Mad Max Fury Road- Through the lens of Exploitation Cinema

Mad Max Fury Road is not a complex film. The main plot is a group of characters go somewhere, are unable to find what they are looking for and return to the exact same place they left. However, the film is littered with exploitation cinema themes.

Traditionally they are: Sex, Violence and Romance. Arguably, Mad Max Fury Road had all three of these. Throughout the film, the audience are shown multiple scenes of violence which take the form of car chases with guns and explosions. The violence is also quite over the top, at one point a couple of what appear to be War Boys are seen holding onto long rods attached to cars and proceed to rock them back and fourth throwing explosives at the main characters. And of course who could forget the man with the flamethrower guitar? 

Sex and Romance are also shown, although not as much as violence. When we first see the stolen wives of the main villain Immortan Joe, they are dressed in quite revealing white outfits almost as if they have just stepped out of an old painting (their clothes have be dirtied by being in the desert and hidden away the the 'War Rig') . When we see the other characters in this film, they are dressed in stereotypical post-apocalypse clothing like tattered clothes, hard leather and metal (Apparently there is one character with a car tyre as a shoulder pad). It is implied that these women were selected to be Immortan Joe's wives (He refers to them as breeders) because of their beauty and sexual desirability.
Romance is shown between the War Boy Nux and Capable (the character with red hair). It is implied that the two of them have feelings for each other, especially in Nux's final scene where he looks at Capable and whsipers "Witness Me", a phrase used by Nux and the War Boys throughout the film before they do something 'Heroic' that will get them killed, and she holds out her hand towards him as their car drives away. It's a very sad scene as this War Boy that has only ever fought and tried to kill himself, finally finds something to live for but then has to sacrifice himself so the other can escape.



Another aspect of exploitation cinema is to turn a profit using these themes. The film reportedly made $378.9 Million at the box office on a 150 Million budget.


Image Source List:
1: https://geektyrant.com/news/new-mad-max-fury-road-posters-are-madness
2: https://giphy.com/gifs/mad-max-fury-road-doof-warrior-XXo6LQ3Ujyy2s
3: https://thedissolve.com/features/exposition/1052-the-feminine-desert-of-mad-max-fury-road/