Friday, March 08, 2019

A "Fury Road" Appreciation




We take this movie for granted. What a masterpiece.

Remember how Ebert would sometimes screen a film with an audience and if anyone yelled STOP he'd pause the film and they'd talk about it? It would be a real experience to do something similar with "Mad Max: Fury Road".

In terms of action pieces, the final chase has SO MUCH STORYTELLING IN IT. It's almost criminal how well the choreography, cinematography, stunts and editing all work together.


I'm sure connective moments were "found" in the edit, but a great deal of planning and care was required to create the individual pieces.


These cuts are not random. The edit builds and builds and builds. It's all about momentum. The stakes keep getting higher. And the action is always personal, never clinical or objective. The audience feels the danger.


In any other movie, this many cuts in such a short sequence [including two shots of a hallucination!] would be a crime.

Look at how the sequence is put together. There's no confusion. You know what's happening. This isn't quick cutting solely to simulate energy - it IS energy.


Framing (frequently center framing the action), careful attention to the 180° line, consistent eyelines and cutting precisely when a cut needs to happen allow the audience go along for the ride, rather than bombard them with seemingly random, unrelated shots that don't connect.


I've watched this movie a lot, but I keep learning more about cinema each time I watch it.


All about the film’s cinematography, straight from John Seale and David Burr.



Steven Soderbergh on "Mad Max: Fury Road":





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