1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:07,000 This is a Bergen Film Club podcast. 2 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:59,000 Hello, welcome to The Real Thing. 3 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:06,020 Hi, I'm your host, Joe Lawrence, and this is episode one of season four of The Real 4 00:01:06,020 --> 00:01:07,020 Thing. 5 00:01:07,020 --> 00:01:10,920 How freaking exciting is that? 6 00:01:10,920 --> 00:01:19,240 It has been a good long hot minute since I recorded this podcast, but I'm back. 7 00:01:19,240 --> 00:01:26,720 Summer, summered, spring, sprang, and now it is very rainy in Bergen and it is time 8 00:01:26,720 --> 00:01:35,600 for autumn, which means, really, that is time for Bergen Film Club's fall semester. 9 00:01:35,600 --> 00:01:38,920 Let's go. 10 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:45,120 We have a brilliant collection of films this autumn and it's going to be great. 11 00:01:45,120 --> 00:01:50,720 We're going to talk about a lot of them on the podcast and as always some special episodes 12 00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:52,280 and I'm very excited. 13 00:01:52,280 --> 00:01:54,880 It seems very promising. 14 00:01:54,880 --> 00:01:57,760 Season four seems so adult. 15 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:02,160 I think I can confidently say that the podcast has grown up now. 16 00:02:02,160 --> 00:02:04,440 It's over a year old. 17 00:02:04,440 --> 00:02:07,640 I am a year older than I was when I started this now. 18 00:02:07,640 --> 00:02:09,640 Recently had my birthday. 19 00:02:09,640 --> 00:02:11,960 Happy birthday me. 20 00:02:11,960 --> 00:02:14,600 And yeah, but what is this podcast? 21 00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:21,260 So Bergen Film Club is an independent cinema in Bergen, Norway that aims to show films 22 00:02:21,260 --> 00:02:30,280 that deserve to be shown, that need a light shone upon them, whether that's directly seeking 23 00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:36,560 out films that need to be shown, like female directors, non-binary directors trying to 24 00:02:36,560 --> 00:02:43,760 give a voice to those who need it and just bring brilliant film, a great curated program 25 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:48,200 to the masses of Bergen and beyond. 26 00:02:48,200 --> 00:02:58,320 The podcast, the real thing, essentially functions as a extension of the program. 27 00:02:58,320 --> 00:03:01,840 So I'm going to talk about the films that are included in the program, which you can 28 00:03:01,840 --> 00:03:07,680 go check out on bergenfilmclub.no. 29 00:03:07,680 --> 00:03:11,840 And yeah, we're going to be doing that, but welcome to the podcast. 30 00:03:11,840 --> 00:03:17,200 If it's your first time listening, I hope that this is going to be a good introduction 31 00:03:17,200 --> 00:03:22,000 to the podcast and I hope that you enjoy it and that you go back and listen to some of 32 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,520 our older episodes because they're all great. 33 00:03:24,520 --> 00:03:31,520 There is a whole like 36 episodes to listen to or something. 34 00:03:31,520 --> 00:03:45,440 But right now we are starting off with a bang and a crash and a skrrr and some Australians. 35 00:03:45,440 --> 00:03:52,960 Bergen Film Club had its premiere opening last week for the autumn semester, for the 36 00:03:52,960 --> 00:03:58,120 autumn program with the movie Mad Max Fury Road, which is the film that we're going 37 00:03:58,120 --> 00:04:00,080 to be talking about today. 38 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:06,720 I had not seen this film because it just completely passed me by. 39 00:04:06,720 --> 00:04:08,360 I was what, 2015? 40 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:15,200 I was 17 and just this was before I was like into movies, I think. 41 00:04:15,200 --> 00:04:19,640 And Mad Max just, I was like, that's a boy film and I'm not interested because it has 42 00:04:19,640 --> 00:04:21,520 cars in it. 43 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:24,640 But how wrong I was at the time. 44 00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:30,640 It turns out I love cars in this movie, particularly. 45 00:04:30,640 --> 00:04:38,200 It was a very exciting film, great premiere for the film club and yeah, exciting things 46 00:04:38,200 --> 00:04:39,960 to come. 47 00:04:39,960 --> 00:04:47,840 Yeah, not much to say otherwise apart from that we should just get into the freaking 48 00:04:47,840 --> 00:04:49,400 episode. 49 00:04:49,400 --> 00:04:56,360 So we're starting off talking on the whole new season of The Real Thing, Mad Max Fury 50 00:04:56,360 --> 00:05:03,840 Road from 2015, directed by George Miller. 51 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:16,880 Mad Max Fury Road, or as it has been called, a western on wheels, is a 2015 Australian 52 00:05:16,880 --> 00:05:23,200 post-apocalyptic action film co-written, co-produced and directed by George Miller, who collaborated 53 00:05:23,200 --> 00:05:28,720 with Brendan McCarthy, who is a well-recognized and known comic writer, TV writer and concept 54 00:05:28,720 --> 00:05:35,080 production designer on shows and films such as SNL, Coneheads, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 55 00:05:35,080 --> 00:05:41,360 the film and the movie of the Borrowers, and Nicola Thuris, who is an Australian actor and 56 00:05:41,360 --> 00:05:47,440 writer, TV writer and features actually in the original Mad Max movie in 1979. 57 00:05:47,440 --> 00:05:52,920 This is indeed the fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise. 58 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:57,960 The film was nominated for 10 awards at the 88th Academy Awards, winning six and received 59 00:05:57,960 --> 00:06:02,560 numerous other accolades including Best Film from the National Board Review and was also 60 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:06,960 named one of the top 10 films of 2015 by the American Film Institute. 61 00:06:06,960 --> 00:06:11,000 Retrospectively, it has been called one of the greatest action films of all time and 62 00:06:11,000 --> 00:06:14,400 one of the best films of the 2010s. 63 00:06:14,400 --> 00:06:19,040 The film series follows the character, Max, who starts the series as a police officer 64 00:06:19,040 --> 00:06:24,080 in a near future Australia that sits on the edge of collapse due to war, critical resource 65 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,820 shortage and ecocide. 66 00:06:26,820 --> 00:06:30,800 As society devolves, gangsters brutally murder Max's family. 67 00:06:30,800 --> 00:06:35,560 He then becomes a vagabond, drifting through the wasteland alone, periodically encountering 68 00:06:35,560 --> 00:06:40,880 remnants of civilization who often rope him into their own machinations and problems. 69 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:46,480 His desire for apathy and a life alone is often challenged by his need to help others, 70 00:06:46,480 --> 00:06:51,920 with him often intervening just in time to save the day before leaving once again. 71 00:06:51,920 --> 00:06:57,320 After some time he becomes folklore alongside the character Imperator, Furiosa, who we'll 72 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:00,680 talk about later. 73 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:05,720 George Miller redefined the post-apocalyptic genre with his Mad Max series. 74 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:10,120 Yet, after making three sequentially larger films following a lukewarm reception of the 75 00:07:10,120 --> 00:07:16,160 trilogy's concluding film, Beyond the Thunderdome, in 1985, Miller put the brakes on his franchise 76 00:07:16,160 --> 00:07:21,080 for some years, stating quote, Whenever the idea of another came up, I thought there wasn't 77 00:07:21,080 --> 00:07:23,680 much more I could do with it, end quote. 78 00:07:23,680 --> 00:07:29,720 However, in 1988, when crossing the road in Los Angeles, the idea of a film centering 79 00:07:29,720 --> 00:07:33,920 around one constant chase could work came to mind. 80 00:07:33,920 --> 00:07:39,240 The yet to be made Fury Road spent years of production hell for several reasons, namely 81 00:07:39,240 --> 00:07:49,720 scheduling issues, insurance, money, the weather, 9-11, the Iraq War, and babe the pig, pig 82 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:52,360 in the city. 83 00:07:52,360 --> 00:07:57,320 Just before we get into the main part of the episode, I just want to say the main sources 84 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:09,120 that I used in this episode, of course, Wikipedia, the Mad Max Fury Road Wikipedia page. 85 00:08:09,120 --> 00:08:16,440 Heavily cited from this New York Times article by Kyle Buchanan called Mad Max Fury Road 86 00:08:16,440 --> 00:08:21,840 the oral history of a modern action classic in which he interviewed the whole cast and 87 00:08:21,840 --> 00:08:28,560 everything and got insights into the filmmaking process. 88 00:08:28,560 --> 00:08:33,840 There's also the book Blood, Sweat and Chrome, The Wild and True Story of Mad Max by Kyle 89 00:08:33,840 --> 00:08:38,240 Buchanan also. 90 00:08:38,240 --> 00:08:44,800 A Guardian article by Peter Bradshaw, which also heavily cited the New York Times article 91 00:08:44,800 --> 00:08:49,760 and many more, which you can read in the show notes. 92 00:08:49,760 --> 00:08:57,520 Okay, so let's get into the production or namely the pre-production of Mad Max Fury 93 00:08:57,520 --> 00:09:00,520 Road. 94 00:09:00,520 --> 00:09:06,440 Mad Max Fury Road was stuck in what is often referred to as production hell, a term mentioned 95 00:09:06,440 --> 00:09:11,520 pretty often on the podcast, especially with a lot of the bigger films that we talk about. 96 00:09:11,520 --> 00:09:15,240 We spoke about it on the Dune episode, for example. 97 00:09:15,240 --> 00:09:19,280 Following Beyond Thunderdome, Miller got the idea for a film containing a singular chase 98 00:09:19,280 --> 00:09:26,520 which focuses only violent characters fighting not over oil, but this time over human beings. 99 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:30,200 From the Collider article, Miller discussed the difficulty in writing a movie like this 100 00:09:30,200 --> 00:09:36,360 in a traditional way since he opted to outline in storyboards which were almost comic-like. 101 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:41,180 He said that the obvious way to have done this was with pictures as it was easier to 102 00:09:41,180 --> 00:09:45,120 get all of the ideas out and put it into words later. 103 00:09:45,120 --> 00:09:51,520 Working with five storyboard artists, they ended up with around 3500 panels, which is 104 00:09:51,520 --> 00:09:55,800 actually almost equivalent to the number of shots in the film. 105 00:09:55,800 --> 00:09:59,280 Latorreis and McCarthy, who I mentioned at the beginning of the episode, helped coalesce 106 00:09:59,280 --> 00:10:04,280 the storyboards into a script and these two also designed many of the characters and the 107 00:10:04,280 --> 00:10:07,240 vehicles included in the film. 108 00:10:07,240 --> 00:10:11,720 The previous three films had featured the then relatively unknown Mel Gibson as the 109 00:10:11,720 --> 00:10:13,520 eponymous Max. 110 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:20,200 The film, back around 2000 or 2001, was slated for pre-production with 20th Century Fox. 111 00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:26,520 In this time, Gibson was still very really interested in reprising his role in this new 112 00:10:26,520 --> 00:10:36,040 movie, and Gibson was around 45 at the time with filming set to begin in the Australian 113 00:10:36,040 --> 00:10:41,560 outback, the location of the previous three installments of Mad Max. 114 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:50,280 However, the film met its first major hurdle around this time also. 115 00:10:50,280 --> 00:10:55,760 The studios were already getting cold feet about George Miller following the lukewarm 116 00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:02,160 reception of his 1990s film Babe, Pig in the City. 117 00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:07,880 However, the first real issue to come was 9-11. 118 00:11:07,880 --> 00:11:12,120 Miller says this is when quote, everything changed in the hopeful new project. 119 00:11:12,120 --> 00:11:17,040 It was impossible to ensure or transport the vehicles to be included in the film. 120 00:11:17,040 --> 00:11:21,280 The fallout of the attacks, despite the obvious, led to the collapse of the American dollar 121 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:26,280 against the Australian dollar, which caused the budget of the film to quote balloon. 122 00:11:26,280 --> 00:11:30,640 In the New York Times article, production designer Colin Gibson said quote, I was in 123 00:11:30,640 --> 00:11:34,560 Namibia in 2003 when I got the call to stop spending money. 124 00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:38,880 I don't know whether the studio decided to reroute the money back to the Iraq war, or 125 00:11:38,880 --> 00:11:42,880 if it was the email I got from Mel Gibson's wife asking me how many Muslims there may 126 00:11:42,880 --> 00:11:48,240 or may not be in Namibia and therefore how interested she may or may not be in the whole 127 00:11:48,240 --> 00:11:49,920 family coming to visit. 128 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:50,920 End quote. 129 00:11:50,920 --> 00:11:55,480 Before they'd had the chance to reconvene and set plans in action, Miller and his team 130 00:11:55,480 --> 00:11:59,880 had already committed to the new Happy Feet movie. 131 00:11:59,880 --> 00:12:04,400 They spent the next four years working hard on the Happy Feet, a movie that's themes 132 00:12:04,400 --> 00:12:08,400 are not so widely different from that of Mad Max. 133 00:12:08,400 --> 00:12:12,640 But following the success of Happy Feet and convincing the studio to reinvest in Fury 134 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:18,600 Road, Miller returned to pre-production without Mel Gibson, however. 135 00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:25,240 It's not really worth touching on Mel Gibson's quote, turbulence, as George Miller very dotingly 136 00:12:25,240 --> 00:12:34,200 puts it, because we all know that he is racist, anti-Semitic and a bad guy. 137 00:12:34,200 --> 00:12:38,080 In Time Out magazine, Miller kind of skirted the issue when asked about it rather reasoning 138 00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:45,520 Gibson's absence from the movie to be due to his age, that this wasn't quote, the movie 139 00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:46,520 unforgiven. 140 00:12:46,520 --> 00:12:50,860 In the New York Times article, producer Doug Mitchell says quote, Miller pivoted to directing 141 00:12:50,860 --> 00:12:55,200 the animated film Happy Feet and when it proved to be a box office success for Warner Bros. 142 00:12:55,200 --> 00:12:59,280 He was able to, like I said, convince the studio to take on Fury Road. 143 00:12:59,280 --> 00:13:04,360 Still his longtime leading man Mel Gibson was now in the 80s 50s and considered a Hollywood 144 00:13:04,360 --> 00:13:05,760 pariah. 145 00:13:05,760 --> 00:13:10,080 Miller and Mitchell decided to search for a new Max, end quote. 146 00:13:10,080 --> 00:13:14,040 And thus begun their hunt for a new leading man. 147 00:13:14,040 --> 00:13:20,560 Many not so well known at the time actors, but well known now were considered such as 148 00:13:20,560 --> 00:13:26,720 the very unknown Armie Hammer, Jeremy Renner, Michael Fassbender, Joel Kinnaman, Heath Ledger, 149 00:13:26,720 --> 00:13:33,040 Eric Banner and Eminem, who said that he wouldn't be a part of the film unless they could film 150 00:13:33,040 --> 00:13:35,120 it in the US. 151 00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:39,120 So that didn't work out. 152 00:13:39,120 --> 00:13:43,600 So casting was so far along at this point, so now we're kind of getting it through the 153 00:13:43,600 --> 00:13:52,360 2000s on the timeline that Zoe Kravitz, who plays one of the five wives in Fury Road, 154 00:13:52,360 --> 00:13:58,640 said that she had done chemistry test readings with Jeremy Renner, which was around 2009. 155 00:13:58,640 --> 00:14:03,200 With the intention of someone to play Max in the same way that James Bond is replaced. 156 00:14:03,200 --> 00:14:12,320 This is how George Miller kind of went about reframing the character of Max. 157 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:17,120 This seemed to retroactively fit very well into the Mad Max lore, as Max is known as 158 00:14:17,120 --> 00:14:22,680 an everyman, a wanderer, folklore hero, predating quote local history. 159 00:14:22,680 --> 00:14:24,400 Miller was drawn to Tom Hardy. 160 00:14:24,400 --> 00:14:31,000 And I should say that this is a pre inception Tom Hardy, as Max claiming him to be quote 161 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:36,360 the most evident of all suggested, drawing a parallel between Hardy and Gibson upon their 162 00:14:36,360 --> 00:14:39,440 first meeting with the director. 163 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:44,400 So now equipped with a new leading man, it came to cast the leading female role, which 164 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:48,360 was a slightly less convoluted story than the recasting of Max. 165 00:14:48,360 --> 00:14:52,660 An original pitch in the role of Furiosa was Sigourney Weaver, who was indeed suggested 166 00:14:52,660 --> 00:14:56,580 by Gibson himself, Mel Gibson, around 2000. 167 00:14:56,580 --> 00:15:01,080 So following all that happened with Gibson and everything else that happened, like the 168 00:15:01,080 --> 00:15:04,640 Iraq war, this idea was dropped. 169 00:15:04,640 --> 00:15:08,920 But despite this, George Miller claims that he'd always been intent on casting Charlize 170 00:15:08,920 --> 00:15:10,560 Theron. 171 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:14,800 Around that time, names such as Uma Thurman weren't considered, but Miller was even considering 172 00:15:14,800 --> 00:15:18,080 her around the first period of pre-production. 173 00:15:18,080 --> 00:15:22,880 And at the time, Theron's agent had claimed that Charlize wasn't interested, to which 174 00:15:22,880 --> 00:15:27,640 she responded over a decade later in the New York Times article, quote, no one ever told 175 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:28,640 me. 176 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:36,440 When she was asked about the casting of the film, she said, quote, I grew up on the Mad 177 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:39,320 Max movies, they're very popular in South Africa. 178 00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,280 I remember being 12 and my dad letting me watch it with him. 179 00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:45,000 So I was like, oh yeah, I want to be in Mad Max movies. 180 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:46,200 Are you kidding me? 181 00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:48,240 End quote. 182 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:52,360 Furiosa is heralded as one of Theron's most definitive roles, which is a huge claim because 183 00:15:52,360 --> 00:15:54,360 she has so many. 184 00:15:54,360 --> 00:16:02,040 The original pitch for Furiosa's design was something more ethereal and something more 185 00:16:02,040 --> 00:16:06,880 something Theron claimed worried her at the time and that the character was coming off 186 00:16:06,880 --> 00:16:07,880 a little Barbarella-y. 187 00:16:07,880 --> 00:16:14,720 She had this like beautiful long hair and it was kind of like Aboriginal Australian kind 188 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:17,480 of like markings on her face. 189 00:16:17,480 --> 00:16:21,640 The original character had been designed by someone else, but along with Charlize, costume 190 00:16:21,640 --> 00:16:27,960 designer Jenny Beavan, I should say Jenny Beavan, OBE, who is a multiple award winner 191 00:16:27,960 --> 00:16:34,000 and nominee for her work on films such as Cruella in 2021, Fury Road, obviously, and 192 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:35,000 many more. 193 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:41,360 She and Charlize pitched changes to Miller and Charlize said, quote, I don't know how 194 00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:44,120 she's getting by in the mechanics room with all this hair. 195 00:16:44,120 --> 00:16:49,960 I think we need to shave my head and she needs to be more androgynous and more grounded character. 196 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:52,920 You know, he trusted me with so much that it kind of makes me emotional. 197 00:16:52,920 --> 00:16:55,320 In that sense, I feel like I let him down. 198 00:16:55,320 --> 00:16:56,320 End quote. 199 00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:01,040 But I think kind of updating and kind of like getting a more realistic idea of what Furious's 200 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:04,080 character looks like. 201 00:17:04,080 --> 00:17:05,080 That made a lot of sense. 202 00:17:05,080 --> 00:17:09,320 I don't think it would have made sense to have her look like one of the wives in the 203 00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:10,320 film. 204 00:17:10,320 --> 00:17:17,920 She needed to look distinct because she is a distinct character. 205 00:17:17,920 --> 00:17:26,160 So in 2009 slash 2010, production was relatively ready to go. 206 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:29,320 Miller had been a consideration to make the film an animated feature at some point, but 207 00:17:29,320 --> 00:17:33,640 Miller ultimately had decided to shoot a live action film since many of the previous sets 208 00:17:33,640 --> 00:17:39,280 and various vehicles were already available from the previous failed filming in the early 209 00:17:39,280 --> 00:17:40,280 2000s. 210 00:17:40,280 --> 00:17:44,200 Miller additionally announced his intention to make a second film straight after Fury 211 00:17:44,200 --> 00:17:47,880 Road, Mad Max Furiosa. 212 00:17:47,880 --> 00:17:53,760 Equipped with his mostly brand new cast and team, Miller was hopeful for Fury Road again. 213 00:17:53,760 --> 00:17:59,520 The sets were built, 200 vehicles ready, all stunts rehearsed, fake roads built, Australian 214 00:17:59,520 --> 00:18:03,160 shooting was set to begin. 215 00:18:03,160 --> 00:18:10,320 And then the rains came in an unprecedented matter. 216 00:18:10,320 --> 00:18:15,640 During the final stages of pre-production, the weather pattern in Australia, Queensland, 217 00:18:15,640 --> 00:18:21,580 shifted dramatically in a quote once in a century and quote type of changed. 218 00:18:21,580 --> 00:18:26,960 The barren desert slowly became a beautiful smattering of wildflowers, which is not exactly 219 00:18:26,960 --> 00:18:30,220 post-apocalyptic chic. 220 00:18:30,220 --> 00:18:33,940 Many of the cast worried that this would be the end of all of their endeavors along with 221 00:18:33,940 --> 00:18:38,360 some of the crew, but Miller was determined to continue. 222 00:18:38,360 --> 00:18:43,120 They waited a year to see if it would dry up and if the flowers would die back, but 223 00:18:43,120 --> 00:18:44,120 they didn't. 224 00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:47,760 But Fury Road was a movie that was always going to be made. 225 00:18:47,760 --> 00:18:49,680 It insisted on it. 226 00:18:49,680 --> 00:18:55,860 The whole operation then moved to Namibia, where it really never rains. 227 00:18:55,860 --> 00:19:00,400 This move changed the perspective of many of the cast now that they were really in it, 228 00:19:00,400 --> 00:19:05,480 far removed from society, practically living and breathing the post-apocalyptic world. 229 00:19:05,480 --> 00:19:13,040 In July 2012, over a year since the first rain drops in Australia, filming finally began. 230 00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:20,240 Some really interesting stuff to read about the filming experience of the actors. 231 00:19:20,240 --> 00:19:26,320 I really suggest that you go and have a look through the Mad Max Fury Road Oral History 232 00:19:26,320 --> 00:19:32,240 of a Modern Action Classic by Kyle Buchanan, that New York Times article. 233 00:19:32,240 --> 00:19:33,240 Also check out his book. 234 00:19:33,240 --> 00:19:36,280 It has some very dishy details. 235 00:19:36,280 --> 00:19:38,400 Well, dishy is the wrong word. 236 00:19:38,400 --> 00:19:45,280 It's like onset tensions basically, because everyone was just kind of stuck in Namibia 237 00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:48,160 whilst filming it. 238 00:19:48,160 --> 00:19:53,480 It was said by a lot of the actors that they couldn't even imagine that this film was ever 239 00:19:53,480 --> 00:19:58,960 going to be what it became to be, because it just felt so... 240 00:19:58,960 --> 00:20:05,340 I don't know if you could say that the film is grassroots because it has an enormous budget, 241 00:20:05,340 --> 00:20:09,360 but nonetheless, that's how they felt. 242 00:20:09,360 --> 00:20:15,900 The idea of it eventually becoming this huge conglomerate of awards and the whole industry 243 00:20:15,900 --> 00:20:21,060 that it became was hard to imagine when they were just all stuck together in Namibia, making 244 00:20:21,060 --> 00:20:26,680 this film isolated all alone. 245 00:20:26,680 --> 00:20:33,800 Coming to the post-production, the film was edited by Margaret Sixel, who won the Academy 246 00:20:33,800 --> 00:20:38,300 Award for the best film editing and a BAFTA for editing too. 247 00:20:38,300 --> 00:20:44,240 She is a frequent collaborator of George Miller, who is also her husband. 248 00:20:44,240 --> 00:20:49,700 Sixel had never worked on an action movie, yet this is exactly the reason, Miller claims, 249 00:20:49,700 --> 00:20:51,240 that she was chosen. 250 00:20:51,240 --> 00:20:55,740 That if the film was edited by a normal guy, quote, it would look like every other action 251 00:20:55,740 --> 00:20:57,720 movie, end quote. 252 00:20:57,720 --> 00:21:05,360 Sixel had around 480 hours of footage to edit, which alone took her three months to watch. 253 00:21:05,360 --> 00:21:11,720 And that was just to stress the belaboring point, that that's even before she edited 254 00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:12,720 the movie. 255 00:21:12,720 --> 00:21:18,960 She had to watch 480 hours of footage, which took months and months and months. 256 00:21:18,960 --> 00:21:23,640 Cinematographer John Seale, who Miller kind of pulled back out of retirement for this 257 00:21:23,640 --> 00:21:29,480 film, stated that 50 to about 60% of the film runs below the traditional frame rate of a 258 00:21:29,480 --> 00:21:32,960 film of 24 frames per second. 259 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:38,140 And that this is due to Miller slowing down scenes, so what was happening could be better 260 00:21:38,140 --> 00:21:39,840 understood. 261 00:21:39,840 --> 00:21:44,960 And that also this was done in the opposite, that if there were scenes that he felt like 262 00:21:44,960 --> 00:21:48,680 needed to kind of like be hurried along, he sped it up. 263 00:21:48,680 --> 00:21:52,620 And that that made the film kind of incredible in this way, because almost every shot has 264 00:21:52,620 --> 00:21:56,960 been kind of like manually manipulated. 265 00:21:56,960 --> 00:22:06,280 The sound designer Mark Mancini stated that he viewed the war rig that Furiosa and Max 266 00:22:06,280 --> 00:22:10,360 are driving across the wasteland together. 267 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:17,400 He viewed this as kind of an allegory for Moby Dick, where the Morton Joe, the baddie 268 00:22:17,400 --> 00:22:23,600 in the film, playing the role of Captain Ahab, and as such the mechanical truck sounds of 269 00:22:23,600 --> 00:22:28,320 the rig were layered with whale calls to provide a more animal-like quality. 270 00:22:28,320 --> 00:22:34,440 And when the tankers pierced with harpoons, milk sprays out and the sounds of whales breathing 271 00:22:34,440 --> 00:22:36,960 from their blowholes were incorporated into this. 272 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:41,500 And for the final design of the war rig, the only sounds used were slowed down bag rolls 273 00:22:41,500 --> 00:22:45,380 to symbolise the death of a truck as a living creature. 274 00:22:45,380 --> 00:22:53,640 So this film is so layered with so much thought and intent and in a way it feels like a comic 275 00:22:53,640 --> 00:22:57,140 book come to life the way that everything is set up. 276 00:22:57,140 --> 00:22:59,960 So awesome. 277 00:22:59,960 --> 00:23:04,920 I'm gonna just talk quickly about kind of what I thought about the film, because this 278 00:23:04,920 --> 00:23:08,400 is my podcast and I can do what I want. 279 00:23:08,400 --> 00:23:09,400 I really liked it. 280 00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:10,400 It was awesome. 281 00:23:10,400 --> 00:23:18,240 I... it was interesting talking to some people about hearing that initially at the time the 282 00:23:18,240 --> 00:23:24,920 people were surprised at like Max's role is like relatively small in the film, kind of 283 00:23:24,920 --> 00:23:30,080 like he's the character that we follow into the film obviously, but then Furiosa is the 284 00:23:30,080 --> 00:23:35,860 character that is kind of leading the... well, you know, she's driving. 285 00:23:35,860 --> 00:23:37,560 She's driving the film literally. 286 00:23:37,560 --> 00:23:43,680 But at least Darren is incredible. 287 00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:50,200 Sometimes I feel like with big action films, nuance doesn't always come very naturally 288 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:56,520 because maybe it doesn't feel like it's always needed. 289 00:23:56,520 --> 00:24:00,880 In a lot of action films that I've seen, I guess nuances, what I feel like is lacking. 290 00:24:00,880 --> 00:24:06,000 It's just kind of like, like blam, blam, blam, the end, which is fine. 291 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:07,720 That's nice sometimes. 292 00:24:07,720 --> 00:24:12,000 But it was great to see in this film that there's a lot of emotion and a lot of thought 293 00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:14,640 and a lot of care into the characters put in. 294 00:24:14,640 --> 00:24:17,440 And yeah, I really enjoyed it. 295 00:24:17,440 --> 00:24:20,800 It was so exciting. 296 00:24:20,800 --> 00:24:23,760 Like what an exciting movie. 297 00:24:23,760 --> 00:24:25,080 Seeing it in the cinema was so great. 298 00:24:25,080 --> 00:24:30,120 I'm so glad that the first time I got to see it was in a cinema because I was on the edge 299 00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:34,320 of my seat the whole movie for real. 300 00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:42,640 I've heard like, I've like generally known the movie, but not like deeply, just known 301 00:24:42,640 --> 00:24:51,400 like the What a Lovely Day thing by Nicholas Holt and The Witness Me. 302 00:24:51,400 --> 00:24:56,320 But The Witness Me had a much bigger role than I was expecting. 303 00:24:56,320 --> 00:24:58,000 And I kind of enjoyed it. 304 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:01,960 I thought that it was kind of dumb when it first started, but I thought like that kind 305 00:25:01,960 --> 00:25:06,560 of like dedication to one guy through like brainwashing. 306 00:25:06,560 --> 00:25:12,200 I liked seeing that kind of like unravel over time. 307 00:25:12,200 --> 00:25:19,320 And that the themes of a lot of George Miller's films, it's strange to kind of compare all 308 00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:26,940 of the Mad Max films to Babe and Happy Feet, for example. 309 00:25:26,940 --> 00:25:33,520 But the core of all of his films, I think you could say are these, like, no matter what 310 00:25:33,520 --> 00:25:42,720 the situation is, connection and family and kind of like love and care, despite the odds, 311 00:25:42,720 --> 00:25:49,680 is like what drives every person through a bad situation and kind of like realizing and 312 00:25:49,680 --> 00:25:57,200 understanding that interpersonal connection is the only thing that like makes us real 313 00:25:57,200 --> 00:26:05,920 and can get us through the day and win the day. 314 00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:09,120 And that happens in Happy Feet and that happens in Mad Max. 315 00:26:09,120 --> 00:26:16,320 It's nice that he has these kind of like recurring themes of hopefulness in extremely horrible 316 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:17,320 situations. 317 00:26:17,320 --> 00:26:25,240 And yeah, and like that he is bringing a lot of environmentalism and a lot of climate centered 318 00:26:25,240 --> 00:26:31,960 kind of rubric into his films so consistently, which is kind of just what I wanted to touch 319 00:26:31,960 --> 00:26:37,520 out at the end of the episode, because we're coming to the end now. 320 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:46,400 I like to try and touch on kind of like a topic that's included in the film that can 321 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:50,400 be expanded on a little bit and kind of tie stuff together. 322 00:26:50,400 --> 00:26:57,400 And I think there's something nice to talk about here is this notion, this genre of climate 323 00:26:57,400 --> 00:27:11,380 fiction, which is something that as many may not know, I have studied science, biology 324 00:27:11,380 --> 00:27:16,000 and conservation my entire academic career and it's something that I work on. 325 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:18,840 And I think about all the time. 326 00:27:18,840 --> 00:27:22,680 So seeing it in, seeing it fictionalized is very interesting. 327 00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:25,440 So I just wanted to talk a little bit about climate fiction. 328 00:27:25,440 --> 00:27:30,120 Yeah, there's often abbreviated as CLIFI. 329 00:27:30,120 --> 00:27:34,360 And it's this genre that's exploring impact of climate change and environmental crises 330 00:27:34,360 --> 00:27:37,640 through speculative and imaginative narratives. 331 00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:43,160 So it's basically taking this kind of like post-apocalyptic narrative and framing it 332 00:27:43,160 --> 00:27:48,000 through environmentalism and climate change. 333 00:27:48,000 --> 00:27:53,920 These stories set in dystopian futures, alternative realities depict profound effects of global 334 00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:58,600 warming, natural disasters and ecological collapse on humanity and the planet exactly 335 00:27:58,600 --> 00:28:00,040 like in Mad Max. 336 00:28:00,040 --> 00:28:06,440 By weaving together science, often real science, politics and personal experiences, CLIFI 337 00:28:06,440 --> 00:28:11,760 challenges the reader to confront the potential or the reader. 338 00:28:11,760 --> 00:28:18,520 I say reader because a lot of the research I was doing for it was a lot very book based, 339 00:28:18,520 --> 00:28:25,320 but anyone like the consumer to confront the potential consequences of mankind's current 340 00:28:25,320 --> 00:28:28,200 environmental trajectory. 341 00:28:28,200 --> 00:28:33,760 I say that it serves both as like a cautionary tale and as like a call to action, that's 342 00:28:33,760 --> 00:28:41,840 inspiring you to reflect on the urgent need for sustainable solutions to our rapidly changing 343 00:28:41,840 --> 00:28:42,840 world. 344 00:28:42,840 --> 00:28:47,760 It is a topic that I would love to get into more maybe in a future episode is something 345 00:28:47,760 --> 00:28:51,160 that I can touch on again or only focus on. 346 00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:58,400 But I think this idea of climate fiction is something that isn't necessarily so new because 347 00:28:58,400 --> 00:29:04,040 I think that a lot of the post-apocalyptic stuff has its kind of like basis in like what 348 00:29:04,040 --> 00:29:08,000 if climate change did get really bad like the day after tomorrow for example for a huge 349 00:29:08,000 --> 00:29:15,000 Hollywood film that basically is talking about climate change. 350 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:21,720 I think climate change often because we don't experience it real time, well we do experience 351 00:29:21,720 --> 00:29:26,480 it real time but not the huge, huge effects that will eventually happen if we don't make 352 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:27,480 any changes. 353 00:29:27,480 --> 00:29:31,160 It kind of affronts us with this image of what could happen. 354 00:29:31,160 --> 00:29:37,360 So say in Man Max this they live in a desert these horrible arid regions where water is 355 00:29:37,360 --> 00:29:43,480 such a scarcity and oil is a scarcity and then human life becomes this commodity that 356 00:29:43,480 --> 00:29:53,760 can be used and sold and bought it but that is a society that is a product of the society 357 00:29:53,760 --> 00:29:55,280 that we live in now. 358 00:29:55,280 --> 00:30:01,640 We live in a society bro that the way that we're living now could in fact create this 359 00:30:01,640 --> 00:30:02,920 kind of situation. 360 00:30:02,920 --> 00:30:08,040 So something that Man Max briefly touches on actually in its intro with a couple of 361 00:30:08,040 --> 00:30:14,240 the like news article things clipped over the intro is talking about these water wars 362 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:21,200 and that there were these water wars in the 20th century in America, in California and 363 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:25,440 these other places as well that like this scarcity of water and scarcity of materials 364 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:33,080 will, you know, society can't effectively exist without the stuff that it exists on 365 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:34,560 now. 366 00:30:34,560 --> 00:30:42,920 Margaret Atwood has a really great essay that she wrote called It's Not Climate Change, 367 00:30:42,920 --> 00:30:47,800 It's Everything Changed where she presents three different options for how the world 368 00:30:47,800 --> 00:30:54,240 will exist without oil that we have the choice to find alternative we run out or a third 369 00:30:54,240 --> 00:31:01,520 terrible option and they're all pretty bad but there are these like very notable works 370 00:31:01,520 --> 00:31:14,440 like Margaret Atwood's entire bookography, filmography, what's a bookography? 371 00:31:14,440 --> 00:31:20,120 There's something like that like her all her work and you know like J.G. Ballard wrote 372 00:31:20,120 --> 00:31:24,680 The Drowned World books like that, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, Orox and Crake, Margaret 373 00:31:24,680 --> 00:31:32,480 Atwood, Annihilation by Jeff Van Damier, The History of Bees by Maya Lund and of course 374 00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:37,220 Dune couldn't go without mentioning Dune by Frank Herbert who was a huge environmentalist 375 00:31:37,220 --> 00:31:46,760 and that the origin of the story of Dune is in Oregon I think that Frank Herbert was observing 376 00:31:46,760 --> 00:31:53,680 that to stop the shifting sand dunes in Portland they planted all this grass and he observed 377 00:31:53,680 --> 00:32:00,320 it from like a helicopter and wanted to publish about it but then that's how Dune came to 378 00:32:00,320 --> 00:32:07,120 be and that in fact on the first ever Earth Day Frank Herbert spoke to over 30,000 people 379 00:32:07,120 --> 00:32:11,840 in Philadelphia telling them quote I don't want to be in the position of telling my grandchildren 380 00:32:11,840 --> 00:32:17,400 quote I'm sorry there's no more Earth left for you we've used it all up end quote like 381 00:32:17,400 --> 00:32:25,320 saying that in the 1970s is like so you know like this notion of environmentalism of climate 382 00:32:25,320 --> 00:32:33,720 change has always been real always since back then and resource scarcity and not preserving 383 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:40,200 the world but creating a world that is able to exist for future generations but that's 384 00:32:40,200 --> 00:32:46,600 where I think climate fiction is like it shows us how awful it could be and that it like 385 00:32:46,600 --> 00:32:54,240 I said is presenting us with how we need to change but in works like Oryx and Crake by 386 00:32:54,240 --> 00:33:02,000 Margaret Atwood and like Mad Max it does show the kind of like the tenacity of the human 387 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:08,540 spirit that like through connection and through understanding each other is like really how 388 00:33:08,540 --> 00:33:14,080 we survive and there's so much to get into climate fiction and I've been I was thinking 389 00:33:14,080 --> 00:33:21,000 today especially about like there's some music even that like Wise Blood's most recent albums 390 00:33:21,000 --> 00:33:29,800 Titanic Rising and and In the Darkness Hearts Aglow she is a Natalie Merring is a huge 391 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:36,720 proponent of environmentalism and especially like marine life protection which is something 392 00:33:36,720 --> 00:33:44,000 that a lot of people can kind of attest to she's singing about these kind of like notions 393 00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:49,760 about like what is our world now and what is it to be human and basically destroy the 394 00:33:49,760 --> 00:33:55,760 home that we live in there's a very great poem by Margaret Atwood called The Moment 395 00:33:55,760 --> 00:34:02,680 which I won't read but I recommend that you do read but I will leave the whole thing I'll 396 00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:07,360 just kind of sum up what I just spoke about but it's very good quote by Margaret Atwood 397 00:34:07,360 --> 00:34:14,320 from The Handmaid's Tale nothing changes instantaneously in a gradually heating bathtub you'd be boiled 398 00:34:14,320 --> 00:34:21,840 to death before you knew it end quote. 399 00:34:21,840 --> 00:34:29,360 So forgive me my little environmental tangent at the end of that the reality is and it's 400 00:34:29,360 --> 00:34:34,240 that's I really have to stress that essay that Margaret Atwood wrote it's not climate 401 00:34:34,240 --> 00:34:44,120 change it's everything change because it really you know we are one missing commodity away 402 00:34:44,120 --> 00:34:52,880 from Mad Max and environmentalism and climate change and conservation is a scary depressing 403 00:34:52,880 --> 00:34:59,200 thing to think about and as someone who did a four-year bachelor in conservation and just 404 00:34:59,200 --> 00:35:06,560 got increasingly more depressed at the notion that there is no hope there is hope because 405 00:35:06,560 --> 00:35:11,600 we have research and we have science and we have each other and we have to believe in 406 00:35:11,600 --> 00:35:24,760 our community to make a change and we can do it and make Mad Max stay fiction that is 407 00:35:24,760 --> 00:35:29,760 I'm asking you episode one season four of the podcast please do not make Mad Max real 408 00:35:29,760 --> 00:35:37,280 I am very very car sick and I wouldn't like it. 409 00:35:37,280 --> 00:35:43,800 Well thank you very much for listening it's been so fun oh my god I love podcasting we 410 00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:51,560 have some great episodes coming and go follow the Instagram at the real thing pod go follow 411 00:35:51,560 --> 00:35:57,920 the Bergen Film Club Instagram as well at Bergen Film Club come to the film club if 412 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:03,280 you're in Bergen be a volunteer come say hi thank you so much for listening I've been 413 00:36:03,280 --> 00:36:08,400 Joe Lawrence this has been the real thing goodbye.