12 - Hollywood Action Hero Martyrs in ‘Mad Max Fury Road’

Summary

Abstract

Laura Copier builds on Elizabeth Castelli, who characterises the discourse on martyrdom as highly ambivalent, yet persistent and powerful to this day and age, evaluating martyrdom as ‘an idea without a precise origin’ (Castelli, 2004, p. 35). Because it is both impossible and unproductive to pinpoint the exact historical moment in which martyrdom came into existence, Copier focuses, with Castelli, on the ongoing manifestations of martyrdom, in particular on the sustained investigation of contemporary, popular, and secular representations of martyrdom. The discourse of martyrdom is so powerful precisely because of its adaptability and, critically, the transformation of the object that it allows. It is not just the concept of martyrdom that is not fixed; it also causes related discourses to change. One of those discourses is Hollywood cinema, and its representations of gender and the body in female action heroes. Castelli's ‘culture making’ dimensions of martyrdom that ‘depend upon repetition and dynamics of recognition’ are played out, as Copier shows, in the female character of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) in the 2015 film Mad Max Fury Road. Through a close reading of the film's genre, narrative, and iconography, Copier argues that the female action hero Furiosa is able to transcend and destabilise the equation of martyrdom with death.

Keywords: Hollywood cinema, iconography, anti-hero and victim-hero narratives, trauma, redemption and empowerment

I live, I die. I live again!

− Nux in Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) was a surprise success both commercially and critically. The film was a sequel to a franchise whose most recent instalment, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was released in 1985. Director George Miller was second-guessed after his numerous attempts to get the production off the ground (from as early as 1997) came up short, before financing and casting finally fell into place in 2013. Miller skilfully reimagines and revives the post-apocalyptic universe of his first three films in the series, but opts for some more substantial changes with respect to the characters that inhabit Fury Road. Even though Max (played by Tom Hardy) is ostensibly still the main character, his role is significantly smaller than in the previous three films (when the Max character was played by Mel Gibson). Instead, the new character named Imperator Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) becomes the main focal point of the film.