Spoilers, no real spoilers I was glad I didn’t know them as I basically gave every new character a lack of judgement and could enjoy what was actually done.
George Miller is a very deliberate film maker. Apparently every prop that works, works. Every stunt is a stunt. So he applied that to the characters to. And that care really showed. And yet, look at what insane explodey, heart racing , wall to wall action can come out of that extreme detail orientedness!
The fact that I came out of the movie happy was that I wasn’t waiting for the next cringe worthy gag, that it was just action action action, genuine humour, action action action, oh it’s you, action action action, surprise, action action action. Going to just explore the societies as a whole and not too deeply though it has made me really think.
I read a lot of post apocalyptic YA fiction as a kid as I did, I grew up in the shadow of the mushroom cloud absolutely sure that actually one of “our” allies was going to be the one to drop them first.
So there are several tribes/cultures presented. One is the decaying huge one the Warboys are part of (and now they get some interesting though only lightly touched on backstory. But effective. ) Good gravy some of those huge crowd shots… very telling. There are definite male and female roles, but these are very clearly shown as the end retult of a very desperate self involved leader who has gone totally doolally (and if you know who the actor is it kind of ties in really well and becomes really obvious.)
It’s literally a rotting hell hole with indoctrination and literally no room to expand or for people to escape without some extreme luck and years of planning.
This culture has claimed all the massive engines, the gas guzzlers, the vehicles to get shit done and knock down anyone in the way. They also totally waste petrol- conspicuous consumption?
Another culture we never really see, except through their vehicles, have a far more defensive strategy, which in turn leads to other technologies and roles for the Warboys. Their base vehicles are cars as well- heavily modified.
So we get our first culture we know gets raided for their petroleum resources, but not much else. There is a lot that could be written (or I may have to rewatch the old films because they felt familiar.
The next tribe/culture we meet are totally covered in long shredded gear, and ride bikes. So totally different way of living again. These bikes are off roaders so great for zipping in the canon like terrain they have made home/outpost. Their clothing hides their bodies without distortion and we just have no idea who is underneath it all. And that is *their* point. They are also far more protected than the war boys and so potentially have an advantage. Again, I want to see more of them! At some point in time.
And finally we come across a group of weather beaten bikies, old school, rumbling engines, road rather than sports and heavy. I first realised who they were by one of the characters in the background.
And I smiled. They were just doing what they were doing to survice, not take a stand.
I’ve trailed off. But yeah, I will be seeing it again.