The Development of the Apocalyptic Film Genre in Post-Modern

Cinema
Genevieve Sanders
Item 1: List of Post-Apocalyptic Films
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Post-apocalyptic_films
There are currently 302 post-apocalyptic films out. One of the
oldest post-apocalyptic was Five (1951) directed by Arch Oboler.
Mad Max (1979) won four awards, most of them won at the
Australian Film Institute, for Best Original Music Score, Best
Achievement in Sound, Best Achievement in Editing and George
Miller won Special Jury Award. This gives the study a solid
foundation.

Item 2: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) George Miller

Mad Max: Fury Road is the fourth film in the Mad Max franchise. It
was directed by George Miller, who directed the first three films.
Like most other Post-Apocalyptic films, Mad Max: Fury Road
follows the same structure, and the quest for hope and a new life.
The difference is between this now Mad Max compared to the old
ones, is that this film it is non-stop action and had the technology
to do more stunts and better editing equipment and cameras.
The fight scene at the end of the film ends with a huge stunt (the
giant war rig flipping over, exploding and crashing into the archway causing a
huge blockage), the stunt wasnt done with CGI but one of the stunt doubles
managed to flip to war rig over. It was extremely dangerous and was done in one
take. All the cameras had to be in the right place and be filming the right things,
because they only had one shot. 10 years ago this scene wouldnt have been
possible.

Item 3: Mad Max (1979) George Miller

Mad Max is the original film of the franchise, where you get the
background story of Max and his life. Throughout the film you
never find out why and how the world got destroyed. Though the
film it meant to be set in a post-apocalyptic world due to the
editing and film limits its hard to see the difference between the
a desert and a universe where the world is ending. Mad Max
though old, still has given a lot of inspiration to other filmmakers
when making other post-apocalyptic films. The car crash at the
beginning of the film might look very fake nowadays but when the film first came
out it was one of the hardest and most dangerous stunts they would have done.
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The film allows you to see the old standard for post-apocalyptic films against new
films and lets you see how much the genre has expanded and developed.

Item 4: The Book of Eli (2010) Allen Hughes and Albert Hughes
The Book of Eli is different from the Mad Max franchise, it focuses
more on religion and hope, and how people will use other peoples
hope for their own gain and so others will worship them. The second
time watching the film you see it in a new light because of the twist
at the end. The film shows a different side to post-apocalyptic films
where people dont turn on each other but turn back to religion to
help them when before they took religion for granted. The main hero
focusses on the bigger picture and doesnt get swayed by any of the
temptations along the way, he shows mercy to people he feel
deserve it.

Item 5: The Book of Eli Study Guide by Craig Detweiler

http://www.pepperdine.edu/entertainment-mediaculture/content/bookofeli_studyguide.pdf
"As Eli, Denzel Washington embodies a different kind of hero, driven by divine
calling. Directors Albert and Allen Hughes have created a distinctive look for The
Book of Eli. The stirring script by Gary Whitta combines elements from classic
westerns and sci-fi in surprising ways."
How religion also plays a large part in post-apocalyptic films. How people
suddenly don't take religion of granted as they did before but now in times of
struggle, religion is a great source of hope and a guide to fix the broken society
they live in. Religion is a key part of post-apocalyptic films even some people
think that Mad Max has a religious message to it and that Max is the saviour and
maybe even the Jesus figure of the film.

Item 6: The Making of Mad Max: Fury Road

https://vimeo.com/127381179
How the making of these films is so technical and how much
the technology has progressed. The vast amount of work
which goes into making such a high scale film with all the
pressure from the success of the past films. Just the amount
of time they have spent in making and researching this film,

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shows how much dedication you need, making sense of the chaotic world they
live in, by having back stories for each character.

Item 7: Mad Max: Fury Road Behind the Music

https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=70&v=xESFyIxito0
Were talking about a war drive; were talking about tremendous human
suffering. Were talking about a really interesting sense of humour that is
throughout the whole film and were talking women who take control of the
situation. All these characters are so wonderful and its so colourful and its so
brutal, its such a society where everything is completely out of control.
How the music in films plays such a big role in this genre of film, it adds tension
and drama to the scenes. In Mad Max: Fury Road one of the main aspects of the
film which help make it a huge success was the music because as the film
doesnt have much dialogue the music keeps the film following and adds
narrative and atmosphere to the film. The different theme songs for each
character, allows the audience to get an in look of their personality.

Item 8: VICE Talks Film: George Miller on Mad Max: Fury Road
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9_VxcSHyWI
The biggest problem by far is safety, everyday around 130 days, nearly 7
months of big, big stunt days and youve got to be really on it to pull it off. We
had a fantastic stunt crew, rigging crew and special effects crew and if one thing
goes wrong, just one thing goes wrong in it, people could be really badly hurt.
How to get a realistic looking film and real stunts, you have to have the right
equipment and people, 10 years ago it wouldn't have been possible but now with
the advance in technology, films like action and apocalyptic can have the stunts
and effects to make them all pieces of art. Like the radioactive thunderstorm in
Mad Max: Fury Road, without the real life stunts and the amazing CGI, the film
wouldn't have the same wow factor. This allows the genre to expand and grow in
popularity.

Item 9: Crisis Cinema by Mick Broderick

"As an undercurrent of Western imagination, apocalypticism is always with us.
Consider its part in such sudden surges of intellectual and artistic life in our
century as modernism, and in particular, expressionism; communism and
fascism, the most powerful apocalyptic political currents of our time."
The sudden popularity in post-apocalyptic films, there are 302 post-apocalyptic
films and though some share the same idea, each one is different, especially with
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people worrying about the end of the world, post-apocalyptic films show what
could happen if you of those events were to occur. Mad Max is one of the most
famous post-apocalyptic films and shows how peoples morals change and how
different people react in different ways and they do this even though the never
explain how the world ended.

Item 10: Keeping the Lights On: Post-Apocalyptic Narrative, Social Critique, and
the Cultural Politics of Emotion
http://dspace.library.colostate.edu/webclient/DeliveryManager/digitool_items/csu
01_storage/2012/02/07/file_2/119847
"I use three contemporary texts as case studies to explore my arguments: The
2008 film WALLE, the 2006 novel The Road and its 2009 film adaptation, and
the 2006 novel The Book of Dave. Each of these texts represents a different
attitude towards both emotion and social critique, and each of them is widely
consumed by millions."
The difference between the Book of Eli and Mad Max: Fury Road, the Book of Eli
mainly focuses of Christianity and the journey Eli has to take to make hope for
the world, the island he reaches at the end could symbolise heaven whereas Fury
Road doesn't focus on religion but brings it up in passing with the War Boys who
think they are half-lives and are awaited in the Norse Mythology heaven, but the
main characters don't agree. They just focus on the time and the present. The
main themes in each movie are different and they focus on different target
audiences.

Item 11: Mad Max: Fury Road vs Mad Max Trilogy

https://vimeo.com/144382267
The correlation between the first 3 films and the newest
addition to the franchise. Showing the original fans that its
still part of the first Mad Max world just more futuristic and
more damaged. Having the same shots and the same style
shows that even though its 30 years later Fury Road is still
acknowledging that the original Mad Max's exists and they
were a huge inspiration for the creations of Fury Road.

Item 12 Not Using: Contemporary Apocalyptic Cinema

http://www.e-ir.info/2013/06/20/contemporary-apocalyptic-cinema/
"Eli and Carnegie exist within the movies narrative in a binary opposition, with
the latter man, arguably representing a critique of George Bushs use of religious
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rhetoric, wishing to use the Bible as a means to control others. Eli reaches a
group of survivors based on Alcatraz Island who are gathering together elements
of the lost culture in order to start again, where he dictates from memory the
contents of the Biblical text so that copies may be produced via a printing press."
This is not relevant for my research as it is too focus on the religious message
the film can bring and not focusing on the film itself. It is also quite similar to
item 5 but a less detailed version, not focussing on what I wanted out of the
article. This article would be more appropriate for a bible study which wanted to
use the film to explain certain religious beliefs.

Item 13 Not Using:

Mens Right Activists Call for Boycott of Mad Max: Fury Road, Citing Feminist
Agenda
http://edition.cnn.com/2015/05/15/entertainment/mad-max-fury-road-boycottmens-rights-thr-feat/
"Clarey writes that he is concerned "men in America and around the world are
going to be duped by explosions, fire tornadoes, and desert raiders into seeing
what is guaranteed to be nothing more than feminist propaganda, while at the
same time being insulted AND tricked into viewing a piece of American culture
ruined and rewritten right in front of their very eyes.""
Apart from being very misguided and biased, the writer of the article has not
watched the film so has no evidence that what he writes is correct and could be
misinformed. The article talks about how George Miller was trying to brainwash
males who would what the film just based on the genre without realising that
they were watching a film where a women place an equal to the much loved Mad
Max.

Item 14 Not Using: 10 Films That Wouldnt Exist Without Mad Max
http://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a34960/movies-like-mad-max/
"Thirty-plus years later, that trio remains one of the most influential in all of
movie history, having cast a long shadow on the look, feel, and attitude of
countless cinematic efforts that followed in its wake. In honour of Max's latest
high-octane adventure, we pay tribute to his franchise by taking a look at the
many works it inspired."
Though it is very interesting to see how Mad Max has inspired many other films
style, it is not informative enough and lacks the depth I wanted in this article.
Apart from the photos in the article there isn't much else to show where Mad Max
inspired the other 10 films and not all of them look reliable.

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