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Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)- Unfriendly Freaks
17 Plays20 days ago
Do not, my friends, become too addicted to movies. It will take hold of you, and you will resent its absence.
Grab your guzzoline and fire up those engines, we are on a one-way road straight into the wasteland this week. We are talking all things gross and grimy in Fury Road and absolutely singing the praises of the costume and makeup teams on this movie. We couldn't think of a better way to finish 100 years of Sci Fi than this. We shall join you in the halls of Valhalla, witness me!
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/11/movies/mad-max-fury-road-and-the-furiosa-factor.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/costume-and-culture/2023/feb/28/i-couldnt-be-less-interested-in-fashion-the-designer-who-dressed-mad-max-and-cruella-and-changed-the-world
https://www.furyshow.com/
https://costumevault.blogspot.com/2016/05/oscar-retrospective-mad-max-fury-road.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392190/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_fury%2520road
Music: Cassette Deck by Basketcase
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Transcript
00:00:00
Speaker
I'm Melinda. I'm Ariel. This is Hot Set, the movie podcast about costume design.
00:00:21
Speaker
Welcome back to Hot Set. Today we are covering Mad Max Fury Road. We're both really excited to talk about it because we love this movie. oh yeah um We love it. and i i just like I realized when I was watching it that I haven't watched it.
00:00:36
Speaker
in years. So it's like my attention was pretty laser focused in it. And I'm really excited to talk about the costume designer. I'm excited to talk about the hair and makeup designer, the editor, just to, because we were just talking about this, our last episode that we recorded about Star Trek was a little off the rails. So I want to, I don't know what, what and who's at fault? Couldn't be me. Um, nor i but I want to start us off right by reading a short synopsis of this film.
00:01:10
Speaker
in a post-apocalyptic wasteland a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners a psychotic worshipper and a drifter named mac who but a premise What a premise. What a premise. And also what ah what a place to jump into the Mad Max series for people who may not have grown up watching the 80s once. Which is me. I didn't i had never seen a ah Mad Max movie before I saw this movie.
00:01:40
Speaker
in one way, bless, because you did not have to have that additional um Mel Gibson baggage, there where he is baggage and garbage. But the design in those movies is like, I was talking about it with Phil earlier, it's such a time capsule for the 80s. And even more so, it's kind of the time capsule for the Australian 80s. And like, especially the third one, Thunderdome, is just like nuts. We got Tina Turner, like it's,
00:02:09
Speaker
It's pretty great. Now, I have seen the second and third Mad Max movie. I actually watched the Beyond the Thunderdome quite recently just by coincidence, but I had not seen it before like about a month ago. Yeah, um instantly.
00:02:28
Speaker
We don't need another hero. I can't believe that that song is from that movie. like I've heard that song so many times. Civilization has ended. Why wouldn't you have a banger by Tina Turner? And like honestly, like that Knowing that made certain things in Fury Road make a little bit more sense, whereas like I went into this movie when I first saw it just totally blind. like I really didn't know very much about Mad Max. like I think the most I knew about the franchise was an episode of The Simpsons where...
00:03:10
Speaker
They have Mel Gibson and they like referenced the road warrior. That was like, that's what I knew about Mad Max, I think. So I haven't watched the original three in a very long time. I liked them when I was growing up because it was like, I was so hungry for like, you know, futuristic or fantastical or sci-fi related things. And it was like, they were good for the time. And also Didn't know Mel Gibson was a shitbag. And you can quote me on that. None of us did. We none of us did for a while. But I kind of loved how, and my memory is pretty terrible about the first movie, but I do believe that in the first movie you get a little bit more plot exploration about the fall of civilization and what it looked like before.
00:03:54
Speaker
and then you like see the process of it by falling apart and I might be remembering that totally incorrectly. You could also quote me on that too. That's my understanding having not seen the movie. yeah That was my impression is that you get a little bit more flavor of mid-apocalypse or like a little pre-apocalypse. You're closer to everything blowing up.
00:04:20
Speaker
I do remember that, but I do remember that the second and third movies, while obviously related, same character, all that stuff, they kind of felt like these different chapters where you had gaps of chapters in between. So you're just dropped in to the middle of this story and you're like, wait, how do we... how did we get here? yeah like Like we just drove off into the sunset in the last five minutes and now we're like it's even yeah obviously it's even worse because it's the apocalypse but it's just like we're how did we get here? Yeah and like we're referring to really horrible things that happen how do we get here and that's how we open this movie is like seeing
00:04:58
Speaker
I loved the impact of seeing Tom Hardy as Max, I believe, Rakatansky. Yeah, that's right. But Max. Because i I kind of like incorrectly remembered what he was wearing. And I, you know, imposed what Mel Gibson wears in the original, which is more black, I believe. Because he looks like he's kind of cast in shadow. So he looks like he's wearing all black. ah And like Johnny Cash comes through my head, the man in black is going around taking names.
00:05:28
Speaker
And he just, I was like, boom, we're in it. We can tell that he's crazy. We can tell that some, some shit is going through his head. We can tell that he is like prepared to, that he's like a feral person, but an organized feral person. Yes, he's a sophisticated... A sophisticated feral man. Madman. And then, you know, like the scavengers, boom, come into the scene and we're like in it and we're looking at two different cultures clashing basically, immediately. Did you read any articles about our amazing costume designer or the um hair and makeup designer?
00:06:06
Speaker
I read a couple like short things um about Miss ah Jenny Bevan, our costume designer. I was trying to go back and reread one that was in the New York Times and got hit with that lovely paywall. I did get to read it. The paywall if like did not hit me on that one.
00:06:27
Speaker
I should have just screenshot the article when I had the chance because I did like read it like recently and I was like, oh, let me go back and reread that before today. Nope. Thank you, New York Times. Print media is dead. Welcome. Yeah, print media, RIP. So Jenny Bevan, how much of her career shaped you?
00:06:46
Speaker
it's It's interesting because there are um there are certain costume designers for movies that I know by name, who and she is not necessarily one that I knew by name very well before this, but looking at the work that she's done, I certainly was impacted by her work because I was definitely one of those nerds watching all the like costume dramas and Jane Austen and oh my gosh. Ivory, like the 90s, late 80s, early 90s, Jane Austen, the Regency era, early Victorian era, watching all those things, like the merchant Ivory chunk was so like, I'm going to use a word that's going to make me feel a little bit sick, sumptuous. there was so It felt so rich and part of it was that it was film and film has this very distinct feeling that digital
00:07:43
Speaker
does not quite have the same. You kind of have to put a lot of work into it to to make it feel the same. And like if you grew up watching film, it just has a different warm quality to it. And oh my God, I did not know her name either until I looked at this and I went, ma'am. Just yeah, I mean, just a couple of the things off of her CV, Sense and Sensibility, one with Emma Thompson, which is Like that movie lives in my head to this day. I love it. And wasn't that directed by like Ang Lee? So it's like it was beautiful. Yeah. And then black beauty was a big deal to me. Yeah, Black Beauty, big deal in my head, ever after. I can't like, I need an entire episode of us talking about ever after. Show me a cosplayer or show me like a costume nerd at who you know, however they identify as a nerd at who doesn't know ever after and I'm not judgment is not about to follow instead an invitation.
00:08:54
Speaker
watch ever after. It is a delight. It's crazy and it's freaking beautiful. And then and some other ones that are recognizable to some folks, Sherlock Holmes and Sherlock Holmes game of shadows, which, yeah so like her career is really full of these like English based period pieces. Black beauty, I don't think is in England. i think it um Is it America?
00:09:18
Speaker
I think it's America. It's like on a ship, so there are like multiple people. I think it goes to America. And if we're getting super technical, Ever After takes place in France, if we want to be those people. Yes, Drew Barrymore, the most French. Oh, I think. DeGree Scott, yeah the most French. The first Melanie Lynskey, the first people I think of. Angelica Yeast. Just like, ah in crayab, the French news of that movie. The French is just like, they basically should have mentioned it and then be like, forget it. Anyway. I was talking about a Jedi handwave earlier. We're going to do that right now.
00:09:56
Speaker
Oh, we're in France. Don't worry about it. But yeah, Jenny Beavan just like, wow, like such an incredible career. And then our hair and makeup designer, also incredible career, Leslie VanderWalt, some of her hits from her CV Mad Max 2. So she was in the original bucket of the Mad Maxes. So returning to that Fury Road, she was there for Mad Max 2 Road Warrior. Moulin Rouge. oh Wow has already come up on this podcast. and Yeah, you can tell that we are of a generation Dark City Wow Farscape the TV show and I did not like deep dive how long she was with the TV show But I mean, that's a pretty specific and like recognizable show Star Wars episode 2 Okay, miss Natalie Portman
00:10:49
Speaker
And she came back to do Furiosa, a Mad Max saga. So both she and Jenny Beavan were involved with Fury Road and Furiosa, which is pretty nice to know because I have not seen Furiosa. I went to the movie theater for the first time in months to see Furiosa. I hadn't been to a movie theater ah since October of 2023. And I went to the theater to see Furiosa because I was very excited about that movie. Nice. Yeah, in our house, we were like the trailers, we have some notes. It was so yeah, it was very, a very different movie from Fury Road. um I still enjoyed it. But it was definitely a very different flavor and a very different type of storytelling. Good to know.
00:11:38
Speaker
So I still enjoyed it, but it is not the same as Fury Road. Yeah. This one, what's pretty amazing and what strikes me about Mad Max Fury Road is how I have in my notes are a mess because when I started this movie, I was like, I'm going to read some articles. Research? Yeah.
00:11:59
Speaker
ah just let me tuck this non-existent hair back behind my ears. I did some research and I was like really into it so I was kind of splitting my focus so my notes are a little like here and there but I um mentioned that like the distressing in this movie is just like so incredible. This whole movie is a perfect example of distressing because it just feels so lived in. And it's something that people talk about with like the original Star Trek. No, God.
00:12:34
Speaker
Damn it. It's what people talk about with the original Star Wars trilogy, right um where it feels old. It feels broken down. You feel the dust. So thank you to all of these like Tunisian and Namibian deserts absolutely where it just feels like there's a weight of age and like desperation and you feel like the sweat that the actors who had to be in Namibia.
00:13:05
Speaker
And you feel like- And like Olivia, I'm sure is beautiful. Oh my gosh. I just can't handle heat. Yeah. And any desert isn't, I'm just, you know, I'm just not built for that climate. I just, it's in my ancestry, but I'm just, I'm too soft. It's not for you. It's not for me. And so respect. You're a soft girl. I'm a winter girl. It could be freezing cold. I'm fine because I can put on more layers of clothing. But when you are in that heat, you cannot remove your skin. And that's always going to be my argument. I can't. I'm just not built for it. And the amount of like latex and like layering and like leathers and all these different textiles that show up in this movie, pretty incredible. And respect to everyone who was a professional and survive. wearing all those things. One thing that I just I feel like I just wrote it down like over and over and over again in my notes is like what you said like the distressing it's beautiful and every thing in the movie does something and has a reason to be in the movie. That level of attention to detail to all the aspects of the design is just like what just sends it just over the moon for me. Incredible.
00:14:20
Speaker
and like I love it. And I feel like you can see logistically how somebody who came up with Merchant Ivory would have developed that eye to really look at the details because like, I mean, it's true in like a modern thing. I'm very fond of period pieces or things that require or even like future pieces where things require a lot of layers and like a lot of any kind of cultural identification where it's like, even if it were a modern thing, but we have people dressing and traditional dress over here or whatever. you know like right I'm probably not going to say it right, but I love it when things are layered, when there's just so much to build in. There's physical layers, but also like layers of meaning, layers of purpose, layers of storytelling. Because you can look at
00:15:10
Speaker
We have like, you know, all of our different characters and I'm not going to know all of the names for the types of characters because you look at the IMDB and they're very specific and then some don't have any name at all. I don't know them all either. Right, but like we have Mad Max who at one point was a cop slash soldier.
00:15:29
Speaker
Um, we have Imperator Furiosa, who is immediately badass the second we see her. The coolest. Marlee's there on herself. We have Immortan Joe, who is this like horrible, horrible rotting man. Fascist warlord. a warlord who's in charge of this like kind of oasis that he has like tight-fisted and we'll get more into that but we also have like um basically his like soldiers who are called war boys or is it war boys? Yeah war boys. Yeah war boys and then like the younger versions which are war pups
00:16:07
Speaker
Yeah, which is such a warpup. I just ah they' so i've have so many feelings and conflicting feelings about them. Yeah, so much. There's so many layers here. We have the scavengers who are basically the warboys, warpups, and there are like individuals within there like the Doof warrior.
00:16:28
Speaker
oh Which one is the due for your is the electric guitar player? Okay. Yeah strung up at in the front of a vehicle Yeah with no eyes and then we have the people eater who is a guy in a business suit And I'm just gonna like name a couple times and then we'll talk about them more about him. Yes, we have the um the vuvalini we have the wives and the mothers the bullet farm guys the bullet farm guys we have some folks on stilts that are in like the night lands and they don't i I didn't see a name for what they are but we have
00:17:06
Speaker
the, um, the wretched. Like, we have all these groups that have names and identities, and instantly, like, truly, in that first scene, we see Max with his back to the camera, a lizard, like, runs up to him, he grabs the lizard, he eats the living lizard. Doesn't even try to bang it against the person. Like, eating it while it's fighting. yeah And then he grabs his shit, gets into his car, is off, and boom, we see scavenger war boys.
00:17:32
Speaker
coming after him, like instantly. And I think I already said, you can see that there are two different cultures at play here. Like absolute Max is this very practical. You can see the history of being a soldier where he's like, he's always got stuff on him. Like yeah for a lot of the movie, he has a backpack on, he's prepared. like yeah apocalyptic ready to go dude. The war boys on the other hand what we see is their backs as their cars like zoom into sight yeah and we see these very like white like paper white skins. Unnatural yeah. Unnaturally white like they have bald heads their their torsos are on display and they're like all black basically or dark brown from the waist down. And a lot of them are like quite slender like a lot of them are not
00:18:19
Speaker
big, muscular, like they have muscles, obviously, but like, you know, it's a visual. There are also, yeah, like very specific ones who are like crazy muscular. Right. And so even within you're already seeing like hierarchies. And so it's like you're seeing these are like the pawns or the foot soldiers of some organization because they are organized and they're following a prey animal who is Mad Max. And they're like, they're very identifiable from a distance. Like you would not confuse them for anyone else in this world. You would know exactly who they are from far away. Yes. And like in my notes, I just, I really wanted to like put that down that these war boys have
00:19:01
Speaker
Truly, there's a culture at play here because there's scarification slash tattooing through scars. Their faces are painted to look like skulls. There's and branding. There's branding. there's like it's They're very haunting. And like you said, not all of them are very big. So some of them are pretty slender. You pretty much see this unification across all these war boys who are chasing Mad Max.
00:19:26
Speaker
And you can immediately see that there are kind of different levels within where some have like masks, some have gas masks. Like there are different reasons. And some of the reasoning for the gas masks or other apparatuses like oxygen tubes is that these are not healthy people. Nope. these These men are not well. They're not well. Like they, they spray. I can't remember what they spray on their faces.
00:19:52
Speaker
I mean, they just call it like chrome. like yeah I don't think they just like really say what it is. Basically, if a warboy is going to do something that's kind of like kamikaze-ing themselves, where they turn themselves into a weapon, they they cry out to the people around them, witness me, and they spray this like chrome across their face and like up their nose, which seems to be like g naws in Fast and the Furious. wave And like, it just like blows out their brain basically. And they're just like, they're crazy. Yeah, they'll just sacrifice their life. Yeah. i Like the greater mission. Exactly. So there's another step of this like culture that's at play. And I, I really wanted to note because like we see Mad Max and he's, you know, like we said, he's like this soldier who's, you know, post-apocalyptic, but there's obviously a knowledge of like survival.
00:20:41
Speaker
yeah i don't You don't make it far in this world without knowing how to live. ahhu And there's like such a difference between him and these war boys because these war boys are like I already called Mad Max like feral. They take that to a to a way big like level.
00:21:02
Speaker
except it's like an organized feral. If you think of, um, I was already talking about it earlier, Lord of the Flies. Yeah. This is very, it's a cult like it's a cold mentality. But it's also this like civilization that, and I spent a while writing about this, so I get it out of my head, that is so distinctly toxic masculinity. It's just male. On a shiny chrome platter, it just serves it to you. like The Mad Max saga feels like, for me, I identify as a woman, and it feels like a full nightmare of what post-apocalyptic could be, especially based on, right now, real talk and in the rise of fascism around the world, all this stuff and the rise of, quote unquote, like traditionalism.
00:21:52
Speaker
which is horrifying on all levels. yeah absolutely And this society is based on some of those things that that some of those men find really important, where it's like exactly this language of manic physical strength that has nothing to do with interiority interiority or softness and it just has to do with who can kill you or sorry, fuck you, like faster, you know, like that's it. It's just like this like primal thing that like we've seen in the rise of TikTok. It's just like And I also like there's this this thing about the toxic masculinity of where I couldn't stop thinking about somebody pointed this out. I know many people have pointed it out, but I saw it on like one TikTok or one like Instagram post or something a long time ago. um And of course my memory is a sieve, so why would I cite my source here? Someone pointed something out about how toxic toxic masculinity markets men to men.
00:22:54
Speaker
versus how they market men to women slash the alphabet mafia crowd. And men on, like if you think about going to the grocery store and you see like men on a fitness magazine cover or you go to TikTok and that whole like fit talk, whatever. yeah And you see these men who are sporting that dehydrated look.
00:23:17
Speaker
that that like superhero actors are now, it's like a constant thing. They are dehydrated for like three days before they film and their muscles are like crazy to find and their veins are popping out. ah yeah You'll get people who are in the fitness world, who are um trainers, all that stuff, who are like, no, this is manageable. And I don't know anything about fitness, nor I.
00:23:45
Speaker
That's not my world. I live here. That's not my journey. That's it. That's not my journey. So I don't know anything about anything. But what I do know is that there is this toxic, horrible, sorry for saying toxic so much, but there's this very specific body image that is sold by men to men.
00:24:04
Speaker
yeah is just as damaging as the ideal, quote unquote, female body that is sold to we women. And it's so funny to me that, and not and I say funny by ah by way of meaning, um just emotionally devastating. um But eight It's weird to suddenly see the the rise of that and see like men start to grapple with the horrible psychological impact of that kind of body shaming and body expectation because
00:24:44
Speaker
Obviously, standards of beauty have existed in Western culture forever. But to see it rise to the like toxic levels that women have been dealing with for so much longer is not what I had on my bingo card for And and yeah having having that whole like cultural rise. This is a slight detour. So sorry about like dad bods and like that conversation where it's like where it it to pick up on the the magazine covers when when men are marketed to women or femme identifying folk or queer folk.
00:25:21
Speaker
they're softened a little bit, except for the latest Wolverine versus Deathly Grace. But like that is a like you'll see a guy who's like, I played a superhero and then he's on like good housekeeping and he's wearing a cozy sweater. You know what I mean? Like when you have like the Chris Evans of it all, yes he is literally Captain America. in Marvel. He and he has a very specific look as Captain America, and yet he doesn't look like that when he's in, you know, Scott Pilgrim, when he's in Night he Out, when he's in a rom-com. And he's fit, like there's no question, but there is this like extra level that is like you're more
00:26:09
Speaker
Um, there's more strength in you if you look like this. And so the war boys are that perfectly where their, their culture, like the face paint looking like a ah skull, kind of like a day of the dead skull and sort of the scarification. Like I didn't know this on first watch, but the scar tattoo on Nux's chest is an engine block is an engine block.
00:26:36
Speaker
I don't know that either because also like be knowing about cars is also not my journey in life. Not my journey. Not my journey. but it's so yeah It's so fascinating because it's like it's it's an indicator and it's a symbol to other men. like That is what it is for. It's defining that these men might not really see themselves as individuals. They see themselves as extensions of their cars. And that was also like some of the language that was from one of the articles I was reading. It might be the New York Times one.
00:27:13
Speaker
with Leslie VanderWalt talking about that. It's so amazing how this design has created this language of looking at these like foot soldiers and knowing like we see them interact with each other. We see them hunting people and we we get to see some of that information based on how they talk to each other, how like what they're pursuing, what their values are. yeah But it's like just looking at them and looking at these like the just the The culture that they have built is so horrific. like It is so brutal. Brutal is like a really good word for it. And in this world, women are women of childbearing age are enslaved.
00:28:02
Speaker
they Yeah, they have one one value one value in this culture and and so much it so much of it relies on their physical health as well as physical beauty.
00:28:16
Speaker
like the The desire to be able to produce a healthy child is a premium boy. he yeah Of course. of course like The boyness of it all is like such a priority. that We have one character who is named Splendid and Garrett.
00:28:36
Speaker
and she is pregnant, and she is one of five wives who Max encounters who have been liberated. Yeah, quote unquote, wives. Like, they are non-consensual. And they are these five women who've been liberated by Furiosa and Max and Nux, who is one of the war boys.
00:28:57
Speaker
ah who's connected to Max because Max is a universal blood donor and Nux is unhealthy. He even has two cancerous tumors on his like left shoulder that he has named with little smiley faces, which was such a cool costume design.
00:29:11
Speaker
like the The sicknesses in the war boys and their yeah their community, their structure are pretty insane. There's like syphilis, so there are nose there's leprosy, so there are noses that have gone missing or are falling apart that have been covered by these like metallic in casings, little caps that have like chains. It makes me think of those like metal things that you like put your loose leaf tea. Yes, it does. It totally does look like that. And that like the people eater is one of the characters and he's the one who's in the banking, like the the suit. Yeah, he's the leader of Gastown, right? I think so. Yeah. So he's like very much about inventory. He's nasty in many ways that has nothing to do with his physical appearance. Or his name is the people eater is just like a place to start. Yes. And um so we're with the five wives and Splendid and Garrett is pregnant as the war boys are coming after them as Imerton Joe is coming after them. He's like one thing is that's my son. That's yeah my property. So it's like she has to give me my son. Yes. And you see that like right there, the value of male children. Yeah. Because it makes more war boys, it makes more war pups. And then like, and the sort of like, like his kids are sort of like the princes. Yes, they are now. Yeah, they are. And like we see that we see that there's like birth defects. And part of that, a lot of like stillbirths, I think, a lot of stillbirths implied.
00:30:47
Speaker
And like when I say birth defects, I'm even talking about like lung capacity and being able to breathe because like they are like they're huffing gas. They're doing all like spitting it into like the engine of the cart. Like they're doing stuff, these war boys, because they're not looked at anything more valuable than being foot soldiers. It's all about numbers and about the strength that they have to like crush anything in their way.
00:31:14
Speaker
And, um, I was really interested in the fact that they're like, they cover themselves in what looks like clay, like all that white. I was trying to figure out, I was like, it's gotta be some kind of like a mineral. But I was like, at one point you see one of the little war pups. It's like in a powder form and he's like blowing it on a more joe, like ceremonially to like get ready. But I, I felt like on the actual like war boys, it seemed more like paste like. Yeah. It's like, it's like, it felt like the urakai. Yeah, the rings, like, streaking this handmade, like, paint, where it's like, even if it was that dust that that war pup is blowing, like, they added the water, which could be like a chalk or something where you could put water in it or, you know, the war boys and Immorten Joe has access to water, which is basically the source of his power. Yeah.
00:32:05
Speaker
the water that they like mined into the earth or they took over a mine or something like that and hit gold. Something that I find so fascinating watching this movie, which goes back to the sort of like toxic maleness of this world, having access to fresh water is legitimately the best resource in this apocalyptic world. That is the resource. That is it.
00:32:29
Speaker
Why, like, if if you or any sane person was plopped down into this world, why would you want to be in charge of the bullet farm? Like, why would that that ah resource is not essential if people could get along? I genuinely think that that is why I really focused on the toxic masculinity part is because that is what is looked at as power from that perspective, whereas the power to kill. Yes. And like on the other side of these war boys and Immortan Joe,
00:33:05
Speaker
we have the vuvalini, which were a culture of women called like the many mothers, basically because they they are Furiosa's past. They are where Furiosa came from. right and We get like little bits of information. Yeah, you get it's like a dream, basically because I think she said that she's been away from them.
00:33:24
Speaker
for 7,000 days, which I think is like 19, 20 years. Yeah. She says 7,000 days plus the ones I can't remember. Exactly. So it's over 19 years. In her memory, there is this land where there was water, where there was green, and where there were many mothers. And there was society, basically. There was society. There was kindness. There was structure. Not structure like, it's 9 AM. You're going to school. But structure like, this is our healer. This is our, you know, like, we have roles. we contribute. We have roles that contribute to the society we've built to survive. And so there's these two opposite ends. And we do see the vuvilini and we see how different they are. Yeah. But it is very much that like this Lord of the Flies perspective of what the apocalypse should look like, which is we have the weapons and we have the water and that's all that matters to us. And all of you are just bugs unless we can bleed you.
00:34:23
Speaker
On the other side, the Vovilini have value for everyone because they even, when we see them, they even like have value in Nux, like the, the war boy who's been tagging along and has been evolving. Like they see him as, see him they're like, they're like who is who are these men? That is what they say. Who are these men? Identify them. Who are these people? It's who are are these men? They don't care who the women are. They're fine with them. Yep. They'll talk about that in a second, but do we need to kill them? And then as soon as like the so quote unquote wives, and they identify, they're okay, because they're able to be like, huh, come to a place even have seen like, yeah you are one of basically the lost sons because you are a son that was taken and warped.
00:35:09
Speaker
So we've talked about the war boys and how they are painted and scarred and like tattooed and branded. And they're just like these brutal, like vicious, toxic, masculine, and be like ideals. And then we have the vuvalini and they are, they have been reduced because the green lands have been killed basically. And that is, I cried. Like I cried when I saw the vuvalini and I cried when they delivered the news to Furiosa that it was all gone and she walks away from them.
00:35:38
Speaker
And I think she even drops her prosthetic arm off. Yeah, she drops her prosthetic and just screams and like you feel that. It's such a testament to Charlize and her acting because you see how like in her face, she doesn't even have to say anything. You see in her face that like holding on to getting back to this place is the only reason that she's still ah alive. That is the only reason. That was her entire reason for fighting was to get some of these women and take them to that place. Seeing that that dream is dead and watching her realize that.
00:36:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's so hard. When we see these women, so they have set a trap where there's a naked woman at the top of the tower screaming, help me, help me. ma I was like A plus trap. a And Max is driving the war rig, which is a tanker. And he looks over at Furos and he's like, nope.
00:36:34
Speaker
Absolutely not. He's like, uh-uh. And Furios is like, the le me let me out for a second. And she comes out and she identifies herself. And all of a sudden, this handful of women are riding motorcycles down over the dunes and surround them. And these women are nomads. Like, their bikes are their war rigs, basically. They have their weapons. There is an older woman. Like, these are older women. These are women who hold no value to the war boys. That's right. It's like not even worth caring that they're there. Like they're not even worth it. When, when we have fight scenes that include the vuvalini, we see how differently they're handled than the wives where like even Furiosa isn't really, she's betrayed them and she wasn't impaired or in their system, all this stuff. She doesn't even have any value to them.
00:37:23
Speaker
It's just the wives that they like delicately handle as much as they groove in their own way. when I love that the wives know that and use that like they use their bodies as shields at key moments to protect other characters because they understand their value in those people's eyes. Yes.
00:37:46
Speaker
And they understand the rules of this world. Yeah. Like at one point, even like Zoe Kravitz is being like kind of quippy and she max kind of like like jostles her or something and she's like, don't damage the goods. yeah Like she know like she knows they all know. And that's something that kind of like.
00:38:02
Speaker
you know, because there there's so many movies that I feel like try to like package feminism to audience in like the sort of girl bossification of characters in a way that makes me roll my eyes and makes me just like so annoyed.
00:38:18
Speaker
But I appreciate that we have these like soft female characters that are not fighters like they're not but they understand their role what how they are perceived and don't put their value on that but yes like that is something that's missing from a lot of movies yes is that they have self-awareness and they they.
00:38:41
Speaker
they Their agency has been stripped from them, but they do have enough agency that there's one point where Mad Max is aiming when they're in the nightlands, which apparently we find out used to be the green lands with the many mothers. And they're being chased by this one Imperator who's just like blindly shooting all over the place. And Max is trying to take him out.
00:39:01
Speaker
And he can't hit the light that's coming from that vehicle. So Zoe Kravitz just goes, it's two inches to the left. So Zoe Kravitz knows how to shoot. We've seen when they're escaping the war boys in Imperator Furiosa's war rig, that they're cataloging their weapons, they're cataloging their um ammunition.
00:39:20
Speaker
So they know, they know how to fight. They know how to do these things. They know how to handle the guns. They know how to do all of that, but that's not something that necessarily they were raised to know. Like we're not given that backstory. So there is the possibility that the backstory is that Furiosa is the one who taught them, who shared her knowledge. Like that could be part of it is that that's how she became one of the many mothers is like, I'm going to teach you how to survive. When we're talking about costume, the vuvalini. I want to talk about the the wives' costumes too, when we're done. yeah Oh my god. So like, talked about war boys, talked about vuvalini. The vuvalini costumes are all very dark. And we're in a desert, so they're not necessarily trying to hide in the desert. true They're just trying to survive. But they are these are dark clothes.
00:40:10
Speaker
and are very, very layered and cover almost all of their bodies, except for their faces. Yeah, you've got to out in that desert. yes some like You've got to protect yourself. Oh, it's crazy. Yeah, so they are they are prepared, they are hardy, and they are like they are there to survive. And on the other hand,
00:40:30
Speaker
we have the wives. And we also see towards the end of the movie some more mothers. I think we see some more at the beginning too, before they disappear from the war boys. Yeah, like a little shot. Yeah, like a little bit here and there. And they're all draped in these like white cloths. It's like gauzy. If you got wet, totally see through. thirty percent They don't necessarily even go further down than your bits.
00:40:56
Speaker
Like not even mid thigh, you know, like they they are not meant to protect you. They are not meant to be anything other than almost kind of like a guard dog. Wearing these gauzy white things in your captive and your purpose within captivity is to be a breeder. It's almost like your captors put you in that so that they can see if anybody else has touched you.
00:41:23
Speaker
It makes me think of the mummy. Yes. God, I can't think of the character's name, but she's in ancient Egypt and she's covered in this like beautiful intricate body paint. And when Imhotep touches her, he smears the paint. Anuk Sunamun. Anuk Sunamun. Yeah, when Imhotep touches her, it smears the paint and then the pharaoh comes in and he's immediately like, a man has touched you because the paint is smeared and yeah.
00:41:51
Speaker
It's exactly that kind of thing to me. yeah It's another form of a chain because you can't go into the desert with that. no It will not protect you from anything. They they don't even have shoes.
00:42:03
Speaker
They have no shoes, so they can't run. like It's it's no totally stripping any defense. They have chastity belts on. They're being cut off when we first see them. They're just the psychological horrifying reality of all of that like makes me filled with female rage. And like in between the wives and the vuvalini is Furiosa. And when you see Furiosa, the first second she's on screen, you're like, oh my God, badass. Charlize Theron. And like I wrote in my notes, sorry, it's girl, switch girl, that Charlize Theron is a beautiful woman.
00:42:47
Speaker
undeniable. yeah She's also super talented yeah as an actress, so but she is also yeah beautiful. This role, not about that. like it's It's kind of a footnote where it's like you can tell that she has done things to herself or things have been done to her to alter how she is perceived. And so because I didn't see Furiosa, I don't know her origin story. I don't know how she lost the lower part of her left arm.
00:43:12
Speaker
I tell you, I was waiting the whole movie for that bit of information. Oh boy. So she she has this prosthetic, which is a really cool prosthetic because it looks like it's made out of basically car parts, right? Like it's scrap metal and cars that they have just like taken apart. There's like this quilted pad up at her left shoulder, which is pretty cool. And then, you know, the quilting makes sense to create a padding out of something you don't have a lot of layers, you just stuff something. And her kind of like, her city belt, I feel like is part of the attach, like it's all, it it has a reason. everything has a reason. And she's she's a character that's based in violence and is protecting herself. So she has no hair. There is no long hair. So she visually, from far away, you could be like, is that a Warboy? Because she has the super stark
00:44:04
Speaker
paint on her face. like like there's Which is literally like engine grease. Exactly. There's this difference that is between her and the other women. It's it's basically camouflage. and so she can And she can also dress herself so she can choose to protect herself to a point that these other women that we see her with can't.
00:44:24
Speaker
And so when we- Like her top, the fabric of it looks like at one point it was the same, but it's that age, distress, discolored. Exactly. And it's also binding. So it's binding her breasts down to also make her look less.
00:44:43
Speaker
Feminine and when we see her between the wives who are dressed in this gauzy prison And we see the vuvalini who are nomads who know how to survive in the desert She is very united to both because that top part is that white that has been distressed and is this, it looks like it could even be the same fabric. And it's like something that you might want to wear in the desert because you're hot and you want the sun to bounce off the white. But she's just these like leather straps and leather and pockets and utility all the way down the same way that the vuvalini are. So she has kept what she learned as a child and you can see that. And everything about her is about survival and strength.
00:45:26
Speaker
Yeah. And she also has the, um, there's a lot, this movie is very ah full of codpiece items and she has one, yeah which I feel like gives her that masculine, toxic masculine energy of like, she has a little bit of the trappings of the like gross fascist warlord dude. And I think that that's all very purposeful. Absolutely. And it's a reminder to the fascist warlord dudes exactly how much damage she can do, which I'm assuming they explore in Furios. But like she has clawed her way to being an Imperator. here And I don't think that we see any other women.
00:46:10
Speaker
who are imperators. No, but I think they are all war boys. Like when the movie starts, she's on like a sanctioned mission. Yes. From the Citadel. She's supposed to be like going on like a supply run, but she's got like um war boys with her that are like her entourage that are coming with her. They don't know what's going to happen. She's very practiced. She has been in this yeah for a very long time. Yeah. And this is right at the edge.
00:46:37
Speaker
right when she's about this is the turning to point literally yes the turning point where she's about to put into practice a very planned out right moment. But when she starts, when she like deviates from the plan, the first thing that happens is like one of like basically who the guy who kind of seems like her like lieutenant kind of second in command on this mission.
00:46:57
Speaker
comes up and he's like, hey, what's going on? And she doesn't really explain herself and just like, we're doing this now. And his immediate reaction is, okay, like she, has it establishes her right away 100%. And it's like she is functioning within the society exactly how she's meant to as an Imperator. It feels like all of the protections, all of those things about how she presents herself about who she is.
00:47:20
Speaker
are kind of like a fuck you to anybody higher than the war boys. right Because I think that she understands how this society functions, that it's like it's not really about the war boys, it's about Immorthen Joe, and it's about the people who are at the top of this rock mountain desert formation.
00:47:42
Speaker
king of the nightmare hill. Yeah and then she could basically kill these like ant foot soldiers but that's not going to get her anywhere and she doesn't necessarily have to protect herself from them because she's already created enough cachet to do that. So it's like she is an authority And it's pretty interesting to see her function that way. So in the New York Times article, which has little chunks of interviews from both Jenny Beavan and Leslie VanderWalt, the costume designer and the hair and makeup designer respectively, Jenny Beavan, I think it was this one, describes that in the original films, there was some um some like S and&M inspired. oh yeah And if it wasn't from that,
00:48:22
Speaker
I think it was from that article. like In the original trilogy that there was like S and&M and inspiration in the costumes and she was like, we wanted to bring it up you know to 2000s and like change it. I was like, it's funny that you say that because that still is present here where there's all the straps, the belts, the the like goon masks, the latex masks. There's a lot of intentional discomfort.
00:48:48
Speaker
uh-huh like that is the the people leader with his like suit that just has nipple cut out let's talk about the people eater now so the people eater is wearing so this i think they mentioned it might have been in an article i don't remember but i think that this is about 50 years after the apocalypse. So yeah shit went crazy 15 years ago. timeline is a little, to me, the timeline's a little squidgy on like, is this believable that society would have done this in this short of a time? I don't really care, but yeah I don't know if that makes sense. We kind of look at it with our eyes closed, you know, like Mad Max, the original
00:49:26
Speaker
I think it was more specific because Max, we see him before and we see him after. And in this Fury Road, it feels like it's been established for a hot minute that things have gone to pot. But the people eater is in a frigging suit. In striped and everything. Yeah, it's a striped suit and it's a dark suit. He is The only, if you're not actually looking at it and also it kind of like fades, you know, under camera. So you're not really looking the same way at the distressing because it's a darker item. So it kind of blurs unless you're like stopping and looking for the features. But what you sure do see are you have the nipple cutouts with like clamps and he's the one who has a chains and he has, he's the one with his nose. Question mark. Where's it at? Yeah. It's got the T string with chains on it.
00:50:20
Speaker
So he has this, he's yeah the head of Gastown and he's very focused on inventory and how much, like how many bullets have been spent, how much gas, like where the gas is at. He obviously has a certain level of power and the people eater, I mean, come on. What activities is he up to? um Just straight up cannibalism, I guess. Cannibalism and like, it's just horrible. But the fact that that suit has survived as long as it has, speaks to, I feel,
00:50:55
Speaker
the superior tailoring of that garment in this world. I need to talk to the tailor. Oh my God. How'd you saw this? What kind of threads? Because what I appreciated about it is that this like horrific creature of a man clearly has devolved from something that society expected from him in another life, where he was a man who wore a suit, which you know is supposed to convey something to you, right that so may not be more universalible right universal like because I see a man in a suit.
00:51:29
Speaker
I don't give a shit. But there are people like that, you know, you can buy a suit at Macy's or you can get like a hand tailored thousands and thousands of dollar suits. So like, so there is a language there where you're supposed to kind of in a shortcut, be like this person was at a certain income level, had a specific responsibility in a certain field. Maybe it was banking or he was a manager of some kind, a CEO of some kind, which is why his interests lie in inventory and being powerful in the way that he is in Gastown. But he's also a freak in the most unfriendly way. I did write freak in my notes and then I was like, am I kinkshaming?
00:52:10
Speaker
Listen, I love my freaks. I love my geeks. But in this way, I'm using it in a derogatory way, where this cannibal of a man who looks like a worm in a suit is not right. And he has taken to this new world like a fish to water. And that is just, he could not be happier. He's, it will. And like we, and I think we've mentioned the doof warrior and that he's the the one who's.
00:52:39
Speaker
that he's the one who's playing on theatic fame it the guitar. Then he's like suspended from one of the vehicles. He's got like a like a bungee harness. He's got a bungee harness so that he's just like not going nowhere. He's not going anywhere and he's not receiving any damage when they like her.
00:52:58
Speaker
going over bumps or anything. He's just, whee, and playing the guitar. And it feels like he's wearing this red silk long john situation. I was getting long johns. I was getting Little House on the Prairie. I was getting that kind of vibe. It's just a weird garment. And it's amazing because he's one of the, I think he might be the only war boy that we see in color. Everybody else has their white painted skins.
00:53:28
Speaker
the black pants or the dark brown pants because there are some different um positions that we see throughout who have masks or like aprons that are made out of like rough leather, all that kind of stuff. So we have like variation with like earth and tones and blacks, but he's the only one I think that we see who's yeah, like in ah this and it's this like it's like a saturated vibrant red. And I wrote about him. I kind of love how nothing is real to these war boys. Yeah.
00:53:57
Speaker
The Duke Warrior is a perfect example of that because later on in the film, he keeps playing even after Max has kicked him around with his flamethrower guitar. He's kicked his ass and he's also fighting. I lost my mind in the theater when I saw this character. I cannot express. I went to another play of existence when I saw this for the first time. It's a weird little moment of comedy.
00:54:25
Speaker
this character is almost a flag. you know He's like the pirate flag where it's like, we want you to see him and we want you to hear him. and so The fact that he's just like, I'm just here to play guitar, bouncy, bouncy, bounce, also speaks to how some of these war boys, they're in their intelligence is kind of question mark. They're understanding. Any education is just totally arrested. Oh, doesn't exist, yeah except that they are taught how to work weapons and guns. So there's, yeah, there's even like job titles like Nux has a job title. And I can't remember what it is just the same way that Furiosa is an Imperator. Like Nux has a job title that denotes that he knows how to, he's basically an engineer. He has his own car basically, like he's not only a driver, but he's also in it like a mechanic. Yeah. So he knows how to fix things. He refers to that other guy as a lancer that's like you're because the guys like basically try to like take Nux's car when they're like, oh, we're gonna go fight. And he's like, you can't take my car. You're my lancer, which gives me kind of like, squire night vibes. I mean, this is this is an army and it has a structure and there's also like pole kit, polecat navigators or something like that is like what they're called. You see them in the massive driving scenes and they're on these massive poles.
00:55:47
Speaker
attached to these vehicles so that and they're on the pole so that they swing back and forth a little little bit but it's like they're kind of locked so that they don't constantly like yeah go like a metronome but it's kind of like watching Cirque du Soleil on sand where it's like, because there is a point towards the end of the movie in one of the big, big, like massive fight scenes from Max, like fucks up on the pole, the pole lookouts. And he's riding the pole and he's just like, whee. And in the background, you see more of them going whee. It's just like a context. It does look fun. It does look fun. But like, I mean, there's just like so much to say about so many of these
00:56:28
Speaker
I have to say though, I didn't think about it as much until I was watching it this time. And full disclosure, I've seen this movie probably like six or seven times at this point. But I was thinking when I was looking at the Doof guy as I now know his name is. And I so i was like thinking back to like history class like as a kid and thinking about the Revolutionary War and like the knowledge that there was a guy with like a flute and a drummer and just like yeah thinking about like how we go back through history and the sort of like curation of music vibe for marching is like a fag that has existed a long time. yeah
00:57:09
Speaker
I mean bagpipes, like the face painting that the pics did, like, there's all this stuff. I think it goes back to like Rome as well. Like, did they have those drummers? Yeah, it goes back everywhere. Like when you think of the Hakka now for Maori, like folks, like, it's... I'm specifically going to focus on the facial expressions, which are supposed to evoke a response, right? So there's always been, in all forms of human warfare, a way of evoking a response. Bagpipes were supposed to sound like the screams of spirits in the mountains, and they were supposed to send a chill up your back. can confirm they still do right and like drums are supposed to kind of like interfere with your heart beat dread the like in the dread getting louder as it gets like all of that stuff like it pins ping pong through your ears so there's always been this like psychology at work it's just wild and like Psychology at work. Truly, there are so many costumes and so sorry if we skip past any of them. Immortan Joe, we've talked about him. We have to talk about his chest weight. We have to talk about him in detail. There's a really great quote from Ms. Bevin from the New York Times article. Ms. Bevin had several versions of Joe's carapace made by Simon Brindle at Artisan Armors in Britain. Look him up. Why not? Look at some cool stuff.
00:58:33
Speaker
That's just me interjecting, returning to the quote now. Then she attached medals to wear, quote, as dictators seem to love to do, end quote, fashioned from numbers or letters found on cars and mobile phone parts, quote, stuff from the past that he still holds dear, end quote. How cool is that? I did not, there's so there's so much attention to detail, not only in the costumes,
00:58:58
Speaker
detail Just a shout out to all of the production design, all of it. like Everything comes together so great in this movie to establish this world so well. The hair and makeup and the costumes work together so beautifully because I didn't even notice these medals until this this rewatch. oh yeah and like I noticed them and I feel like I got that like yeah that feeling it was conveyed to me that that it's just like, it's like a child. Yes. It's a child who wants to look bigger and is looking for any way to project that. And I mean, he has this like breathing apparatus that has this like crazy mouth that goes over his face and it's like attached to it. It's crazy. yeah And then he's got these like vacuum hoses that go back to this like the carapace, the bellows thing that looks like a almost like a beetle bug life carapace. Then he has this yeah like clear chest plate.
00:59:56
Speaker
It has abs drawn on it. Abs carved in there. It's like you brought up Romans. It's like Roman armor where they had the the abs and the muscles like carved in. The details are truly delicious in the most disgusting way because then to take a leap over to just like hair and makeup in general, because the war boys are so unhealthy that they're not they're not like being cared for, there's no healthcare here. like Oh.
01:00:25
Speaker
they're breathing in whatever air they're breathing. They're breathing in like all this gas, all this horrible stuff, right? And all this crap that they're like spraying in their faces to get like crazy energy, all these things, they are not okay. And they all have like cancerous lesions or yeah tumors or yeah like open wounds or like staples in their faces. Yeah. Things have just been like, they're like, eh, good enough.
01:00:51
Speaker
yeah Like it it shows you more about this culture of like the pain as part of it. And it's just, it's insane. Like amazing. It's mad. It's mad. And, um, oh my God, there's like little bits that I want to talk about so much. So, um, yes.
01:01:08
Speaker
to you. so i im like I'm pretty sure, but then I'm like questioning myself. To me, there's an implication that there's been some kind of like nuclear devastation and that that is a part of the cause of like people's like ailments and like the yeah the sort of like water is bad environmental fallout. There's like a, there's like a split second shot in the opening of the trees, like going back and forth that I feel like is like so footage of like, uh, yeah. Like a mushroom cloud. Yeah. Right. Okay. I didn't make that up in my mind, right? Like that's kind of the implication is there's some kind of. I think that there's like we' a crazy yeah mass event that destroyed everything. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. like Let me just make sure.
01:02:00
Speaker
And it's so crazy to see like that there's this mass event, who knows when it happened, potentially 50 years before? question mark That there are still people But it wouldn't have been, I don't know how long it took for society to collapse. Listen, the timeline doesn't, it's fine. Because the timeline doesn't really work and I don't care. Even if it was like 50 years before, it would take some time for society to completely collapse to this point. I think it's unrealistic to think that society would have gotten to this point that quickly.
01:02:30
Speaker
But again, I mean, I don't know. I think that like if you have all of your resources stripped from you, what you would try to do is hold on to the military, which is Mad Max's background is as a soldier slash police officer, and that you would try to hold on to some kind of like, you know, militaristic order and like try to keep shit going. But then people are getting more feral and more desperate. So then there would be like new powers rising that would then get their hands on weapons or would have already had weapons because maybe they came out of some bunkers you know I don't know and then like took over that old world order because like the older well it's just the people I feel like would remember
01:03:15
Speaker
the world of the first movie. But in the first movie, I feel like there's a society that's recognizable to us because it's not, you know? I don't know how much we're supposed to hold on to the first movies. No, I don't think we are, but it's fine. I don't need to. It's okay. I don't need to. Yeah. And so it's like, with the Vovolini, there is one of the older women when at night, the Vovolini, the wives, Furiosa, Max and Nux are on the dunes and they're just,
01:03:44
Speaker
looking at the stars and Max is trying to like talk to Furiosa after she's like her brain has exploded and the wives are talking to the older women and they're looking at the stars and one falls and one of the bovillini is like that is what is called the satellite. That's true. And she explains everybody used to have a show.
01:04:04
Speaker
And Zoe Kravitz's character, who by the way has um the craziest name. Yeah, what is her name? Toast the Knowing. That's her name. Toast the Knowing. So Toast the Knowing, aka Zoe Kravitz, then starts to just immediately use the language that the older woman has said.
01:04:24
Speaker
do you think that there are still people out there who are still sending shows? So she doesn't know what a show is. right And I would say that her character is anywhere between 18 to early 20s. She's not a baby here. like She's young, but she only world this is the only world she's known. So she would either have to be tiny when it, like young, you know before her memories would have where she would know that this is a television show or whatever. Yeah. Cause like even Furiosa doesn't talk about, I mean, we're not given the opportunity to hear her talk about like in the old world. Like I think Furiosa even is like probably of this new generation and she's older than the wives are. yeah So she's like in between the age of the Vivellini and the wives. And so there are older folks who remember this old world and remember it well enough to know things like TB.
01:05:20
Speaker
I guess it's just wishful thinking on my part that there would be like something else going on besides whatever nightmare is happening in this movie. I know. And then, you know, Max pops up at every opportunity to be like, don't. Nope. No hope. but No.
01:05:36
Speaker
Because like we know that Max has been driving everywhere. And that's another thing that I really appreciate about um Max's character. So sorry for all the bouncing around. But we want to talk about the costumes, and so sometimes it takes. It's important to have the context, honestly. It really is. But from that New York Times article, Jenny Beavan describes Max's design. It was important that Mr. Hardy not be seen as a substitute for Mr. Gibson. So while a motorcycle jacket, pants, and boots recalled the police uniform of the original films, new accessories and embellishments reflected the new Max's military background, knotted nylon wristbands that unravel into ropes, knives. Which I did clock that paracord. I clocked it, all the paracord. Sewing and first aid kits, scarves to protect from sun and dust, and a long sleeve thermal t-shirt to ward off the elements and to hide stunt harnesses, which is just smart.
01:06:32
Speaker
And that is something that is so important to keep in mind when thinking about costume design is it has to tell the story, but but on a movie like this, it also has to work for the stunt. Yeah, you have to be able to do because and one of the things that I love so much about this movie is the amount of practical set and stunt items in the movie. It's one of the reasons why I love it so much because It feels feels like it's actually happening. It feels brutal. Yeah, like it wasn't filmed on a green screen in a parking lot in Atlanta. Yeah, you can feel that they were there. And like, the that truly, again, just to hammer home, this is such a perfect example of distressing. Like if you are studying costume, if you're interested in it, and you haven't seen this movie, I recommend it. Because it's just, un it's such a good way to
01:07:29
Speaker
Just watch it for what it is and then watch it again later and just clock the hair, the makeup, the clothes, the set pieces, the just all of these things that have to look.
01:07:41
Speaker
Like they are in a oh horrible, salt, waterless, horrible world. The wasteland. The wasteland. We talked about Max and like his cool survival design. He and the Vovilini I love are very connected because the Vovilini are these nomads who are on their bikes and because they had to leave and run the from the green lands as soon as they started to die. They're carrying everything that's of worth to them is on them or on their bikes. And like Mad Max, he is half of him is his car and that's stripped from him ah great at like right at the top of this movie. But he has some things with him as soon as he's able to get his hands on any sort of supplies. They are with him the whole time. Like in fight scenes, he has this little backpack.
01:08:31
Speaker
Because it's like he knows the same way that the Vugalini know, the same way that Furiosa knows. yeah If you're stripped of your vehicle, you just have you. So you have to be ready to go at any point. He spends the first half of the movie with this like muzzle mask on his face because he's been captured and he can't get it off. And even when and he's got the you know he's got the mask, he's got a chain, and then there's like the tube taking his blood.
01:08:58
Speaker
and like giving it just like horrific like fish. hook at the end cu so But even after he gets the mask off, he keeps the blood tube. Yeah, and it's folded up. He cleaned it. And it's folded up and tied up on his shoulder. So you can see it for the rest of the movie.
01:09:17
Speaker
And thank God he did because he's going to use it at the end. That's so cool that he's like able to use that. I love that they refer to him as a blood bag. Not a human being. No, he's not a person. He is a resource. He's a resource. And I feel like Nux, until his like brain starts to like open up a little bit because he's spending time with the mothers,
01:09:41
Speaker
And what what's amazing about Nux is that like he is our war boy that we get to see up close, and we see how much he values the mothers, where he's not trying to hurt them. no He's trying to win a claim from Immortunjo, and he's trying to do his job, but he's never trying to hurt them, and he's never disrespectful to them.
01:10:03
Speaker
That is so true. But they do refer to them when when there's like the frenzy at the beginning. They're like, oh my God, they're gone. The guy who tells Nux says somebody took a lot of stuff from Immortan Joe. yeah that is the That is a direct quote. So they are property of Immortan Joe and their value is because they are valuable to Immortan Joe. Yeah. but but not so But the thing is that Nux is still younger. And so that it's the same thing when you see the war pups. The war pups are little boys who are like under 10 years old. yeah They don't have any scars yet. they I don't even know that they have like the the oil face paint, but they're just like all white.
01:10:47
Speaker
They're young enough and they at the end of the movie they drop the platform for the mothers in a heartbeat like they're like fuck these guys moms, you know, so it's like yeah, we see that the little boys think of the mothers differently than the grown grown men do. And so it's like Nux is in the middle where Nux grew up with the mother's system. yeah So I think that he's closer to it and he sees these are the mothers, like they are precious because they're the mothers. yeah they're not He's not in this other position where he has like either
01:11:24
Speaker
won enough acclaim or gotten high enough in the system that he doesn't give a shit about them as the mothers or like their holy place, which some of them just look at them as basically livestock. He is, I feel like one of the younger generations that still holds their value as these like holy mothers. And so he looks at them as he's in the war rig with that same kind of authority where he's like, okay, I'll do what you say. yeah like I'm still gonna try to get them back to Immortan Joe, but like only because like I understand that that is in his mind the way things are supposed to be. It's just the way things are supposed to be. yeah And then he comes around to, I see that you are trying to do something else. I'm going to help you do what you want to do, even if he doesn't understand it. And it's like he never really
01:12:16
Speaker
you know, there's no bonding between him and Max. Like, no he just like, Max is just a blood bag to him until he's a threat. And then he's just like a threat slash authority. And so it's like he understands that masculine language that he's come up with in the society. And he also understands and holds, I feel like the wives from the perspective of a war pup.
01:12:42
Speaker
And he holds Furiosa as the commander because she is the Imperator. And so it's like it's just so interesting to see all these like relationships playing out. There's a scene where after they take out the car that's pursuing them in the nightlands,
01:13:00
Speaker
Max takes a gas can and he's gonna basically like raid that vehicle Yeah, and they're like what do and he's like move the truck or move the war rig like this amount of space like a few clicks ahead and they're like What happens if you don't come back? Yeah, and like a specific amount of time and he's like you go you like duh duh I love that moment cuz it's like you see you see that like that Furiosa kind of cares about him, doesn't want to leave him behind at that point. I think that she cares about him in the way of like, finally, well, also finally there's somebody who's at my level who is helping me because it's not somebody that I'm using. Like, yes, they are using each other for their skills, but this is also somebody who has survived as long as she has with the same level
01:13:49
Speaker
of violence that she has. And so it's like she's like, I can I can almost let go of a little bit of my fear, because I know that if you have the right impetus, you're going to fight just as hard as I am. Like she she's surrounded by the wives that she is protecting them and having to be a caretaker. Yes.
01:14:14
Speaker
in her like goal of like helping them and then she's got like Nux who's kind of like and a Complication and a little bit of like a computer engineer It's like oh no this tank went out. What are we gonna do? He's like I know how to fix it It's so funny to me how hard it seems to be for some filmmakers to create a strong female character. And I'm like, here it is. It's right there. And not only her, like there are different versions of strong female characters in every single woman that we see. yeah It's not just one idealized
01:14:53
Speaker
I'm Ripley from Alien, it's like who is also a badass. But it's like, no, all of them are strong with what they can contribute. And all of them have survived, which means that they are strong at the outside. And like there's even one of the wives who's like, we should go back and tries to run back. yeah to the War Boys and they're like, you can't go back. And she's like, they'll forgive us. But she even comes around and is like, nope, we do have to fight for this until we hit the end. Just a couple like little things. um yeah I loved with Max at that that Nightland scene when he takes the gas can, he's like, if I don't come back, go. yeah He comes back and he comes back with resources, like a single boot for nuts.
01:15:39
Speaker
I know that was a thoughtful thing to do. Right. And then there's like, he starts pouring stuff from out of the tanker and he's like, what the hell is this? And they're like, it's mother's milk, which means that it's like breast milk. That's a whole other level. of And he uses it like water to get blood off of his face. And I was yeah like, but also What an insane resource that you have all of these captive women who are ever occur to me mothers and what you are doing is literallying them like cows harvesting them. It's crazy. like The levels that are built in every point of design and building is just so good.
01:16:22
Speaker
Like, every detail makes me 100% fortified with the knowledge that I would not want, nor be able to survive this world. It's not for me, and I don't want to be there. Goodbye. Goodbye. I mean, just even- It's so weird with people that want to, like, they talk about, like, their strategy of, like, the zombie apocalypse or whatever that was, like, such a millennial conversation to have in, like, 2010. Oh, my God, so true. Like, I don't... want to survive. Yeah, no. All of my skills are really not for that. Like the best I could do is be like, I can be the person who can maintain your clothing and I can construct things in that vein. Yeah. And like tools, but like, nope. And like speaking of tools, the muzzle that they put on Max at the beginning of the movie, I think, I think, and I could totally be wrong and that's fine. But I think that's a gardening fork.
01:17:21
Speaker
Oh, interesting. Because at his chin, there's like a a little drop down piece where the the like handle, would the pole would be. It's pretty insane that they made this cool looking brutal as hell muzzle. From what could be a gardening fork? Because there is no green. There is no vegetation except for this tiny little islands of vegetation that Immortan Joe and the War Boys are.
01:17:51
Speaker
ah like hoarding the resources of. that So reality tools like that have no purpose. except to then be made into weapons. Did you notice the gas pedal of the war rig was a foot measuring plate? I loved it. And I also loved that the door of the war rig on the outside was carved a skeletal arm. Skeleton arm pointing forward. And was that the same arm that Furiosa had the prosthetic for? yeah So like, oh my God, like so many details.
01:18:26
Speaker
and details upon details upon details. just amazing The leader of the bullet farm had like a wig made of bullet casings. Yes. And like like a judges wig looking. Oh, they were incredible. Yeah, like bullet.
01:18:44
Speaker
garments and like, truly, truly, if you are going to watch this film, look at all of these details because every single worldwide, there is no like uniformity. I mean, there is a uniformity. What I mean is that there's no like form like, yeah, there's no specific, you six are going to be wearing the same identical thing. Every single actor, every single performer has something that feels unique and even if that was like here's a barrel of you know goggles and masks and straps they were each put on as a costume in a way that feels deliberate that communicates the society and that's true of the wretched who are the regular joes that we see at the end of the movie i think we see them like a couple times but we're not like really zeroing in on them
01:19:34
Speaker
but they are the people that Immortan Joe is squashing who come to this place for water and he like lets the water be available for just a teeny tiny little bit of time so a lot of these people have things on their backs and on their heads to capture water yeah and they're all dressed in earthen like sand camouflagey colors where they're all in like Maybe there's some black in there, I don't know, but definitely like dark browns, tans, lighter browns. And they're they're unified in that sense, which also holds them aside from the War Boys and holds them aside from like the Vovilini. Everybody has, even though it's limited, everybody has their own palette. These people who play the Wretched are extras. And they, except for like a couple that I think get like a more FaceTime.
01:20:23
Speaker
they're all wearing multiple pieces that are layered and layered and layered. And they're all, it looks like everybody was like, okay, now get down and roll down sand. Like here's some damp sand rolling it. yeah And so it's like this this level of detail and effort extends to every single person. And it's the amount of work and effort and continuity. Wow.
01:20:50
Speaker
This is not a like casting call for extras show up with three outfits without any corporate logos. This is every single thing is being given to you by the wardrobe department. And a person is like putting this outfit together for you for this moment. And I mean, again, I'm just like looking at my notes and like little things are popping out. Like, did you notice the hand that like chunky, messy hand repairs, the stitches on Max's jacket. I sure did. yeah Loved that detail. Like the sleeves are different on his jacket. These are things that he's had to alter and change himself. And I just like love that he's learned these skills or, you know,
01:21:34
Speaker
perfected these skills in order to use every resource that comes into his hands. I mean, it's just an incredible level of stuff. And like, did you look at the IMDb page for the crew? Oh my God, the number of human beings that worked on this movie.
01:21:49
Speaker
is insane. And like I scrolled for a while until we hit our costume friends and family. And I believe that there were about 44 costume folk listed on IMDB and some of whom are uncredited. And I don't know how that works because like technically they're credited in IMDB, but maybe not in the film.
01:22:09
Speaker
I think that if you have an IMDb profile as someone who like does work, I think you can submit yourself and be like, I worked on this and IMDb will put it on your page, but it'll say like like, you weren't listed in the credits of the movie, but you're saying that you worked on the movie. Which is also just so crazy that you wouldn't be listed in the credits of the movie if you worked on a movie. I know. Like that whole part. I don't understand how that works. where it's I was wondering if it was sort of like, if you like hired a person to make that chest plate, maybe there's people that work in their studio on that project, but don't aren't like a full time. That makes sense. Maybe, I don't know, it could be stuff like that. now I don't love it, but it makes sense. I know. like I'm not happy about that. You can see how it would happen. Yes. But we yeah, we want everyone to get all the credit for all their lovely work. Everybody and also one last thing of credit that I want to shout out is the editor The editrix. Oh my god Margaret her name at the top of my notes because I was like top of high not is too about my Because I don't know how to pronounce her last name. S-I-X-E-L s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s that makes this movie. It makes it. I know. And she I believe is married to George Miller. Yes. But my note about that that I got from IMDB is that she had 470 hours of footage
01:23:46
Speaker
given to her to make this movie and that to me is like okay next level 470 hours all of those hours because I think that like the the two designers that we've talked about um the costume and hair and makeup designer they moved to Namibia for a year for filming yeah and so if you're out there for that long This, so usually in movies, I'm like, oh my God, could you imagine wearing that and like struggling in it for a really long time? i it These costumes, all of them seem to be pretty practical except for like the wives you know like movement. You could raise your arms and just fall out of that dress. I don't know, except for like you know wardrobe tape. The sunburns,
01:24:37
Speaker
that would be potential because there's so much skin out in this desert. That is like the first place I jump is like the sand and the sun. If there's wind whipping sun at you, that would be so much to contend with. But aside from that and like, you know, massive costume pieces that cover your face or your mouth or your nose or anything like that, these costumes have the thought behind it was for functionality. It's not just to be looked at like it is to uphold the story, which is that this is a post-apocalyptic world in which people have to survive.
01:25:19
Speaker
So it's like you're being given these costumes that are meant for you to survive, like in the actual desert. Literally where we are filming. It's not perfect because you're not perfectly comfortable, but they are functional.
01:25:37
Speaker
Yeah, they are keeping you alive. Yeah, so yeah, major props to Miss Margaret. Just absolutely beautiful. I remember watching a YouTube video about Fury Road and I don't I don't remember who made it. um But they were talking about the editing specifically in this movie and how you never get lost in the action sequences. You always know what's happening and where. And that is not something that you can necessarily guarantee with an action movie, especially yeah this sort of like,
01:26:13
Speaker
particular style of, of the like chaotic handheld stuff that sort of became like a thing in the 2000s, where it's just sort of like, there's just so all these quick cuts and everything's like, so jumbled, but like this movie is so clear, like, you know, what's happening. It's so well, well, beautiful.
01:26:34
Speaker
ah The idea that it yeah it took three months to watch and to arrange is crazy. I can't even imagine. I just wanted to shout out that Margaret won the Academy Award for editing for this movie. And I can't imagine a more deserving film of that year. oh so So worth it. And like on top of that, um all those hours that she had to like sift through things in order to edit and watch and compute.
01:27:03
Speaker
are designers in one of the articles either by the Guardian. The Guardian article is just about Jenny Bevan and the New York Times article is about both her and Leslie, Amanda Walt. But in one of them, one of the designers speaks to, there was no script.
01:27:19
Speaker
There was no conventional script for them to work off of. And in costuming, usually you read your script, you make your notes, and then you do your research, like about your your time period or how you're going to create your time period, you know, all those things. In this, they were given, I believe,
01:27:34
Speaker
um
01:27:37
Speaker
like lost my words, but basically like ah sketches. Yeah. The storyboard. The storyboard. Thank you. Oh my God. I studied illustration and my brain is just like Swiss cheese. Um, but like they're basically given like some comics and some storyboards like visual influences. And they were like,
01:27:56
Speaker
Okay. Just kind of, you know, had to, and like one of the designers was in talks with um the director like 10 years before they even made the movie. So had this kind of on the back burner in their mind whirling for a really long time. So it seems like it was this really like living project that just kept going in its process, which would be really interesting to hear them speak to that specifically, but I did not quite,
01:28:26
Speaker
to get any of that information. I do have a a cool little story about a fury road. So Phil and I used to have a radio show and we would invite local musicians and artists onto our show. And we were very lucky to have some people come and like play with us or, you know, come in for an interview. And we had this band Yasu. We had two of the the lead members come and sit with us and very, very cool people, very cool career, make very unique music.
01:28:56
Speaker
They composed music, an original score for a ballet called Fury. that was based on Mad Max Fury Road. And they invited us to see it. And it was one of those cool experiences where you're in a warehouse that has been tricked out to have like a run like a thrust runway stage. And like you know cool fabrics like suspended from the ceiling. And you have the band in the back. And these costumes are very diaphanous because it's ballet. So it's dance, which is a whole different design monster. And you have the wives in these diaphanous white you know dresses, and the the female singer of Yasu sang on stage and was one of the wives, so danced with the dancers. And we didn't know that part until we were there, and we were like, oh my goodness.
01:29:56
Speaker
This is crazy. So it was just like live music, live singing, and a ballet based on Fury Road. That sounds incredible. It was so cool. I don't know if you can watch it, but it does there is a website for it, furyshow dot.com, if anybody's curious about it. But yeah, it was it was a really unique experience. And I wish that more people could make cool art inspired by things like this. But like that's that's how big of a design bomb in a good way. Mad Max Fury Road was yeah that people were so inspired by it that they're like, let's make a ballet and choreograph a ballet and compose music for this and create this like really intense experience for folks. like it was It was pretty very cool. That is wonderful.
01:30:53
Speaker
um I do, before we wrap up, want to shout out that Jenny Bevan also won an Academy Award for the costume design for this movie. And I want to put that in context by saying this is a quote from a blog called The Costume Vault. Mad Max was the first non-historical movie to win the Academy Award for costume design since 2003, which is the year that Return of the King won.
01:31:21
Speaker
And it is the first sci-fi movie since 1977 when Star Wars came out to win the Academy Award for costume design. I think that that speaks to the level of design and also the way that this genre, I think, gets a bit like undervalued by the Hollywood Award circuit in favor of costume dramas, which I love and are wonderful, but they're not the only game in town. They are not the only way to be a wonderful designer. And we've talked about how incredible we think that the design was in this, in this movie. And it is just like, it speaks for itself, truly. If you have not seen it, please do. If you have seen it, but haven't looked at it from the costuming perspective, please look at it again, because it's just a great example of so many things.
01:32:15
Speaker
so many things, so many skills all coming together to create a world effectively. And like also to create like a visual treat for your eyes. That's really a big bummer. The future sucks. The future sucks so much.
01:32:34
Speaker
And know what an incredible way to finish our like 10 episode arc on sci-fi throughout Hollywood. This is this is technically the end. This is what we set out to do. We have done 10 episodes of our first season. This is the first of many. But yeah, like when we first started, we were like, oh, no, this is crazy. And now it's just like Oh, it's over. We've gotten here. And what a difference from being in the 20s with your favorite movie ever. And now we're here where it's so exciting to not only talk about the costumes, but to talk about the people who created them. Which is what we wanted to do. That's what we wanted to do. And as we continue on our road of, you know, watching film and
01:33:26
Speaker
possibly TV. When we talk about things, we're going to try to like continue to to bring in more as we're able to find more information about designers, about design teams, about yeah the process. But that is also a process because you know we are not professional researchers. We're not academics. Lord, no. We sure are not. We are vibes based, as we continuously say, I think, in every single episode. So you should know by now, unless this is your first time listening. and Which is welcome.
01:33:56
Speaker
But we always want to put the emphasis on the people who do this work because we do it too and we love it. And we understand that it's kind of a mysterious job to people that don't do it.
01:34:11
Speaker
Even people that are involved in other aspects of like the entertainment industry, what we do in the costume department seems to kind of be a little bit you know and and the unknown. like People think that we're in there. They think we're one thing.
01:34:28
Speaker
yeah They think we're one thing. And to to bring back some words from Jenny Beavan in her Guardian article where she's being interviewed, I believe in her own flat, she he says at one point, I don't care about fashion. I'm interested in people. Yes. And that is, I think, the biggest misconception about this industry is, and that's why you can take someone who has a history of doing these beautiful, intricate, delicate, historical, lovely little jewel box projects and put her in the wasteland and she can be just as successful and wonderful and bring
01:35:08
Speaker
that attention to detail and delicacy to the design because it's not about pretty clothes, it's about storytelling. It's about storytelling. It's about the people. It's about the characters and understanding and that she clearly is one of the best. She gets it and you can see it all over the screen no matter what she's doing. Incredible. Yay!
01:35:33
Speaker
Okay, thank you so much for listening. We will be back with some more stuff soon. Maybe things have already started coming out by the time that you're listening to this. I don't know. But we hope that you'll join us for our next little adventure through film. Goodbye.