AS YOU MAY have heard, Mad Max: Fury Road is poised to be the film of the summer.
The film picks up from where the Beyond The Thunderdome left off in 1985, with Tom Hardy taking over from Mel Gibson in the titular role.
Critics have been full of praise for the many strong, female characters in the film, particularly Charlize Theron’s Furiosa – TIME Magazine even went as far as calling it a ‘feminist action film’.
This has angered men’s rights activists, who see Mad Max as a “feminist piece of propaganda posing as a guy flick”.
Writing on MRA site Return Of Kings, blogger Aaron Clarey (who had not seen the film at the time of writing) complained about Theron’s character:
Charlize Theron kept showing up a lot in the trailers, while Tom Hardy (Mad Max) seemed to have cameo appearances. Theron sure talked a lot during the trailers while I don’t think I’ve heard one line from Hardy. And finally, Theron’s character barked orders to Mad Max. Nobody barks orders to Mad Max.
He claimed men were being ”duped by explosions, fire tornadoes, and desert raiders” and implored others to boycott the film.
…[They are being] tricked into viewing a piece of American culture ruined and rewritten right in front of their very eyes.
Mad Max is an Australian franchise, written and directed by Australians and starring British and South African actors, but OK, man.
As Clarey’s post started to go viral, it was met with calls for a ‘reverse-boycott’:
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In an interview at Cannes Film Festival, Theron said director George Miller didn’t have a “feminist agenda” up his sleeve – the film just became a feminist film:
George has this innate understanding that women are just as complex and interesting as men. Through just his need and want for the truth, he actually made an incredible feminist movie.
