The Mad Max franchise has a legacy primarily for the immaculate action sequences complemented with gritty narratives of epic proportions. The movies in the franchise are not just limited to the immaculate action franchises but the inherent politics and survival in the post-apocalyptic sandy world make the audience seated at the edge of the seats. Still, the riveting drama does not require expressive dialogues or monologues in the films, especially, if we look at Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
Why Mad Max Films Have Lesser Dialogues?
Anya Taylor-Joy in Furiosa. Image Credit: Warner Brothers
Movie scenes or primarily dialogues usually hit the audiences’ stimuli and dialogues stick among fans for a long. The dialogues from Heath Ledger’s Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight have been embedded into popular culture and they are hard to forget. There are countless example of movie dialogues that sticks but for George Miller, dialogues in cinematic landscape are not necessarily a vehicle to drive the plot or the narrative forward.
Of course, Miller is a unique filmmaker with his signature traits but his obsession with the Mad Max saga is rather commendable as it does not inherently resonate with his other works including his animated feature Happy Feet or Lorenzo’s Oil. It appears that Miller lives completely a different persona when he is involved in any project from the Mad Max franchise.
That is quite understandable, Miller’s directorial legacy is inherently rooted in the franchise and it will serve the director with far more accolades in the years to come. Now, back to the question again, why do Mad Max films have lesser dialogue? Miller has a perfect answer for that.
“The problem with dialogue is that it tends to slow things down, and film is a medium that’s often best enjoyed at high speed,” Miller told The Telegraph. In its essence, Miller’s justification can not be undermined because, the movies of the franchise are dynamic, moving at a faster rate with little room for dialogues to convey emotions with it.
Mad Max Franchise— Long Movies, Lesser Dialogues
Tom Hardy in Mad Max: Fury Road. Image Credit: Warner Brothers
The Mad Max franchise, particularly the new movies including Mad Mad: Fury Road and Anya Taylor-Joy-starrer Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga have an interesting thing in common— both movies have far too little dialogue for the protagonists. But the movies have decent length considering the action-packed nature of it.
The latest movie of the saga, which is yet to hit the theater, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has only 30 lines of dialogue in the movie but the duration of the movie is not limited, it has a runtime of 2 hours and 28 minutes. In Mad Max: Fury Road Tom Hardy had just 63 lines of dialogue in the 2015 movie that has a runtime of 2 hours.
Miller has his reasons and it is hard to refute his point of view or directorial standpoint as lesser dialogues did not cause any harm to the classic post-apocalyptic Hardy and Charlize Theron movie. So, there should not be much concern for the audience to worry about the lesser dialogues potentially harming the narrative. Miller is a master of the saga, he knows what’s on his plate and one thing is certain he will not let his dream project derail in any way possible.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is slated for 23 May 2024 release.
