“Mad Max: Fury Road”

and the rollercoaster feeling

So, I’m a sucker for cinematography and the way cinematography works. And I often have this weird, floating feeling after watching a movie at the cinema; that kind of thought forming in your head that tells you to basically quit your job and travel the world or open that cake shop you always dreamed about; in general the need to do something out of the ordinary. But where does this come from? How does a movie influence us in such a way that we shortly feel out of our own lifes afterwards?

I have actually recently learned — and I did feel a bit silly for not having realized this myself — about the main cause of this. And it’s basically just thanks to hormones.

Movies usually work a lot faster than our reality, faster than our bodies do; I mean the fact, that hours, days, weeks, months and even years of storytelling are compressed into more or less 90 minutes is actually already a bit overwhelming in itself. Therefore if something happens in a scene and we get an emotional reaction out of it — my prof took Jack dying in Titanic as example, but I guess, anything works — the scene ends quickly and the movie goes on to the next scene or ends itself, but the hormones, the emotional effects still affect us for a longer period of time afterwards. I guess, that’s where that “cinema feeling”, as I like to call it, originates from (or at least part of it).

I also gotta note here, I’m a sucker for rollercoasters as well. And in fact, they work just the same way. The ride is long over but the adrenaline fills you up to your ears, you feel excited and pumped, you probably want to do it again because you didn’t die, so it was pretty amazing, right?

Now combine these two and you get “Mad Max: Fury Road”.

I didn’t plan on watching Mad Max initially. In fact, reading about MRA’s calling it “feminist propaganda” was what got my attention at first and made me want to see what the fuzz was about (but this topic is an issue for another time). Anyways, I didn’t know what to expect when I impulse-bought my movie ticket the night before, without even having watched a single trailer or the previous films for that matter and all I knew about was that feminism discussion and that it’s some sort of action movie.

Oh, was I unprepared.

In the end, it surprisingly wasn’t the — granted debatable — feministic representation that stayed stuck in my head, but the way I felt when I left the theater. I made my way home with an almost uncontrollable urge to run down the street and fuck up shit, to be honest. I was really pumped. Instead I hopped around waiting for the bus and ate a whole bar of chocolate, so in the end I couldn’t sleep until the clock struck 4 am and I skipped next day’s classes. Though when I could think straight again I really wanted to know how exactly the movie worked to give me that rollercoaster feeling, so here goes a mini-analysis of what I remember.

One of the most obvious and — in my opinion — effective methods in the movie was the incredibly fast cutting and the time lapse sequences. On one hand they happen to convey a sense of Max’ “madness” (an element that is stressful enough in itself), making the viewer take in his position and thus, taking part in the story. On the other hand these techniques already simulate the effects of adrenaline (the general acceleration of body functions, such as heart beat) in the first scenes of the movie, so to basically “inject” this rush into the viewer, who is forced to keep up with the speed of the story right from the beginning.

Another way to pull the viewer into the world of the movie is the use of 3D-technology. I, personally, am not sure how far I’m affected by it anymore in general (as in “Do I really feel immersed all the time?”) but there are certain scenes which particularly “reach out”, so at least for a quick moment the people who are watching get another adrenaline rush. The minimal use of digital techniques for the stunts may have an additional effect to this feeling — it would be interesting to know to which extent we can or can not unconsciously differentiate between what’s real and what’s CGI. Either way, the position of the camera amidst all the chaos going down around it reinforces the sensation of hecticness and disorientation in viewers.

“Mad Max” has some shocking story elements, lots of twists and turns and keeps you at the edge of your seat, but it isn’t a horror movie. Still, I think, the use of loudness, especially of shrieking noises in some scenes, startles the viewers and in consequence invokes another dose of adrenaline. Over a longer period of time the loudness actually becomes kind of stressful, in my opinion. Either way, it’s uncomfortable and it has long-term effects, as it not only causing some sort of tension, but also — as something like a side effect — the relief when it’s over (which is a point that might apply to the two other aspects from before as well).

After all, the story aspect is not to underestimate. I, personally, feel the joy of the “happy” ending has lingered in me afterwards. The feeling, that it went well, sort of. Just like the one you get when you’re leaving the rollercoaster.

And just like that, I really had the urge to go on that wild ride again.

Thanks for reading!