Mad Max Fury Road (2015) Review - Exploitation

Figure 1. Movie poster

Mad Max: Fury Road is a science fiction, fantasy film that was created in 2015 and directed by Australian director George Miller. In the film Max (Tom Hardy), a man who keeps having flash backs of his dead daughter, is held captive by a civilization who harvests his blood in order to feed their warriors. After a couple of attempts to break free Max is tied to a battle vehicle and is continued to be used as a blood bag while one of the civilians known as Nux (Nicholas Hoult) drives into battle, trying to stop Furiosa (Charlize Theron) from fleeing with the city's 'breeders'.

One of the main types of exploitation shown in the film is Ozploitation. Ozploitation is the exploitation of Australian film and film making. "The main requirement for an Ozploitation film is that it simply be an Australian genre film." (Grindhousedatabase.com, 2018)

In the film sexploitation is also used in multiple ways. Sexploitation is "the commercial exploitation of sex in films and other media" (www.dictionary.com, 2012) and it can be used to exploit both male and female characters. In the film sexploitation is used to exploit a group of female characters known collectively as the 'breeders' who are only used by Immortan Joe (the superior male) to mate with and create new warriors. The group of women are also some of the only suitable females in the area and are shown to wear very little clothing shown them as sex symbols.

Although the film does exploit women, there is also feminism shown in the film. Once Furiosa begins to work with Max to get the 'breeders' away from the area the breeders are shown to stand up for themselves and try and protect themselves, unlike how women are usually perceived in films. In the film Furiosa is also shown as an intelligent female character. Although it is not shown in the film, Furiosa is able to outsmart Immortan Joe and his henchmen by freeing the ‘breeders’. 

Figure 2. Immortan Joe's death

Violence and gore is also exploited in the film. Throughout, violence is shown through the use of chase scenes while gore is shown when the film begins and Max is used as a blood bag. Gore us also shown when Immortan Joe's breathing apparatus is ripped from his face.

Illustrations:

Figure 1. (2015) Movie poster. 

http://www.impawards.com/intl/australia/2015/mad_max_fury_road_ver10.html

Figure 2. (2015) Immortan Joe's death. http://cinemorgue.wikia.com/wiki/Hugh_Keays-Byrne

Bibliography:

Grindhousedatabase.com. (2018). Ozploitation: Exploitation From Down Under - The Grindhouse Cinema Database. [online] Available at: https://www.grindhousedatabase.com/index.php/Ozploitation:_Exploitation_From_Down_Under [Accessed 20 Nov. 2018].

www.dictionary.com. (2012). the definition of sexploitation. [online] Available at: https://www.dictionary.com/browse/sexploitation [Accessed 20 Nov. 2018].