George Miller has said he wanted the Blu-ray release of Mad Max: Fury Road to include a black and white version of the film. The Blu-ray, coming out September 1st, does not include said black and white version, but we didn’t let that stop us. We have incredible television technology these days. You can adjust things like volume and channels and everything. You can even adjust the color levels, allowing us to create our very own black and white version of Mad Max: Fury Road the way director George Miller intended!
To begin with, even without any of the colors, the Blu-ray is still high definition, and likely will be also if you’re watching it on VOD. You still see all the detail in the texture of the vehicles, the desert grains, the citadel cliffs and all the scars on the survivors of the apocalypse. However, removing the bright colors from the picture adds an interesting new effect.
Warner Bros.
When the film opens, we see Max (Tom Hardy) standing in the desert, almost a silhouette against the sun. A similar image occurs towards the end of the film when we see Furiosa (Charlize Theron) crying in the desert. In black and white, the desert dust is more like a film noir fog. The War Boys become more ghostly. Except in closeup, their scars are barely even visible rising up from their pale skin so they’re just pure white specters.
Fury Road is an extreme film as it is, but reducing the visuals to pure binaries adds to the primal nature of Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Bryne)’s motorcade of violence. The caravan of war vehicles almost looks like a cave painting, big distinct shapes symbolizing oppression. The landscape is already sparse, but with barely a shade differentiating the ground and the sky, it’s even more of a one way linear chase.
Warner Bros.
It also adds aesthetic unity. Both the wives and the War Boys are so pale, yet the former are the escapees and the latter are the pursuers. It’s clear through Nux (Nicholas Hoult) in the film, but this gives us visual confirmation that they’re really the same, both oppressed by Joe to his own ends. And then, by the motorcycle chase in the canyon, you’re used to it. These are just the shapes traveling across the pale desert backdrop.
Turning off the color does create the occasional technical difficulty. It accentuates the pixelation in the day for night shots. Notably, when Furiosa uses Max’s shoulder to aim the rifle, the artifacts are more distracting in gray than they are in a dark blue sky.
For a regular full color Blu-ray, Fury Road is everything would would hope for. In full color, you see more detail in the dirt patterns on the war rig. The green plants in the Citadel really pop, but it’s the red sand and flames that define the new Mad Max. This is what the kids will think the future looks like, and you can show them in all its HD glory on Blu-ray.
Warner Bros.
It’s also worth noting that as my fourth time viewing Fury Road (sorry, I’m behind the five-timers), the movie still holds up. It hasn’t gotten old to visit this world, see the same decisions and action play out again. The art of the experience makes it timeless. It will always be beautiful to watch the polecat ballet. You may notice the film plays more like a symphony, where early movements pay off in the grand concerto. I didn’t even catch the first use of the word “mediocre,” so it brings more depth to Nux’s heartbreaking failure in Joe’s eyes midway through.
The bonus features show there’s still even more background and narrative details to notice even after four viewings. I didn’t catch that the gas pedal is a shoe store foot measurer, and it locks in place so Furiosa can shoot from the road. There are only three deleted scenes but they are each worthwhile episodes. Just any excuse to live in this world a little longer is wonderful. One of the three gives Miss Giddy (Jennifer Hagan) more to do, and we get to learn where Joe got his milkers.
Mad Max: Fury Road on Blu-ray September 1 and on Digital HD now.
Fred Topel is a staff writer at CraveOnline. Follow him on Twitter at @FredTopel.
