Mad Max Analyse

Mad Max: Fury Road (George Miller)

Mad Max begins with a pitch black background showing no titles. A voice over begins striaght away, "My name is Max". Straight from the begining it is establishing that we are listenign to the protagonist of the movie. The balck background still leaves a sense of mystery and suspsion to the viewer. The voice over goes onto say "my world is fire and blood." The black background fades up to this red gruesome colour resemberling splatters of blood on the screen. Here we see our first title. It is presented in a sans serif style in block capital blod letters. it is placed central on the screen making it clear that they want the viewers to read and comprehend it. Over the top of this a non diagetic recordings of screaming, radio transfers and new reports can be heard. This is doen to create tension and provide the viewers with extra information as to what is occuring in this world at that point. This helps to set the scene.

The black background appears again and ontop of this we see more titles. the titles are presneted differently now as there are two seperate ones appearing on one screen. This could suggest that they are off equal importance. The actors titles are presented in the same style as previously however they are not shown in 3D. Underneathe this it states what roles they are playing in the movie. The way in which they have presented this is intresting as it demonstates the kind of violent, blood thirsty characters that they are. The brown neautral shade contradicts harshly against the sharp red striking colour which connotes danger and violence.

A deep droning sound fades the stactic non diagetic add ins of new reports etc back into the voice over. And again goes back into the news reports. The black background quickly fades to a black and white clip of a long shot. This shot shows bare trees beig forcefull psuhed by a strong gust of wind. All of the tree's moves insync in one direction as loud gust of wind are heard underneathe a news report stating that nuclear bombs are being set off. This suggest that what we are seeing as an audience is what is occuring within the entire world of the movie. The black and white affect demonstrates that the world is damaged. Non diagetic sounds of heavy breathing can be heard throughout. This adds to the erie atmosphere.

There is a small crescendo and at the slight climax we see the first real clip of the film. It is an establishing shot of orange desert, which is all can be seen for miles. Moutains of stone and dust can be seen within the distance. No life source can be found except for a man stood nearly central with his back facign the camera. This entitles a sense of mystery. As the voice over continues we are lead to beleieve that this vocie belongs to the male character stood in the shot. Now we know who our protagonist is. The camera begins to slowly tilt downwards and lands on what appears as a rock. Within the shot we see a lizard and whispers are are now heard. These sounds are not dialogue as they appear to be wihtin the characters mind. This plays with the idea of being mad, suggesting the film title 'Mad Max'. The lizards turn around and it is clear to the viewer that it has two heards. This automatically plays with the idea of abnormality and madness, a key theme so far. The camera angle establishes Max as a dominating character. The lizard begins to move quickly towards the protagonist. As this occurs we hear the sliver of the liazrd as it moves and the whispers increase in volueme and pace, it helps to create a chaotic and mad atomsphere. The whispers provide an affect that they are talking to you directly as a viewer. It gives a sense that you are understanding what it is like inside of the protagonists head and allows you to sympothise with him a little bit.

This is all taken as one long take. This plays with the ideas of how long Max's life has been like this for. It suggest that the end of time has been stretched out for so long and provides themes of loneliness and isolation in the viewers minds. The whispers build up to a small crescondo and are silenced at the point of build up by the protagonist squishing the lizards with his left foot. This suggest that he is killing the voices inside of his head, again suggesting that he is mad.

The extreme long take has been disrupted by a cut to a over the shoulder shot. Here we see that the protagonist is looking into a vast of nothing; again suggest the idea of isolation. He moves his head around to his right, so now some of his face is clear and it is visual to the viewers that he he is eating the lizard he had just killed. This connotes several aspects about his character. His determination is real. This demonstrates he has the willingness to survive, no matter what. Also that he is almost heartless. He can kill a living animal to provide for himself in a heart beat. As he chews we can hear the squelching of what remains of the lizard inside of his mouth.

All of a sudden the pace of the film changes massively. All of the takes become short snippets and editted very quickly together. Max head to his car and kicks the mysetrious objects spilling out of it. He begins packing frantically. The sudden pace and urge to get away suggests a sense of danger which he must escape. The engine is running at this point of rapidness. The short takes are filmed with lots of close ups and extreme close ups of detailing of the car. The car helps to suggest what time it is they are living in. It can not be the past as history's technology was not as advanced to create cars of this standard. This then connotes that it is set in the future after the distruction of the world or some sort.
The zoom in to an extreme close up shot connotes the pace in which things are going at. It helps to speed up the scene confusing the viewer and creating more mayhem.