Rob Ager - Action scene psychology: Road Warrior V Fury Road

[metalwarriormax]

I prefer Norwegian over Italian women, but both ethnicities are enticing. I make my choice. There is no right or wrong. Things you like are important or not depending on who you are.

I don´t have the time nor the inclination to refute either verbally or by making videos why I take Fury Road over Road Warrior 100/100 times without hesitation.

For perspective, I have seen Fury Road 19 times. Last time I did that with a film, it was the 1980´s, the movie was on VHS, and was called Raiders of The Lost Ark.

[MWFV8]

I prefer Norwegian over Italian women, but both ethnicities are enticing. I make my choice. There is no right or wrong. Things you like are important or not depending on who you are.

I don´t have the time nor the inclination to refute either verbally or by making videos why I take Fury Road over Road Warrior 100/100 times without hesitation.

For perspective, I have seen Fury Road 19 times. Last time I did that with a film, it was the 1980´s, the movie was on VHS, and was called Raiders of The Lost Ark.

I feel you may have missed the intention of the original analysis here. This isn't about saying one movie is better than the other. The box office success of Fury Road speaks volumes regardless of how we individually feel about it.

That said, I'd personally very interested in the factors which make Fury Road so much better for you.

[metalwarriormax]

I prefer Norwegian over Italian women, but both ethnicities are enticing. I make my choice. There is no right or wrong. Things you like are important or not depending on who you are.

I don´t have the time nor the inclination to refute either verbally or by making videos why I take Fury Road over Road Warrior 100/100 times without hesitation.

For perspective, I have seen Fury Road 19 times. Last time I did that with a film, it was the 1980´s, the movie was on VHS, and was called Raiders of The Lost Ark.

I feel you may have missed the intention of the original analysis here. This isn't about saying one movie is better than the other. The box office success of Fury Road speaks volumes regardless of how we individually feel about it.

That said, I'd personally very interested in the factors which make Fury Road so much better for you.

Since nothing is absolute, and art is 100% subjective, anything I say it´s debatable. It´s like music. Sports. Hobbies. Food. Or falling in love. My best answer then, is I just do.

[Mad Serge]

One should stop the relativism.

Ager argue and show why Road Warrior is a great movie.

Basically, he is just saying :

Road Warrior > Fury Road

Fury Road > modern action movies

[Turbofurball]

It's an interesting comparison, I don't agree with quite a few of his points (a couple of stand-out examples - driving off road is not as good as on road, because of a soft landing? Has he not fallen off a motorbike or rolled a car off road?! ... and I did care about the Keeper Of The Seeds, and her link to my favourite character, The Dag) but it's a pretty thorough analysis.

A lot of it, however, basically came down to his opinion. So it wasn't really a study of action scene psychology as per the title ... I had been hoping for an analysis of character's motivations, delving into psychoses and implied character traits, which is a lot of what both films are about and a big part of why they stand out to me.

If someone with more knowledge of psychology than me could do an analysis exploring the characters and their interactions with both each other and the audience, that would be great. I'd love to know if anyone else would consider that Hardy's Max is basically a place holder for male viewers since he lacks Mel's vulnerability, which appears to be a common modern action film problem.

[MWFV8]

I'd love to know if anyone else would consider that Hardy's Max is basically a place holder for male viewers since he lacks Mel's vulnerability, which appears to be a common modern action film problem.

That's an interesting thought and certainly one I'd enjoy reading some dialogue about. If there was one thing all the cutting back and forth in this video emphasized to me is just how relatively skinny and emotionally exhausted Mel looked in RoadWarrior.

Although the superficial side of that may be more down to the GI Joe effect: https://wgs160.wordpress.com/2014/10/13 ... of-gi-joe/

[Turbofurball]

Absolutely, and that tangentially gets touched on in the vids where it mentions action hero invulnerability ... which only appeared to apply to Hardy's Max out of the main characters.

Thinking about it, Nux conveys a body shape and nervous depth that's more atypical. At the start where he faces off with Slit he gets the upper hand despite being smaller and weaker.

[MWFV8]

Indeed, Nux does seem to be the character that's rooted in reality. He gets by far the biggest character arc in the story too. Plus he himself is effectively mad too, in a more deluded sense.

What I find interested, now you've brought this up, is that there seems to be these sub-characters that in many ways outshine the leads yet seem more rooted in reality.

The ones for me where;

Ace
Nux
The Organ Mechanic
People Eater
Dag
Keeper of Seeds
The Valkyrie
Rictus Erectus

There's that scene where the Keeper Of Seeds is really proud of her sniper shooting (a strong parallel) of Furiosa and Dag retorts "I thought some of you girls were above all that." and it's -really- poignant.

[AquaCola]

^Ace was great. You could mute the sound and see what was happening just from his expressions. He was so hurt when Furiosa wouldn't tell him what their mission was and it took him so long to even think that she was betraying the Immortan. When he finally grabs her there is so much frustration in his voice and actions.

[Turbofurball]

Ace showed complex emotions *while wearing goggles*. That's pretty fantastic

Touching on the vulnerable protagonist comments again, it occurs to me that the vulnerability in Miller's characters comes as a function of their story:

In MM2 Max is tough through and through (in attitude), gets injured (physically), and decides to do something heroic after.

In FR, Furiosa is tough through and through, gets injured (emotionally, through finding her home gone), and decides to do something heroic after, though she needed a nudge from Max. She also subsequently gets physically injured to a similar extent to Max in MM2.
___

In MM2 the Gyrocopter Captain is already very damaged (starving, mentally unstable), appears unable to be injured (staying buried, starving in the desert, being shot at, crashing the gyrocopter), and by his interactions with others learns how to be more human.

In FR Max is similarly damaged, appears unable to be injured, and by the end has come back to humanity thanks to the people around him.
___

In both MM2 and FR incidental characters of both sides are offed in pointless ways (I disagree with the review about Valkyrie, since she is only mildly more effective than Warrior Woman, her only kills have no effect on the battle), although in FR they're with a slightly less comedic overtone. I wonder if that's simply because Miller is now older, and perhaps more solemn about death having lost at least one close friend in the mean time. Or maybe it's because of the whole innocent cannon fodder theme that the War Boys have.