They’d win by shooting him and every War Boy to death. In a typical action film, the protagonists would meet Immortan Joe’s violence with more violence. Read this next: You Can Now Search for 2,000 Films Where Women Get the Most Lines Read this next: Mad Max Complicates Action Hero Masculinity-And That’s Great The best they can hope for is the ability to scrape out a little more time, a little more water, and a little more gas. In a culture built on violence, patriarchy, and fear, even the men lose in the end. Those who do, the War Boys, are racked by disease and battle wounds and have no life beyond battle and chrome. Only a handful of people ever get access to a standard of living that’s higher than eating sand for dinner. Significantly, it’s clear that Immortan Joe’s exploitative framework for society isn’t just bad for women and nature-it’s bad for everyone. “Both environmentalism and feminism are essential building blocks of the fine architecture of a just and healthy society.”
“Ecofeminism focuses mainly on likening the oppression of nature to the oppression of women,” writes Parker. As writer and organic farmer Alison Parker articulately summed up for Bitch in 2012, ecofeminist thought sees environmental destruction as a form of violent oppression. Instead, this connection is the center of ecofeminist philosophy. The link between the exploitation of women and the exploitation of Earth is a connection many people have made-but it’s typically not the driving force behind a blockbuster action film. Meanwhile, the young men in the Citadel know only violence-there is no space for kindness or compassion when the greatest honor in their lives is to die young in battle. His powerful savior-image comes from his control of water that he dishes out to the less fortunate in lavish waterfalls meant to display both his control of the land and its desperate people. In addition to using women as heifers, Immortan Joe hoards the natural resources of the earth.
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In a brief scene that’s now forever seared into my memory, we see a room full of women hooked up to machines that extract their breastmilk, like they’re cows. Immortan Joe’s desert Citadel literally farms women, using their bodies to produce and sustain an army of War Boys. Mad Max opens on a clear villain: A patriarch with a scary facemask who has built a small society on the foundations of gas, war, and fear. Instead, Fury Road says violence is not the answer-the strongest humans in the film are those who are empathetic, tender, and devoted to fostering the growth of both plants and people. I was surprised to find, then, that the film is actually not about the glory of blowing shit up.
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The film’s trailer made the movie look like one long bloodbath, with bizarre baddies on souped-up vehicles racing through the desert while our stoney-faced hero defended himself with a stockpile of guns, bombs, and whatever stabby thing was within reach. I went into Mad Max: Fury Road expecting to see a lot of explosions. To read a spoiler-free review, click right here.
This article includes plot details about Mad Max: Fury Road.