Furiosa Stoops To Conquer; The Female Hero In A Dystopian World
How many times that we have seen that, a muscular knight is always in rescue for the heroine who was living her life in all sorts of distress! This preconception has been represented repeatedly in every other movie which made me question, why women should be always subordinate to men? However, Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the forefront movies which introduced the concept of a female hero who broke shackles of age-old preconception and made an impact in the society amidst the harsh adversity.
Released in 2015 and directed by George Miller, Mad Max: Fury Road resembles the trails of a dystopian world. This dystopian world Citadel which is ruled by Immortan Joe, portrays an illusion of a perfect society that is maintained through bureaucratic, technological, moral, and totalitarian control. In this dystopian wasteland, the male protagonist Max played by Tom Hardy only aided and never stole the spotlight from the female hero Furiosa played by Charlize Theron, which is a breakaway from the traditional views of heroism. Furiosa questioned the flawed government system and rebelled against the tyrannical ruler to bring order in the chaotic world which is devoid of humanity. Her motif of surviving and creating order makes her the dystopian hero where, Max primarily initiates the rebellion flame within Furiosa.
The role of a female hero in a dystopian world has been enunciated by Charlize Theron is one of her interviews, “I knew instantly from understanding the project that George had an innate understanding of what women represent to society and he wanted that to reflect in a post-apocalyptic world in the most truthful way possible. People keep saying ‘strong women’ but we are just women. We had a filmmaker that understood the truth of women is powerful enough.”
Now comes the question, how Furiosa is the savior in this post-apocalyptic world? Immortan Joe’s most prized possessions are the five women referred to as “The Wives”; thus implying the fact that, females were only treated as objects. Being the most productive one in the dystopian world, the wives are also called “breeders” as they are held prisoner by Joe and sexually used and abused for his pleasure. Consequently, when Furiosa with “The Wives” leave the prison of Immortan Joe for their better future; the only writing remains on the wall and that is “we are not things”. Through this portrayal, we can see how patriarchal society tries to dominate over the female class. However, the portrayal of Furiosa is different than others as a destruction of pleasure has been used by the director as she is physically handicapped. As she can’t conceive anymore, she is sent to operate the war rigs which shows how much she is worthless in the totalitarian government. This molds her survival instinct and leads to finding her individuality. These reasons were the motivational force for Furiosa to outcast the tyrannical ruler which made her the real female hero.
One of the colleagues of George Miller gave an interview on the TIME magazine, which stated “I think George Miller is a feminist, and he made a feminist action film.” We can see this representation in the climax of the movie when Max leaves the Citadel and Furiosa ascends to the top of the tower to claim her throne as a knight in the form of a female hero.
