《狂暴之路》可能后无来者。

《疯狂的麦克斯》新作马上于6月7日国内上映，但新片预告里总感觉与《狂暴之路》的粗粝生猛的感觉不一样，结合戛纳的首映反馈来看，《狂暴之路》的疯狂与窒息似乎很难重现。 《纽约时报》流行文化记者凯尔·布坎南撰写《疯狂的麦克斯4：狂暴之路》的口述史《 Blood, Sweat & Chrome》可能会给出答案

文章引自《 Blood, Sweat & Chrome》引言

Blood, Sweat & Chrome

评价人数不足

Kyle Buchanan / 2022

译文：

5500万年来，纳米布沙漠一直是事物消亡的地方。被认为是地球上最古老的沙漠，这里几乎完全没有人类生活，一个海岸线仍然点缀着数千艘船只残骸的荒凉之地。

2012年9月，疯狂的麦克斯：怒之路就在那里坠毁和燃烧。

南非沙漠与洛杉矶相隔近1万英里，但在《狂暴之路》2012年拍摄过程中间，关于困扰制作的许多传闻已经传回好莱坞。电影是否因其反复无常的主角汤姆·哈迪经常不按时到达片场而严重落后于进度并超支？哈迪与他的搭档夏洛特·撒隆之间发生了巨大爆发吗？这是否需要外部干预以避免电影崩溃？

而乔治·米勒究竟在做什么呢？尽管导演花了数月时间在纳米比亚拍摄《狂暴之路》，但他寄回华纳兄弟公司的镜头让许多高管感到恐慌。对话听起来令人费解，动作场景看起来惊险异常，并且由于米勒并未根据传统剧本工作——而是通过分镜板单独规划了整部电影——制片公司高管担心，《狂暴之路》一旦剪辑完成可能毫无意义。如果这个昂贵庞然大物最终证明是票房失败品，则不仅会失去工作：他们可能再也不能在好莱坞工作了。

华纳兄弟影业秃顶、备受折磨的负责人杰夫·罗宾诺夫自从6月开始电影后就一直派手下前往沙漠查看《狂暴之路》情况。但在9月最后一周，罗宾诺夫亲自飞赴纳米比亚接管局势。

该制片基地位于沙漠中心一个巨大帐篷城市，在那里数百名工作人员等待得知他们电影命运如何。罗宾诺夫在沙滩上第一个遇见到P.J.福滕，《狂暴之路》忠实制片人和首席助理导演。“我们将完成这部电影无论有没有乔治。”罗宾诺夫告诉他。

福滕低声说：“祝你好运。”

最终，罗宾诺夫找到了米勒，他看起来温和欺骗：身高五英尺七寸，拥有波浪状白发、闪亮的眼睛和一副琥珀色茶镜眼镜，带着悦耳的澳大利亚口音和健谈的性格，就像一个受人喜爱的祖父。也许正因为如此，米勒在整个职业生涯中都被低估了，流氓船员和电影公司高管经常试图从这位坚定不移的男人手中夺取控制权。

罗宾诺夫并非第一个与米勒发生冲突的资金方，但在那个沙漠之日，他威胁成为最后一个。虽然《狂怒路》还剩下三个月拍摄时间，并且还有许多关键场景需要完成时, 罗宾诺夫告诉米勒他将提前关闭电影，并提出了一个不可能实现的最后通牒：由于时间紧迫, 米勒只能选择拍摄《狂怒路》第三幕追逐戏或者放弃该部分去拍摄仍未完成的开头和结尾。

无论米勒做出什么决定，结果都将是灾难性的。导演已经想象了他的梦想项目超过十五年，而制片厂的负责人即将对此进行严重破坏。但这只是一个充满灾难的项目中的又一次灾难。《疯狂之路》是好莱坞历史上最复杂、最困难的拍摄之一，电影制作延续了二十多年和三个制片厂。然而，在无数困难面前，几乎会让任何其他艺术家放弃的情况下，米勒坚持了下来。在他讲述这个故事之前，他不能放弃，并且现在很多人认为他所奋斗的成果是一部杰作和有史以来最精彩动作电影。在与米勒进行几次采访时，我不得不问：当所有事情都对电影制作不利时，他如何保持信念那么多年？“真正的答案是你别无选择”，他直言不讳地说。“我只能继续前进。”然后，仿佛自己就是自己电影中一个角色一样, 米勒补充道：“你不能投降。”

尽管《狂怒之路》的范围庞大，但电影的末世情节被简化到了最基本的要素：几乎整部电影都在逃亡中进行，流浪者麦克斯·洛卡塔斯基（哈迪 饰）与坚定不移的驾驶员富里奥莎（塞隆 饰）联手将五名年轻性奴带往安全之地。一路上，他们得到了狂热叛徒努克斯（尼古拉斯·霍尔特 饰）的帮助，并在沙漠中被由战争领主伊摩顿·乔（休·基斯-拜恩 饰）指挥的庞大车队追捕，后者想要夺回自己的后宫“妻子”并为解救这些年轻女性而杀死背叛他的副手富里奥莎。

然而，《狂怒之路》起初看似只是一个简单延展至长篇特写片长度的汽车追逐戏，实际上引擎盖下面发生着许多事情，在所有那些壮观场面中混入了具有颠覆性和出人意料力量的主题：你多常见到一部动作电影处理当下问题如环境崩溃、女性赋权以及富人囤积资源？这里描绘出来世界如此详细和令人信服，超越画框边界产生共鸣。像《狂怒之路》这样一部无与伦比——在日益枯燥无味超级英雄电影时代，《狂怒之路》可能再也无法制作。

许多人认为米勒做不到，甚至有些持怀疑态度参与该片制作。公平地说，在2015年《狂怒之路》登陆院线时，米勒已经70岁高龄，并且已经17年没有执导过真人电影。距离世界看到新版《百万美元宝贝》系列电影已经更久——三个动荡十年——原系列明星梅尔·吉布森在期间成为职业毁灭者, 这需要对米勒设想重新深思。

米勒心中究竟想的是什么，一直是争议焦点。他在拍摄《疯狂的麦克斯：狂暴之路》时采用了混乱而零碎的方式，这让演员感到困惑，经常与米勒和其他演员发生冲突。在纳米比亚广阔偏远的沙漠中度过了大部分时间——四周环绕着沙尘暴、尖叫的特技人员和疯狂的车辆混乱——强调使这个幻想世界变得真实以至于角色之间的冲突甚至渗入到了剧组成员们实际生活中。你要么相信米勒那种疯狂愿景，要么就会挣扎。

几乎每部电影都很难制作，但很少有电影像《疯狂的麦克斯：狂暴之路》那样拥有一个如此疯狂、漫长和困难的幕后故事，而且绝对没有一部电影能像它一样具有深远的影响力和令人敬畏。现在毫无疑问这部电影已经成为了永恒的经典，但一个重要问题仍然存在：《疯狂的麦克斯：狂暴之路》之所以伟大是因为在火焰中锻造出来呢，还是尽管受到火焰的考验才变得伟大？

For 55 million years, the Namib Desert has been where things go to die. Thought to be the oldest desert on the planet, it’s a barren wasteland almost completely devoid of human life, a place where the coastline is still studded with the remains of a thousand shipwrecks.

And in September 2012, it was where Mad Max: Fury Road would crash and burn.

Nearly ten thousand miles separate that south African desert from Los Angeles, but midway through Fury Road’s very long 2012 shoot, plenty of stories about the troubled production had already made their way back to the Hollywood rumor mill. Was it true that the film was wildly behind schedule and over budget because its mercurial lead, Tom Hardy, often failed to show up to set? Had a massive blowup between Hardy and his costar, Charlize Theron, required an outside intervention just so the film wouldn’t collapse?

And what the hell was George Miller making, anyway? Though the director had spent months filming Fury Road in Namibia, the footage he’d sent back to Warner Bros. left many executives freaked out. The dialogue sounded incomprehensible, the action scenes appeared astonishingly dangerous, and since Miller wasn’t working from a traditional screenplay—instead, in an unprecedented move, he had plotted the film out solely through storyboards—studio executives worried that Fury Road would make no sense once it was cut together. If this expensive boondoggle turned out to be a box-office bomb, forget just losing their jobs: They might never work in Hollywood again.

Jeff Robinov, the bald and beleaguered head of Warner Bros. Pictures, had been sending underlings to the desert to check on Fury Road ever since the movie’s June start. But during the last week of September, Robinov himself flew over to Namibia to take control.

The production was based in a massive tent city in the middle of the desert, a troubled oasis where several hundred crew members now waited to learn their film’s fate. The first person Robinov encountered there in the sands was P. J. Voeten, Fury Road’s loyal producer and first assistant director. “We’re going to finish this film with or without George,” Robinov told him.

Under his breath, Voeten muttered, “Good luck with that.”

Eventually, Robinov made his way to Miller, who cuts a deceptively mild figure: At five foot seven, with wavy white hair, twinkly eyes, and a pair of amber-colored teashade glasses, he has the pleasant Australian lilt and chatty disposition of a favorite grandfather. Perhaps because of that, Miller has been underestimated his whole career, with rogue crew members and studio executives frequently trying to seize control from a man who simply will not budge.

Robinov was hardly the first money man to clash with Miller, but on that day in the desert, he threatened to be the very last. Though there were still three months of shooting left on Fury Road and many crucial scenes still to come, Robinov told Miller he would shut the film down early and then laid down an impossible ultimatum: With such limited time left, Miller could either shoot Fury Road’s third-act chase or sacrifice it to film the still-unshot beginning and ending of the movie.

No matter what decision Miller made, the outcome would be disastrous. The director had been imagining his dream project for over a decade and a half, and the head of the studio was about to blow a massive hole through it.

But this was just another catastrophe on a project that was beset with them. Fury Road was one of the most elaborate and difficult shoots in Hollywood history, and the making of the movie stretched over two decades and three studios. Still, over years of countless obstacles that would have prompted almost any other artist to give up, Miller persevered. He could not quit until he had told this story, and what he fought for is now considered by many to be a masterpiece and the finest action movie ever made.

Over several interviews with Miller, I had to ask: How did he keep the faith for so many years when everything was stacked against the making of this film?

“The real answer is you have no choice,” he said bluntly. “I just had to keep going.” Then, as if he were a character from his own movie, Miller added, “You can’t surrender.”

Though the scope of Fury Road is massive, the film’s postapocalyptic plot is boiled down to its barest essence: Nearly the entire movie is told on the run as drifter Max Rockatansky (Hardy) joins forces with the determined driver Furiosa (Theron) to spirit five young sex slaves to safety. Along the way, they are aided by the zealous turncoat Nux (Nicholas Hoult) and pursued across the desert by a staggering armada of vehicles commanded by the warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who wants to reclaim his harem of “Wives” and murder his rogue lieutenant Furiosa for freeing the young women in the first place.

But while Fury Road initially appears to be a simple car chase stretched to feature length, there is plenty going on underneath the hood, and the subjects that Miller smuggled into all that spectacle were subversive and unexpectedly powerful: How often do you see an action movie that tackles up-to-the-minute issues like environmental collapse, female empowerment, and resource hoarding by the rich? The world here is so detailed and incredibly realized that it resonates well beyond the borders of the frame. A film like Fury Road isn’t just one of a kind—in this era of increasingly bland superhero movies, it’s the sort of film that could probably never be made again.

Many thought Miller couldn’t pull it off, and some of those doubters were even working on the movie. To be fair, by the time Fury Road hit theaters in 2015, Miller was seventy years old and had not directed a live-action film in seventeen years. It had been even longer—three tumultuous decades—since the world had seen a new Mad Max movie, and original series star Mel Gibson became professionally toxic in the interim, requiring a thorough rethink of what Miller had in mind.

And what exactly Miller had in that prodigious mind remained the point of some contention. The confusingly piecemeal way he filmed Fury Road could frustrate his actors, who felt adrift and often clashed with Miller and each other. During the better part of a year spent in the vast, remote desert of Namibia—surrounded by sandstorms, shrieking stuntmen, and insane vehicular mayhem—there was such an emphasis on making this fantasy world feel real that the conflict of the characters even seeped into the actual lives of the cast and crew. You either had faith in Miller’s mad vision or you struggled.

Almost every movie is hard to make, but few movies have a making-of story as wild, long, or difficult as Fury Road, and absolutely none of them turned out as influential and awe-inspiring. There’s no doubt now that the movie is an all-time classic, but an important question still remains: Did Fury Road become great despite being forged in fire, or because of it?