The Music Of Mad Max: How The Classical Promotes Emotion
Note: This article talks about an R-rated film. There are clips from the film that may not be appropriate for all readers. Spoilers ahead.
The Mad Max series has been a cult classic for several decades, but with its return to theaters in 2015, the once-thought-dead series was given a dose of high-octane sound.
The soundtrack, produced by JunkieXL, was enough to get the heart racing and the adrenaline pumping, but two songs from the movie stick out more than any other. The first is called “Dies Irae” and is a piece composed by Guiseppe Verdi for his “Requiem.”
The piece was initially used in promotional material for the film to stand for and reinforce the idea of God’s judgment and apocalypse. Within the film, though, it used alongside one of the minor antagonists’ chasing down the group of heroes after being recently blinded.
This character refers to himself as “the scales of justice” as he balances two machine guns and fires blindly. This resonates with the song’s lyrics, which proclaim, in Latin, “How great the tremors will be when the judge comes to examine everything strictly!”
The piece highlights this character’s intent and the track focuses on God and fate. This seems to symbolize that, when none of our heroes are hurt, God has judged them as innocent and fate has allowed them to continue on their journey. The fear of judgment, then, was the only thing these characters had to fear.
The track is worth a listen on its own without the movie, so I highly recommend checking it out below:
The next song, “Redemption”, is an instrumental piece that features a violin instead of the distorted electric guitar we see the Doof Warrior wield. To demonstrate this contrast, below is a piece featuring the metal-inspired guitar.
This piece focuses on Imperator Furiosa, a woman who has abandoned everything to save four other women and bring them to “the green place.” When she finds this green place has been desolated and turned into a swamp, she falls to her knees and cries out, the sound almost silenced and replaced with the track.
The mood of the track is somber but still hopeful despite losing all hope. In the scene, this foreshadows the coming turn of events as Max realizes that, even though the original promised land is gone, there is another.
However, Furiosa does not know there is hope yet. She is heartbroken that she has led the five other girls, Nux, and Max to die. The title, “Redemption”, is doubly ironic because of this initial cruel twist and then the fact that, ultimately, Furiosa has redeemed herself. She has brought herself back to her many mothers and, with her, she has brought hope for a new world.
She has saved not only herself and the five girls, she has allowed the many mothers to give the seeds that will start a new, green world.
Without this track, the scene would lose much of its character. The song portrays something much deeper than the sounds that would otherwise be presented: the wind and a simple cry of anguish. These are things we have heard a million times before in film.
The music gives new depth, allowing the audience its first real look into Furiosa’s emotion and personal goals. The music also highlights key liens of dialogue, rising behind Furiosa’s reunion and growing its loudest just after the reveal that the green place has been destroyed. It is easily the emotional highlight of the film.
Overall, the pieces that stand out and impact the story most from this film are not the epic “Brothers in Arms” or “Claw Trucks” tracks. Instead, they are the pieces that take a more classical approach to music in order to highlight the feminist themes (such as the track “Many Mothers”) or the most emotionally-charged moments of the film.
The Mad Max series has been a cult classic for several decades, but with its return to theaters in 2015, the once-thought-dead series was given a dose of high-octane sound.
The soundtrack, produced by JunkieXL, was enough to get the heart racing and the adrenaline pumping, but two songs from the movie stick out more than any other. The first is called “Dies Irae” and is a piece composed by Guiseppe Verdi for his “Requiem.”
The piece was initially used in promotional material for the film to stand for and reinforce the idea of God’s judgment and apocalypse. Within the film, though, it used alongside one of the minor antagonists’ chasing down the group of heroes after being recently blinded.
This character refers to himself as “the scales of justice” as he balances two machine guns and fires blindly. This resonates with the song’s lyrics, which proclaim, in Latin, “How great the tremors will be when the judge comes to examine everything strictly!”
The piece highlights this character’s intent and the track focuses on God and fate. This seems to symbolize that, when none of our heroes are hurt, God has judged them as innocent and fate has allowed them to continue on their journey. The fear of judgment, then, was the only thing these characters had to fear.
The track is worth a listen on its own without the movie, so I highly recommend checking it out below:
The next song, “Redemption”, is an instrumental piece that features a violin instead of the distorted electric guitar we see the Doof Warrior wield. To demonstrate this contrast, below is a piece featuring the metal-inspired guitar.
This piece focuses on Imperator Furiosa, a woman who has abandoned everything to save four other women and bring them to “the green place.” When she finds this green place has been desolated and turned into a swamp, she falls to her knees and cries out, the sound almost silenced and replaced with the track.
The mood of the track is somber but still hopeful despite losing all hope. In the scene, this foreshadows the coming turn of events as Max realizes that, even though the original promised land is gone, there is another.
However, Furiosa does not know there is hope yet. She is heartbroken that she has led the five other girls, Nux, and Max to die. The title, “Redemption”, is doubly ironic because of this initial cruel twist and then the fact that, ultimately, Furiosa has redeemed herself. She has brought herself back to her many mothers and, with her, she has brought hope for a new world.
She has saved not only herself and the five girls, she has allowed the many mothers to give the seeds that will start a new, green world.
Without this track, the scene would lose much of its character. The song portrays something much deeper than the sounds that would otherwise be presented: the wind and a simple cry of anguish. These are things we have heard a million times before in film.
The music gives new depth, allowing the audience its first real look into Furiosa’s emotion and personal goals. The music also highlights key liens of dialogue, rising behind Furiosa’s reunion and growing its loudest just after the reveal that the green place has been destroyed. It is easily the emotional highlight of the film.
Overall, the pieces that stand out and impact the story most from this film are not the epic “Brothers in Arms” or “Claw Trucks” tracks. Instead, they are the pieces that take a more classical approach to music in order to highlight the feminist themes (such as the track “Many Mothers”) or the most emotionally-charged moments of the film.
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