruiser forever, ‘last of the V8s’ is a very common catchphrase and it ties in with this belief in their vehicle as a tireless bastion of all that it means to survive and thrive outside of the Big Smoke.

In regard to Cold Chisel, back in the day radio stations wouldn’t play the song “Khe Sanh” as it had explicit references to drugs and sex. Now, it is pretty much an unofficial national anthem with inter-generational reach and–with the right mix of venue, company and beers you–might witness even the quietest of blokey-blokes suddenly break out into song, every verse committed to memory.

Having grown up with both of these institutions having a profound impact around and upon me, and having seriously enjoyed the last of the franchise in Mad Max: Fury Road, I decided to take my girlfriend Bek to see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga over the weekend.

For those who may not have seen it previously, here is the first trailer:

In order to get into the proper wasteland mindset, we took Project Cactus into town, the pink valve-covered 245-cubic inch inline-six wolfing down guzzolene and barking it out via the rusty exhaust headers in a rhythmic hum as we approached the city lights.

A prequel to the aforementioned Fury Road, the film follows Furiosa from the day her somewhat idyllic childhood changed forever, right up to the opening beats of the 2015 motion picture.

Opening in the ‘Green Place’, it doesn’t take long for the film to launch into the first action sequences.

I won’t spoil much here, but it was great to see David Field finally have a role in this universe. If it weren’t for the machinations of Hollywood requiring leading names in order to get funding and promotion, he (or Patrick Brammall if they required someone younger) would have been my pick for Dementus.

Field has more nuanced menace in a milk ad than most fancy-school actors could convincingly replicate in a lifetime:

Speaking of leading names, like many I wasn’t too sure of the choice of Chris Hemsworth for the bikie leader Dr Dementus when the cast was first announced. Playing up the ‘Aussie Larrikin’, his role certainly lends for many an opportunity to chew the scenery. The proboscular enhancement didn’t prove to be distracting, and the character is well-written overall.

His character appears to be intended as coming from a place of attempted benevolent dictatorship, and even with him being involved in a ‘kick the dog’ moment and much screen time devoted to villainy, he doesn’t quite reach the same levels of simmering malicious tension like Hugh Keays-Byrne did in the very first film as The Toecutter:

As Bek and I discussed on the ride home, Hemsworth just didn’t seem to bring that presence that some other Aussie actors around can carry of someone who has grown up with fistfights behind the local cricket nets and fought to get where they are. He makes an okay villain, although the performance is overshadowed in our minds by great Mad Max villains who have been before.

Speaking of the dearly departed and irreplaceable Hugh, with fellow Aussie actor Lachy Hulme (on double-duty also portraying Dementus’ right-hand man, ‘Rizzdale Pell’) stepping into the clear armor and mask to portray Immortan Joe (the primary villain of Fury Road) he does a more than serviceable turn of the role since vacated by the late Mr Keays-Byrne. With his face obscured by the breathing mask, it was hard to tell if this was archival footage of Keays-Byrne in closeups.

Likewise, with us also losing another veteran Australian character actor, Richard Carter in 2019, who portrayed the Bullet Farmer in the last film, has resulted in his replacement with Lee Perry. I wasn’t taken aback by this casting and Perry seemed to slot right into the role where Carter had left off, although watching the two films back-to-back may alter this perception away from absolute pitch-perfect.

Arriving at the last prominent character replacement, Anya Taylor-Joy plays this relatively mute and physical role with aplomb and I didn’t see any real issues evident in the film with her stepping into the role originally cast with Charlize Theron.

I haven’t really seen a lot of pieces with Taylor-Joy other than The Northman and Peaky Blinders so I probably have less hang-ups with this actor’s presence than some who may think she has been over-represented at the moment.

Rounding out the cast, Tom Burke makes for a convincing Praetorian Jack, a road warrior who has seen more than a few scraps out on the road.

The action is not quite as non-stop as Fury Road, which was basically one long chase scene with a few pauses for breath, but it definitely has some great set-pieces featuring a lot more bikes than prior entries, including a pretty sweet motorcycle chariot that features a radial aircraft engine. I’m not much of a bike buff, so I’ll leave the spotto to those so inclined.

With much of the action being focused on bikes, there are a lot less cars in this film by comparison. However, there are still some cool custom vehicles, and being a Valiant man I was pleased to see a US-sourced ‘62 Plymouth Valiant Signet hardtop that was ute-ised get quite a good deal of screen time late into the second act. Reportedly running a Slant Six which was probably untouched since the bombs fell, I’m sure it would have served many generations of War Boys without dramas in-universe.

Other vehicular highlights include a ‘59 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 and a ‘77 Mercury Cougar as additional War Boy battle-utes, a 6-wheeled monster truck, some sweet aircooled VWs (particularly a neat T2 pickup) that would have been my choice for an apocalypse engine plus a sick rear-engined ‘30s Chev hotrod. Being a prequel, as you would imagine many of the vehicles from Fury Road also make an appearance.

With filming completed in Australia as opposed to Namibia in the last entry, the environments feel as though they still fit within the same universe and we get some great looks at other major sites, such as Gastown and the Bullet Farm, which didn’t get screentime in Fury Road. The downside to this homogenizing of scenery is that you can tell in many scenes that there has been extensive post-production work completed to keep the backdrops consistent with the setting (such as editing out the greenery and vegetation in contrast to my personal photos from the Broken Hill area earlier in the article) which can give it a bit of a CGI-superhero look compared to the less muddy visuals of the 2015 film.

The saving grace is that Miller’s insistence on live-action and practical effects means that the action doesn’t feel weightless like several Marvel flicks have been. The fighting is easy to follow and not rife with excessive cuts or other sins of the past few decades.

There’s some novel tricks in the big truck fight scene which seems to be legally required in every Mad Max film since 1981 so it doesn’t feel too much like a retread but I wish there was a little bit more intensive small-scale vehicular combat to make the stakes feel higher like they did in earlier entries. The unfiltered, menacing low-angle shots of cars in the first two movies really felt like something different that hasn’t really been replicated either here or in other action movies before or since.

The 148-minute runtime doesn’t seem to drag on or overstay the welcome, though ironically for the few lines that Furiosa speaks in the film there are a few that are a bit unnecessary and feel a bit like video game ‘filler’ dialogue. A near-silent protagonist is a hallmark of the Mad Max series, actions speaking much louder than words ever could and this film largely keeps to this theme.

Overall, this is an entertaining picture that serves to expand the world of Fury Road and also appears to tie-in to the 2015 video game as well via a few minor references. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-watch, in the same way that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wasn’t required if you just wanted to see the main films in the original Star Wars trilogy. Both films add some context and build the lore in their respective universes, something more for those who can’t get enough of their chosen series although they both stand as pretty good action movies in their own right.

I give Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 4 thundersticks out of 5. [Ed Note: Whoops, I already made a graphic with Wez heads]


Top graphic images: Warner Bros