This is entire in character for Kojima and I have no doubt that this is true and authentic. The man is passionate about movies and storytelling, and Miller is a very good storyteller.
Also the newer Mad Maxes do seem to follow an approach that seems very dear to Kojimas heart: Everythign is rule-of-cool but THEN you make up reasons as to why it be like that
Oh wow, I have a totally different view. I thought Fury Road was lovingly crafted at every moment. There's so much detail in every prop and costume. The plot is solidly grounded in pride, power, and economics. The logistics of Joe's army are considered and made a plot point when the Peopel Eater highlights just how much the pursuit has cost them in blood, bullets, and gasoline. I found the movie incredible in the history of cinema because George and his comrades manage to put a concrete, fleshed out world and a well considered, grounded plot in to a two hour long gonzo action chase scene.
I don't disagree with any of your points, hell, I agree with all of them!
My point, I'll exemplify by Kojima here, is you don't work yourself into a character like (also named) Big Boss, Die Hardman, The Sorrow or whatever. You start there and work yourself backwards to make it somewhat believeable, considered.
And I feel like the same thing applies to Fury Road. You start off with a sick ass character like Immortan Joe and then figure out how the world works around him as a central figure. I mean you could take any of the aforementioned, give them like 0 explanation and consideration and they'd still be good. Big Boss the supersoldier is cool on it's own. Die Hardman President of the Post-Apocalypse US is a fucking baller concept. Immortan Joe the monster truck driving manbeast? Needs no further work, to work.
But they did and that's what elevates them as pieces of media. Immortan Joe isn't just a sick ass villain with no explanation, he's a sick-ass believable villain.
because George and his comrades manage to put a concrete, fleshed out world and a well considered, grounded plot in to a two hour long gonzo action chase scene.
Cause that's when you get this, and I'd argue Kojimas works also do this. You take MGS or Fury Road and strip all the world building out of it, you're left with Hardcore Henry, which I'd argue is still a very good movie in the sense of it accomplishes exactly and near-perfectly what it sets out to do, but it's just a 2 hour action romp.
Cool, thank you for explaining your perspective! : )
Hardcore Henry
:heart
I think of it as a process of:
- image in head
- bring up image over and over until it has some clear details that always stick around take shape
- isolate details, start thinking about why image is what it is, focus on your personal reaction to those details
- work backwards until you can draw a solid line from the image to its "source" irl
So like, if I have an image of something like, say, a man in a dirty raincoat and it makes me sad to think about it, after this process I might eventually think "it's sad because I see this man as a lonely victim" or something and now I have a full vibe to work with. I can start looking at this sad weary guy in his dirty raincoat, about what his life is like, how he got here, and like you said, the cruel world that isn't helping him, etc
Powerful image, he rotates with the power of a victorious patriarch assured of the stability of his postion
I love Hideo's movie posting, the guy is obsessed.
I still haven't found a copy of the movie from the cultural-revolution period that he recommended.
I just found a BluRay copy on eBay, no hits on any of my other searches though. Your best bet might just be snagging a physical copy.
Three working torrents at rutracker.org (search "one second 2020").
I found a few Chinese torrents on BT4G searching "一秒钟", but I don't have a way to connect to Chinese peers.
I don't have an account, can you drop a magnet link or direct dl link here? Given the period it's from I doubt this even counts as illegal lol.
It's actually a film from 2020, about film during the cultural revolution.
The magnet links should work without signing up, so in decreasing order of quality:
https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6288206
https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6071969
https://rutracker.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6072852
Huh that's weird, sounds good. Thanks! These links work, the only thing that wasn't working is the search feature on that site required me to login.
I would go as far as to say Fury Road is in my top 10 movies. Off the top of my head, I'd have to think longer about which other movies I would put there
I could make a list. Not gonna bother. Unless we make a thread for it.
If I had to go off the top of my head
1.) Seven Samurai
2.) Star Wars
3.) Fury Road
4.) Stalker
5.) The Matrix
6.) Aliens
7.) Starship Troopers
8.) Ghost in the Shell
9.) Princess Mononoke
Starship Troopers on here is crazy to me, it's like the quality of a cult classic B-Movie and its meaning is so widely misunderstood because it doesn't communicate it clearly enough.
I would replace it with John Carpenter's The Thing.
The Thing is an excellent piece of cinema on all levels, concept and execution.
I include Starship Troopers because Verhoeven basically kicked America in the teeth with the truth, and at the time I was too young and foolish to see it. It was only later, after I had learned a great deal, that I could appreciate that under the camp and boobs and flashing white teeth was a serious critique of America's violence and arrogance. In some ways for me it was like one of those buddhist stories that ends with "And then he was enlightened". At one time I didn't understand, and then I did, and it helped me to understand many things about America.
I also include it because I loved the Starship Troopers book, and the movie helped me understand why the book was trash, why it's appealing depictions of military service to a fascist society were nonsense. Verhoeven's Starship Troopers directly challenges and casts down Heinlein's Starship Troopers, and for me that was something I needed.
The Thing absolutely makes my list, favourite horror of all time.
But my list also includes Scott Pilgrim, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Kung Pow and Blues Brothers, so maybe take my opinion with a grain of salt.
Oh, also Dredd and In Bruges, they’re perfect movies, change my mind.
I love when Kojima geeks out over stuff. It's so corny and authentic.
Kojima tweets so often I swear most of the posts on my timeline are just him lmao. Really cool that he liked it--makes me even more excited to watch it myself
Looks like I'm about to have a Hideo moment and watch Fury Road again. I'm so hype for Furiosa!
I am apparently the only person here who didn't like Fury Road. Two reasons: 1. The guy, Max. Pointless, waste of runtime, remove him. 2. Every time the bad guys fire off flamethrowers into the sky for rule of cool it breaks the immersion of the whole postapocalyptic shortages setting for me.
Dumb criticisms.
Mad Max is the narrator and story teller that we see everything through, not the main character. This is a common tactic in literature and film and complaining about it shows your entire ass as ignorant. This is the format of all of the mad max films.
Second, burning off excess during scarcity is the #1 way humans have demonstrated religion and sacredness throughout history. Does it "break your immersions" when ancient starving shepherds killed their best lamb and burned it at an altar? Joe's entire faction is a cult dedicated to cars, burning excess guzzoline is a sacred rite and a tactic to display their wealth and power to others. It makes it more realistic, not less. The war party and convoy chase is obviously a sacred rite and ritual to these people, not just a pragmatic attempt to catch their enemies. They are all in a heightened state of ecstasy, a jihad where they get high and kill themselves to get to Valhalla. They aren't being perfectly rational, they're wrapped up in an emotional and religious fervor.
I really can't get into the reddit-like mind of someone who likes or dislikes films, what are essentially dreamlike works of art, on such superficial "gotcha" "plotholes" and shallow BS. How do you interpret art in such a low-level shallow manner? Do you rag on surrealist paintings because the lighting source is wrong or clocks could never melt or whatever? Seems very pleb and lazy, like when rightoids get mad at paintings for not being photorealistic.
Like, there are legitimate criticisms of the film. I would say one is that the flashbacks of Max were distracting and had no pay-off and muddled the tone of the film. Another is the strong color grading is oversaturated and can make the film feel fake like 300 even though it's all practical effects, which is one reason I actually prefer the black-and-white version. The black-and-white version with all of Max's weird flashbacks cut out would be a near perfect film in my opinion though.
George has talked about how Max isn't really a specific person. The Mad Max stories are stories told around an evening fire about a great cultural hero. Max is a lone warrior who arrives during critical events, plays his role, and moves on. He's a stock character like Weyland Smith or Coyote or Koschei the Deathless. He has a distinct role as the a warrior who arrives, becomes embroiled in events that don't involve him, regains his lost humanity, aids the heroes, and moves on.
There's a shortage because some jackass keeps blowing it all on the stunt budget
But let me offer a counterpoint of flame thrower go fwoooooshhhh!!!
