Tag: Mmfr

slitthelizardking:

flamethrowing-hurdy-gurdy:

Ok this is borrowed from the ‘Dad Max, Fury Mom’ gifset (which is hilarious, yeah) but I’m on a bit of a Max Communication Skills binge, so just look at him. Look how much talking he does with his body even when he’s already ‘using his words’ adequately enough to be understood without any extra gestures.

He does it all the time in this film, and the way I interpret it is as a complement to his speech. Additional information about meaning, attitude, and expectations conveyed by the way he moves.  Why he does that, I don’t know, could be a multitude of reasons, but again my feeling is that it’s just part of his most sincere attempt not only to be understood, but to ground himself in the current situation. If his mind is constantly flashing back and twitching with anxiety, then adding significant gestures to words may keep him focused on what’s real.

Furiosa is very subdued in comparison, when she’s not running around or shooting people (or really pissed off) she does the more ‘classic’ hero stance of being very still as she says Important Things. But her eyes do the rest of the work.

*bursts through a wall* heard you were talkin ‘bout communication skills

*is getting a doctorate in communication*

So what’s actually SUPER AWESOME about the way Max moves and communicates nonverbally is that somewhere between 40% and 60% of nonverbal behavior communicates information that is NOT redundant with verbal expression–it’s totally unique. This is why communicating via phone or text can be limiting for some people, because you’re not getting the full extent of what someone’s saying if you can’t observe their nonverbals. It’s also why face to face communication can be overwhelming for some people who have sensory processing or other challenges, because while you’re trying to understand the verbal (words) portion of what someone is saying, you’re also trying to comprehend what they’re saying with their body language, physical space, tone, pacing, and sometimes touch.

So I would postulate that Max, having been alone for so long, has lost his ability to effectively verbally communicate with others. At this point in the film, he’s relearning how to communicate (and, as has been discussed elsewhere, regaining his humanity). But he’s still rusty with the verbal stuff–words and grammar and syntax are hard. So when words fail, he’s relying on his body to do the talking because those nonverbal signals are going to be more immediately communicable and understood than any words he can try to put together.

kimbureh:

madmaxplanet:

I spent the entirety of yesterday watching all the Mad Max movies back to back to back to back and I’ve got something to say. I noticed something that I might have picked up on before, but never really processed. At the end of the first three movies, Max ends up alone. At the end of TRW and BT, he’s remembered as a legend of the wasteland.

At the end of Fury Road, he’s not alone. He’s in the crowd. This, I’ve noticed before. But what I didn’t quite process is what it means to have Furiosa see him in the crowd. Max isn’t just some legend to her. He’s real. He’s human. Sure, he disappears into a crowd full of people which can be interpreted as “he can be anyone”. But to Furiosa, he’s not just some myth or legend. Him being surrounded by other people in the end is visually indicating that Furiosa sees him as a person and forever will. Which is also why Fury Road doesn’t end with narration describing the events as a story, unlike the previous two movies. Max isn’t a story to her. He’s fucking real.

Excellent observations!

Fury Road is the first movie in which Max sees and is seen by other people on all sorts of thematic levels.

The imagery in the movie made that quite clear by emphasizing the eyes in color/lighting in the post-production.

Also, in this specific shot where Max disappears into the crowd, despite the distance, his face and eyes are crisp and clear, very much in contrast to the blurry crowd around him. Same with Furiosa’s face/eyes. They both caught a glimpse of the other and gave away glimpse of their very own core of self.

Those eyes are rotoscoped to pierce right through us, looking directly in  the camera, at us, the audience. We can feel the connection established between the characters over the course of the movie.

Compare that to the first glance Max and Furiosa exchange in the movie!

Both their faces are obscured in shadows, and neither of them is looking directly at the camera, at us, but ever so slightly off (especially Furiosa).