Hype
is a pernicious and all-too-prevalent phenomenon in today’s film industry – but even
with that caveat it is quite difficult to overstate the quality of Mad Max:
Fury Road.
While
not a classic in the truest sense (for this, the exemplars would be Psycho or the
Godfather, or even Shawshank Redemption), and while arguably not superior to
the second instalment of the original trilogy (Mad Max: Road Warrior), it
certainly is a piece of original genius and achievement that could place in the
lowest ranks of a credible (say, the American Film Institute’s) “Top 100 of All Time”
list. By no means is it mediocre.
I
believe that the brilliance of the film speaks for itself, so there is little
point in further adding to the praise it has garnered. (That’s not to say that
I agree with everything in the film, or that it is without imperfection, but such
flaws as it has are really few and far between.)
Instead
I thought to draw out one aspect of the film which struck me – how to build a
functioning society from nothing, and what that entails: treating people as
meat resources, requiring a strongman to hold all in check, holding that leader
in deep respect, veneration even. (Further similarities exist between this and
the Sumerians, as described elsewhere in this blog, but this is not the place
for elaboration.)
I
looked upon Immortan Joe and I beheld our very own Old Man, Mr Lee Kuan Yew.
I
looked at the one / And beheld the other.
Citadel
from radioactive desert wasteland / Gleaming and prosperous metropolis from mudflats,
swamp, fishing village in hostile South East Asian jungle
Functioning
and ordered society from apocalyptic war and conflict over scarce resources / Functioning
and ordered country from racial riots, political turmoil, insecurity and chaos,
economic uncertainty, Indonesian Confrontation
Green
place with fresh agriculture / Garden
city with booming economy and high standards of living
People
as meat resources – living blood banks, milk banks, ova banks / People
as economic units, economically productive, financially self-sustaining
citizens, or conscript soldiery
Scarce
resources (water) used as means of societal control / Scarce
resources (money, land) used as means of societal control
Religious
cult built around the leader / Veneration
of the founding PM and his “values”
One-man
rule / Benevolent
dictatorship
Breeding
schemes / Eugenics
and graduate mothers schemes
Men
coated in white as ruling class / Men
dressed in white as ruling political party
A
scene popped into my head:
Mr
Lee Kuan Yew was on a platform on a cliff face emblazoned with the CPF symbol
in place of the Immortan’s steering wheel-and-skull insignia, and he pushed
titanic policy levers forward to release a spasm of CPF monies to the grasping
masses far below.
“Do
not become addicted to welfare,” he intoned, “It will take hold of you, and you
will resent its absence."
Is
there a moral lesson to this? There is obviously a moralising grain to the film
but I’m not sure if this can be transplanted wholesale, unmodified, to a proper
evaluation of the life and work and legacy of the late Mr Lee. What is right in
film can be wrong in reality. Film is simple, real life – and real politics – is
complicated, and all that. We certainly cannot justifiably measure both
Immortan Joe and Mr Lee with the exact same rod. And even if we did, we would
possibly find them separated (perhaps just barely) by the benchmark of strict
necessity.
And
yet, and yet, the similarities remain stark – and disquieting.
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