As a kid I got a lot of “Do as I say not as I do.”
The lesson I learned is that a lot of grown ups are hypocrites. I saw this so much it made me decide I would always be honest with myself and others about why I was doing the things I was doing. It is not always easy, especially now that I have kids of my own, but it is much healthier in the long run. I teach my kids by example rather than preaching fake piety.
I went back and watched it and I see what you are saying about Furiosa and the concubines, it is a great device for setting up the chase. The chase then becomes the rest of the movie. Furiosa and Max have invincible plot armor during these chases and while I can appreciate the artistic skill in crafting these action scenes, I found sitting through them all a bit laborious.
The most interesting thing about the story to me was how Max and Furiosa went from straight up try to murder each other to becoming best buds. This happens so quickly and without a lot of explanation and to me that is a bit jarring. It seems to me the reason they dont spend more time on it is that the chase has already begun. And this to me is what keeps me from loving this this movie, they compromise on story in favor of chase and action scenes. While there is a lot to love about this movie, it is still not my favorite Mad Max movie.
My understanding is that attacks like this force deployment of air defences to population centers rather than protecting military targets. So no direct military benefit, but it can help shape the battlefield.
Two questions come to mind: will this demo get out and vote? And if they do who can they vote for that will make policy decisions in line with this viewpoint?
It is hard to separate nostalgia from any rational opinions I have about this movie, since it came out when I was a randy and uninformed 15 years old. That said it had really interesting characters, a plot which I could follow and I especially liked the village of kids from the crashed plane. It had a Lord of the Flies vibe, but with a counter-narrative to the doom and gloom theme that humans will revert to barbarism, but also not an idealized, utopian vision of what would happen. Even Bartertown had an element of social commentary. It seemed to be offering different versions of how people would organize themselves if we wiped away current civilization and social structures. Which one is better? It does not directly make a judgement, but in some sense Max is fighting for what feel "right" to him in order to redeem himself for not being able to save his family and all the terrible things he has done in the wake of the disaster to survive. Honestly Thunderdome is one of my favorite movies.
/action Takes shovel and starts digging what appears to be his own grave.
I think Fury Road has amazing visuals, cinematography, practical effects, stunts and all that. But I really did not find the story of the characters interesting.Honestly it felt more like Fast and Furious than Mad Max.
I am really liking this one.