Catarina Abelha - Mad-Max-Girls-on-the-Fury-Road.docx

Mad Max: Girls on the Fury Road por Catarina Abelha Em 1979 o mundo foi apresentado a Max Rockatansky e ao seu universo distópico e pós-apocalíptico. A trilogia de Mad Max seguiu as aventuras de um ex-polícia, que gradualmente se transformou na imagem perfeita do herói solitário. No entanto, em 2015, o 4º filme de Mad Max estreou, mas algo estava diferente: Max já não é a personagem principal. Qualquer um iria imaginar ao ver um filme onde o nome de uma personagem se encontra em grande destaque, que a sua história seria a principal; mas, George Miller decidiu seguir uma via diferente. O cenário é o clássico deserto, depois de toda a sociedade ter sucumbido, onde Max é capturado por um grupo conhecido como War Boys, meros fantoches do ditador Immortan Joe, e classificado como ‘blood bag’. Entretanto, o espectador conhece Furiosa, uma tenente de Immortan Joe e beneficiária da sua total confiança, pronta a sair de Citadel à procura de gasolina, um dos recursos escassos desta realidade. Só depois de Furiosa ter partido é que Joe percebe que foi traído por esta, que decidiu mudar o seu destino sem aviso, e ajudou as Cinco Mulheres de Joe a escapar. Sem perder tempo, Joe alia-se a duas cidades vizinhas numa cruzada contra Furiosa. Até este momento, Max é mais um espectador do que participante, já que a sua personagem foi posta de lado e não tem lugar na história principal. Depois da morte de Splendid Angharad, a mulher mais preciosa de Joe, e do seu filho, o ditador jura vingança e preparasse para acabar com Furiosa. Max acaba por se juntar a ela, e, mesmo querendo fugir, ele decide ajudar a Imperadora a levar as Cinco Mulheres para o Green Place – um lugar etéreo de localização desconhecida onde todas as mulheres são bem tratadas e independentes. Depois de encontrarem os restantes membros do clã, Furiosa, Max e as Mulheres descobrem que o Green Place foi destruído, e encontram-se sem destino. Sabem que têm de começar de novo, mas onde? Em vez de se ir embora, Max fica para ajudar o grupo a invadir e assumir o controlo de Citadel, onde Immortan Joe guarda uma enorme variedade de alimentos e água que ele recusa a partilhar de igual forma com a sociedade sob o seu controlo. O filme todo gira em volta do objectivo de Furiosa e das Mulheres: libertarem-se da ditadura de Joe e aprisionamento. O espectador não tem ideia de quando é que decidiram juntar-se para fugir e lutar, mas é apenas lógico que mulheres maltratadas se iriam unir para combater um mal comum. Existe uma enorme quantidade de mensagem feministas e pró-igualdade aparecem nos primeiros 15 minutos do filme: ‘Who killed the world?’, ‘Our babies will not be warlords’ e ‘We are not things’ são exemplos de mensagens deixadas para trás pelas cinco raparigas que Joe mantém como suas mulheres. As mulheres são as únicas personagens do filme sem modificações corporais, sem permissão para trabalhar ou sair da torre. A sua beleza extrema prova como Joe escolheu as mulheres mais bonitas para o satisfazer. No entanto, é estranho que as mantenha num lugar iluminado e na companhia de Miss Giddy, uma professora de história. Porque razão iria um ditador, conduzido pelo poder, dar a cinco mulheres, que mantém cativas, a oportunidade de estudar e aprender? O quarto está decorado com um quadro preto e pilhas de livros em todos os espaços livres, o que só reforça a possibilidade de aprender fez com que as mulheres percebessem o seu lugar num mundo que não lhes pertence. Eve Ensler, autora de Vagina Monologues, trabalhou como consultora na realização do filme. Quando entrevista pela Time Magazine, ela partilhou a sua experiência com as actrizes e as perguntas que lhe foram feitas: They asked me questions about their characters. What would it mean to have been a sex slave held for a long time in captivity? What would it feel like to carry a baby of someone who had raped you? What would it mean to feel attached to your perpetrator despite the abuse because it had go on for so long? How after you are raped, your body becomes a place that you dissociate from, a landscape of terror. “Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.” Ellana Dockterman. TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates. WordPress. May 7, 2015. Viewed February 20, 2017. http://time.com/3850323/mad-max-fury-road-eve-ensler-feminist/ Não há momento nenhum no filme em que estas mulheres, juntamento com Furiosa, são vistas como vítimas, mas sim como conquistadoras. Apesar de não terem uma identidade aquando a alçada de Joe, no fim do filme estas raparigas recuperam os seus corpos e assumem controlo das suas vidas. Isto também é realçado pelas suas roupas: apesar de reduzidas, nunca mostram mais do que já mostravam no início do filme. A única diferença do início para o fim, é que elas deixaram os seus cintos de castidade no deserto. E assim, uma acção que apenas teve alguns segundos no grande ecrã, demonstra que elas estão de novo em controlo – das suas escolhas e do seu corpo. Even something subtle like their clothes in the film: they're stripped down and vulnerable and objectified in the beginning. By the end, they have their clothes on. They've taken their bodies back and themselves back in some essential way. “Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.” Ellana Dockterman. Contudo, este filme não é só diferente do resto pelas suas claras mensagens feministas, mas também porque se afasta da história de amor óbvia que implora para acontecer, entre Max e Furiosa. Não há lugar para romance num enredo tão perturbador; até Max, que foi despromovido a personagem secundária, deixa para trás a sua faceta de anti-herói, e junta-se ao grupo na procura de felicidade e igualdade, sem levantar questões. Talvez como forma de se perdoar a si mesmo por não ter tido a capacidade de salvar uma criança do seu passado, ele desenha um plano para conquistar Citadel. E embora o final feliz pudesse dar-lhes o espaço necessário para expressarem a atração que possivelmente sentem um pelo outro, Max desaparece discretamente por entre a multidão, partilhando a apenas um aceno com a sua parceira de estrada, Furiosa. Podíamos dizer, que Fury Road permitiu a Max perdoar-se, e foi o filme onde a igualdade de géneros esteve mais evidenciada no ecrã. O lobo solitário põe de lado o seu objectivo pessoal – escapar de uma guerra que nada tem haver com ele –, para ajudar um grupo de mulheres que ele acabou de conhecer a recuperar as suas vidas. A sua personagem começa como um peão, mas acaba por ter um estatuto importante para encerrar a história. Por isso, de alguma forma, a personagem de Max acaba por manter uma posição elevada, apesar de ter perdido o seu conhecido protagonismo. A importância das mensagens feministas, enredos em prol da igualdade de géneros, é algo que tem sido debatido por muito tempo. Em meados de 1970, Marjorie Rosen sublinhou a falha de Hollywood nos anos 20 por falhar em representar mulheres “in jobs requiring skill, aggressiveness and education.” Joanne Hollows, Feminism, femininity and popular culture. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) 42. A arte do cinema tem ajudado a perpetuar a noção que homens e mulheres estão a ser correctamente retratados de acordo com os ideias da sociedade de hoje em dia. Se assim é, então Claire Johnston e Pam Cook foram precisas ao argumentar que “the task of feminist film criticism is to ‘denaturalise’ these images and show them for what they are: ideological constructions”. Joanne Hollows, Feminism, femininity and popular culture. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) 45. Obviamente que Mad Max: Fury Road não é o primeiro filme a retratar uma mulher protagonista; ou a apresenta-la como uma lutadora e líder; no entanto, é o primeiro Mad Max a abandonar a soberania da sua usual personagem principal, pelo o bem de outra história. Mais ainda, o facto de o filme ter sido produzido por George Miller, não muda em momento algum a sua visão feminista. Como Eve Ensler estabeleceu, não é uma questão de domínio, mas igualdade; é uma questão de representar situações e realidades que nem sempre têm lugar no cinema. “I welcome men who are feminists. I don't live in a world of either/or. I live in a world of this and more. Obviously, we need many more women and many more women of colour and many more women who are experiencing realities that haven't been given platforms. But I think this will encourage that when people see how exciting and compelling it is.” “Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.” Ellana Dockterman. Mad Max: Fury Road quer mudar a nossa visão actual de personagens femininas como protagonistas em filmes de acção, apesar de existirem tantos exemplos maravilhosos de mulheres como fortes personagens principais. De certa forma, conseguiu graças à sua reviravolta: raparigas na estrada. Mad Max: Girls on the Fury Road In 1979 the world was introduced to Max Rockatansky and his dystopian, post-apocalyptic universe. The three films of the Mad Max saga follow the adventures of a former policeman, who gradually became the perfect image of a lone wolf hero. However, in 2015, the fourth instalment of the Mad Max franchise was released, but bearing a twist: Max is no longer the main character of his own film. One would imagine whilst watching a film highlighted by a character’s name, that he would be the main story to follow; George Miller decided to go in a different direction. Set in the classic wasteland, when society has long collapsed, Max is captured by a group known as the War Boys, puppets of the dictator Immortan Joe, and qualified as a ‘blood bag’. Meanwhile, the viewer casts their eyes on Furiosa, Immortan Joe’s lieutenant and full recipient of his trust, who is ready to leave Citadel to gather gasoline, a scarce resource in this twisted reality. Only after they leave town, Joe noticed he has been betrayed by his Imperator, when she decides to change the route without warning, and has smuggled Joe’s Five Wives in the armoured truck. Not wanting to wait for answers, Joe sets a crusade against Furiosa with the help of two nearby cities. After the death of Splendid Angharad, Joe’s favourite wife, and their unborn son, the evil dictator swears revenge and prepares to haunt the War Rig down. Up until this moment, Max blends in nicely with the plot, although he is more of a spectator than a participant, since his character has been set aside from the main story. Nevertheless, he decides to join forces with Furiosa, and, even though his goal is to escape alive, he helps the Imperator take the Five Wives to the Green Place – an ethereal place of unknown location where women are well treated and self-sufficient. Upon learning by the remaining members of the clan that the Green Place has been destroyed, Furiosa and the Wives realize they have no place to go, but to start fresh; question is: where? Instead of leaving them to their fate, Max takes as his personal challenge to help the group invade and take control of Citadel, where Immortan Joe keeps a wide range of crops and water that he fails to share equally with the starving population under his command. The entire film revolves around Furiosa and the Wives’ goal: to break free from Joe’s dictatorship and imprisonment. The moment they decided to join forces and escape is unknow to the viewers, but it is logical to see struggling women get together to fight a common evil. The amount of pro-equality and feminist messages in the film, show up in the first fifteen minutes, setting the tone for the rest of the story: ‘Who killed the world?’, ‘Our babies will not be warlords’ and ‘We are not things’ are messages left behind by the five girls Joe keeps as his personal wives and breeders. The wives are the only five characters free of weird body modifications and not allowed to work or leave the Citadel’s tower. Their extreme beauty proves that Joe hand-picked the most good-looking girls in Citadel to please him, but, strange enough, has them kept in a well-lit space with Miss Giddy, an old history teacher. Now, why would a dictator driven by power give his five wives the possibility to study and learn? The room is decorated with a blackboard and stacks of books in any free space, which only strengthens the possibility that having the chance to learn made the wives realize their place in a world which does not feel like their own. Eve Ensler, author of the Vagina Monologues, was a consultant in the making-off of Mad Max: Fury Road. When interviewed by Time Magazine, she talked about her experiences with the actresses: They asked me questions about their characters. What would it mean to have been a sex slave held for a long time in captivity? What would it feel like to carry a baby of someone who had raped you? What would it mean to feel attached to your perpetrator despite the abuse because it had go on for so long? How after you are raped, your body becomes a place that you dissociate from, a landscape of terror. “Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.” Ellana Dockterman. TIME | Current & Breaking News | National & World Updates. WordPress. May 7, 2015. Viewed February 20, 2017. http://time.com/3850323/mad-max-fury-road-eve-ensler-feminist/ There is no moment in the entire film where these women, alongside Furiosa, are seen as victims, but as conquers of their own freedom. Despite holding no identity or name while in custody, by the end of the film the girls have recuperated their own bodies and taken back control of their lives. This is also emphasized by their own clothes: although reduced, they never show more than what have shown since the beginning of the film. The only difference is they have left their chastity belt in the desert, and with that action, which only gets a few seconds on the screen, they were in control once again – of their own choices, and body. Even something subtle like their clothes in the film: they're stripped down and vulnerable and objectified in the beginning. By the end, they have their clothes on. They've taken their bodies back and themselves back in some essential way. “Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.” Ellana Dockterman. Nevertheless, this film is not just different because of its clear feminist messages, but also because it moves away from the obvious love story begging to happen: Max and Furiosa. There is no room for romance in such a disturbing plot; even Max, who was demoted to a secondary character, leaves behind his anti-hero persona, and joins the girls in the pursuit of happiness and equality without raising a question. As a way to forgive himself from not being able to save a child from his past, he draws a plan to take back Citadel. Even though the happy ending could mean they then had time to express their possible attraction towards each other, Max discreetly leaves Furiosa and the Wives to enjoy their success, and only shares a respectful nod with his former road partner. One could say, Fury Road was, besides Max’s redemption moment, the most gender equal film of the franchise, on screen. The lone wolf sets aside his own goals – escaping from a war he has got nothing to do with – to help a group of women, he has just met to take back their lives. His character started as a pawn in a crusade, but ended up being an important piece to bring closure to the story. So, in a way, Max’s character was more important than one might think, even after losing his status. The importance of feminist messages, pro-equality plots, and male/female partnership towards the same goal, is something that has been debated for a long time. Back in the 1970s, Marjorie Rosen noted that the 1920s Hollywood was at fault by failing to portrait women in “jobs requiring skill, aggressiveness, education”. Joanne Hollows, Feminism, femininity and popular culture. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) 42. Cinema has helped perpetuating the notion that men and women are being correctly portraited according to society’s ideals. If so, Claire Johnston and Pam Cook were correct to argue that “the task of feminist film criticism is to ‘denaturalise’ these images and show them for what they are: ideological constructions”. Joanne Hollows, Feminism, femininity and popular culture. (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2000) 45. Obviously, Mad Max: Fury Road is not the first film to show a woman as the main character; or to portrait her as a fighter on her own; however, it is the first Mad Max to set aside the usual main character’s domination for the sake of another story where he is not the protagonist, but a woman is – the popular franchise where the man was the main character, left that ideal for something new. Moreover, the fact that the film was produced by George Miller, a not a woman, in no way changes its feminist view. As Eve Ensler stated this is not a question of dominance, but equality. This film brings to light so many realities that are failing to be expressed, and how that should change, no matter if the director is a woman or man. I welcome men who are feminists. I don't live in a world of either/or. I live in a world of this and more. Obviously, we need many more women and many more women of colour and many more women who are experiencing realities that haven't been given platforms. But I think this will encourage that when people see how exciting and compelling it is. “Vagina Monologues Writer Eve Ensler: How Mad Max: Fury Road Became a ‘Feminist Action Film.” Ellana Dockterman. Mad Max: Fury Road wants to change our current view of female characters as leaders in action films, even though there are so many amazing examples of strong women as protagonists. In a way, it has succeeded, thanks to its popular twist: girls on the road.