When first reviewing Mad Max Fury Road, it is easy to
believe that the movie and underlying message of it supports nihilistic views.
Nihilism is the rejection of all religious and moral views and because of the
rejection seeing that life is meaningless. It is easy to see the support early
on in the movie when you hear countless reports from news one specifically
saying that, “Man has gone rogue.” However, the rejection of nihilism is
present through the actions of max, the wives and furioso, and through the
actions of the mutants as well.
If Mad Max supported nihilism, then Max, Furioso and the
wives would not have escaped Immortal Joe’s imprisonment. They would have
stayed imprisoned awaiting on the inevitable death because there would be no point
in fighting. But even as Max said, he “exist[s] in [the] wasteland… reduced to
a single instinct: surviv[al].” Regardless of the difficulties he or Furioso experience
throughout the movie, they persevere through it to make it to the green place.
They still have hope in this hopeless chaos.
Max makes it clear that “everyone has gone out of their
minds.” Regardless of the lack of hope there is for the mutants especially,
since they are under the rule of Immortal Joe, they reject nihilism. Though
some of their actions seem immoral due to our own current society, they are
doing it for their own good. They do it so they may, “ride eternal, shiny and
chrome” in the promised afterlife of Valhalla. Everything they do, they do in
hopes of one day returning to this promise land. This rejects nihilism in both
aspects of religion and a meaningful life.
I completely agree with this comment about Mad Max rejecting Nihilism. The movie challenges this idea because instead of acting like negative thinking is spreading and promoting it, Max and the girl's main goal is basically trying to do the opposite. As we can see, when Max continually has flashbacks and feelings of guilt from not being able to save people in the past, that shows us that he does not support nihilism. He would not care about saving them or not if he promoted nihilism. Nihilists would not have that sense of guilt because they dont believe anyone has a purpose because we are all going to die anyways. Through that example and how the movie ends on a positive note, we can clearly see that the movie Mad Max rejects the idea of Nihilism.
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