It was suggested to me by a number of people, and I read all across the internet, that I didn’t need to see any of the first three Mad Max films before I saw Mad Max: Fury Road. So, considering I was just one week out from taking my fourth and final CPA exam, I decided to test that hypothesis and went to see George Miller‘s latest Mad Max adventure without embarking upon his previous three.
I intend to visit those films at some point here in the near future, as they have come highly recommended from movie fanatics, family friends, and most especially the Aussie guys on the same floor of my hostel here in Vancouver. They “friggin’ love” all the Mad Max films, Fury Road included. “They’re wicked nuts, mate!” they tell me. Noted, fellas.
Until then, however, the video below will have to suffice. It comes by way of Vimeo user Rishi Kaneria, and contains footage of a whole host of bonkers point-of-view shots in those first three dystopian action films, exploring how Miller uses the unique visual perspectives of his characters to throw viewers directly into the action they see on-screen.
“By doing this [Miller] literally puts you into the action using nonverbal visual, almost operatic, storytelling — something Hitchcock would call ‘pure cinema,'” writes Kaneria in the video’s description. It’s a video essay in the style of Miller himself, neglecting dialogue or narration and instead using nothing but clips from Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Check it out below.
[vimeo id=”128820740″ width=”640″]
