MAD MAX: FURY ROAD may have raised the bar where the Sci-Fi/Action genre is concerned. Coming thirty years after the last installment in the series, BEYOND THUNDERDOME, it was worth the wait. Almost universally praised (except by anti-femi-Nazis who believe the film is trying to brainwash the public with a pro-feminist viewpoint they and their knuckle-dragging ilk find threatening), it manages to fill what is essentially a two-hour chase scene with enough pathos and social consciousness for ten big budget blockbusters.
One factor that hasn’t gotten much notice from the mainstream is that of the War Boys’ dependence on blood to survive. Essentially living vampires, they call their prisoners “blood bags” and slowly drain them through ongoing transfusions. Max is especially prized for the fact that he is a “universal donor;” any of the War Boys can use him for a fill up. One of the most common illnesses born of radiation poisoning is leukemia, which would explain why the Boys need those occasional transfusions to survive. It’s smart storytelling, where everything fits. But combine their appearance—skins painted white, teeth spraypainted silver—with their reliance on blood, and it’s hard to miss the vampiric/parasitic overtones. What’d y’all think of the film?
