Straight Shootin’ with Chad Cruise: Mad Max: Feminism Road

I’ve read so many reviews of Mad Max: Fury Road at this point that everything that can be said about the film has already been said. People went nuts for the action-packed car chases, the crazy stunts by the stunt team, and their nips got hard as rocks when they realized that Charlize Theron was the real hero of the film and not A MAN! I can’t tell you how many people have been going nuts for this film like it’s the first time a woman has ever kicked a little ass. Have these people ever seen Terminator 2? Have they never heard of Sigourney Weaver, or Cynthia Rothrock, or Michelle Yeoh? I would go so far as to say that the action film community is one of the most diverse of any in the industry. Female action stars and badasses from all ethnic groups and religions have succeeded in my genre for decades. The Raid series (From Indonesia) is one of my favorite things going right now, Matt Spector recently wrote an article about lady ass-kicker Mimi Lesseos (a girl), and even Channing Tatum has starred in several action films (he’s special needs, right?). So you see, the action film community has been pushing the limits of what is or isn’t acceptable by social standards for many years. Let’s not act like this white lady fighting a bunch of men in a film that was made in Africa is the first time it’s ever happened.

Let’s not forget that the Mad Max series has always had strong female characters. Doesn’t anyone remember this warrior angel from The Road Warrior? They could have easily made here some sort of love interest for Max instead of hiding her body underneath all those clothes but they didn’t.

Or how about that the main villain in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was a badass Tina Turner! All I’m trying to say is let’s not blow our wads all over the place talking about how great George Miller is for making a film with a strong female characters when he’s already been doing it for 40 years.

On a completely different note….Fury Road is F*CKING AMAZING!