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> I found it a pointless exercise in hedonism and a testosterone-fueled car chase filled with gore and nudity for their own sake. Ironic, since pre-Road Mad Ma

> I found it a pointless exercise in hedonism and a testosterone-fueled car chase filled with gore and nudity for their own sake. Ironic, since pre-Road Mad Max can only be described as a criticism of consumerism & car culture. After the apocalypse caused by oil wars, the world is littered with cars, they're the only technology anyone understands, so basically everything is hacked together w/ car parts. Everyone is still fighting over oil and acting like macho idiots whose identities' are closely linked with driving to point of being a cult. TBQH in this context making it about water and not oil doesn't make a lot of sense, but I understand why they would try to update it this way to make it more topical.

pmoriarty 10y ago
Calling Mad Max movies a critique of car culture is like calling Blaxploitation movies a critique of racism.
cc439 10y ago
>They're the only technology anyone understands I wouldn't describe personal vehicles in such base terms, it's more that cars, trucks, off-road vehicles, etc are the only form of manufactured goods that are both suitable to the world portrayed in the films and widespread enough to be accessible to everyone. All complex manufactured goods in such a world would be irreplacable, at least within the lifetime of anyone living in that time period. Radios and other electronics are also widespread and suitable enough to be considered a necessity but they'd be destroyed by the EMP effects of nuclear warfare (hence why every vehicle in Mad Max appears to be from the carburetor/pre-electronics era). Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistuingishable from magic and although the mechanicals of a car are well understood by laymen, their existence carries an air of magic/reverence as they cannot be replicated by the society which possesses them. IMO, the closest comparison is that of a Cargo Cult rather than an extreme extrapolation of existing car culture.

pmoriarty 10y ago

Calling Mad Max movies a critique of car culture is like calling Blaxploitation movies a critique of racism.

cc439 10y ago

>They're the only technology anyone understands I wouldn't describe personal vehicles in such base terms, it's more that cars, trucks, off-road vehicles, etc are the only form of manufactured goods that are both suitable to the world portrayed in the films and widespread enough to be accessible to everyone. All complex manufactured goods in such a world would be irreplacable, at least within the lifetime of anyone living in that time period. Radios and other electronics are also widespread and suitable enough to be considered a necessity but they'd be destroyed by the EMP effects of nuclear warfare (hence why every vehicle in Mad Max appears to be from the carburetor/pre-electronics era). Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistuingishable from magic and although the mechanicals of a car are well understood by laymen, their existence carries an air of magic/reverence as they cannot be replicated by the society which possesses them. IMO, the closest comparison is that of a Cargo Cult rather than an extreme extrapolation of existing car culture.