On almost every sunday morning

[ekaterinn]

This Sunday marks the end of an intense first year of my PhD program. I'm done with my last class of the year, and almost done with grading for the class I was assisting with. I've missed my friends badly, but I've met some incredible people here, and I've just returned from spending a couple of days in DC with my best friend in the program and

Comments

[beccadg]

I haven't managed to muster much interest in seeing Mad Max: Fury Road for myself, even though I know I should see it to support the work they put into making sure it was a feminist film, because I was so into the Mad Max films as a kid. I know it isn't like Michael Bay destroying my happy childhood memories of the Transformers, the film is done by the original director, but so much has changed since he last did the movies he couldn't film this movie in the same place. With climate change the part of the Outback he filmed the original movies in has greened over. He had to go to Africa for the sand. That said, I do know that he brought in Eve Ensler who wrote the The Vagina Monologues for help on being sure he got the women's story right.

[ekaterinn]

That's perfectly fair reaction, I think, especially since there seems to be a lot of people out there like me who have never seen original films and don't feel the same affection for them. If they're as beautifully crafted as this one was (even without the feminist aspects), I may have to seek them out. I didn't know this wasn't filmed in Australia though - I can see why you say that it doesn't feel the same!

[beccadg]

To be fair it's hard to watch the older movies now that Mel Gibson has repeatedly made clear how unpleasant a human being he is. It's not just the ways the new movie is different. It's also the ways the old ones have lost their appeal. I can tell you that while the fourth movie has the most changes--new leading man Tom Hardy, filmed in Namibia rather than Australia--there is a big change that happened between the second and third movie. Mad Max was originally created by the director George Miller, who has done all four of the movies, AND the producer Byron Kennedy who bankrolled the first two. Byron was killed in a helicopter crash before production started on the third movie. So, some long time fans will say only the first two movies are true Mad Max movies, but I liked Beyond Thunderdome, and I'll probably give Fury Road a try something. I just won't do it at movie theater price.

[ekaterinn]

Sorry for the late reply! Yeah, Mel Gibson has really become problematic. I didn't know about Byron Kennedy - that's interesting. And I can respect not wanting to see Fury Road at movie theater prices - I go to movies maybe every six months or so, and I swear they've gone up in price every. single. time.

[ekaterinn]

:) Always a good time!