Ride Eternal
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|---|---|
| Title: | Ride Eternal |
| Creator: | Tarra Martin |
| Date(s): | June 1, 2015 |
| Medium: | online |
| Fandom: | Mad Max: Fury Road |
| Topic: | |
| External Links: | Ride Eternal A War Rig Of One's Own |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Ride Eternal is an essay by Tarra Martin about Mad Max: Fury Road with a focus on the 2015's film's feminist themes and methods of story-telling. Originally a Tumblr post titled "A War Rig Of One's Own: A Very Long Post On Fury Road’s Feminism," Martin expanded it in 2016 for issue 13 of Bright Wall/Dark Room, an online film magazine.
Selections
George Miller told the actresses playing the ex-Wives that they and Furiosa were the heart of the film, and they are. They’re the ones who care, they're the ones who speak, they’re the ones who start shit and get it done. We talk a lot about the Bechdel Test, because even though movies can get cheap-ass technical passes if two women talk about ice cream for 30 seconds at some point, it's still a useful way to throw a harsh light on the many films that can’t even manage to get that far. Fury Road aces the Bechdel Test over and over again, but it goes even further: it also passes the Mako Mori Test of narrative autonomy, also over and over again.
All of these women get these unique narratives that show their character, their strength, and their development over the course of the movie. And, importantly, their stories are not about their relation to men, to Max or to Immortan Joe. (Capable’s narrative is entwined with Nux’s, but his character growth depends on her, not the other way around.) Neither are their stories forgotten in all the bright crashes and dust and Doof Warrior doofs – they all get final moments of their arcs, woven into the action. For me, that's feminist. That's encouraging, and that’s powerful. To give side characters cohesive story beats specific to them, that still serve the overall tone and sweep of the narrative – that’s what all, storytellers want to achieve. This is the gold standard, and it’s achieved by a primarily female cast in a movie that is about three quarters car chases. It's a goddamn watershed for action flicks.
Fury Road is ultimately an allegory, a simple one about resources and humanity. But as with many of our oldest myths, it has launched complex discussions about our world today. It sets a new example for a way we can make movies, both in terms of its practical effects and the respect it gives to female narratives, showing that women can carry the plot of an action movie as surely as a truck can carry enough speakers to be heard from miles across the desert.