I don’t disagree with any of your points, hell, I agree with all of them!
My point, I’ll exemplify by Kojima here, is you don’t work yourself into a character like (also named) Big Boss, Die Hardman, The Sorrow or whatever. You start there and work yourself backwards to make it somewhat believeable, considered.
And I feel like the same thing applies to Fury Road. You start off with a sick ass character like Immortan Joe and then figure out how the world works around him as a central figure. I mean you could take any of the aforementioned, give them like 0 explanation and consideration and they’d still be good. Big Boss the supersoldier is cool on it’s own. Die Hardman President of the Post-Apocalypse US is a fucking baller concept. Immortan Joe the monster truck driving manbeast? Needs no further work, to work.
But they did and that’s what elevates them as pieces of media. Immortan Joe isn’t just a sick ass villain with no explanation, he’s a sick-ass believable villain.
because George and his comrades manage to put a concrete, fleshed out world and a well considered, grounded plot in to a two hour long gonzo action chase scene.
Cause that’s when you get this, and I’d argue Kojimas works also do this. You take MGS or Fury Road and strip all the world building out of it, you’re left with Hardcore Henry, which I’d argue is still a very good movie in the sense of it accomplishes exactly and near-perfectly what it sets out to do, but it’s just a 2 hour action romp.
bring up image over and over until it has some clear details that always stick around take shape
isolate details, start thinking about why image is what it is, focus on your personal reaction to those details
work backwards until you can draw a solid line from the image to its “source” irl
So like, if I have an image of something like, say, a man in a dirty raincoat and it makes me sad to think about it, after this process I might eventually think “it’s sad because I see this man as a lonely victim” or something and now I have a full vibe to work with. I can start looking at this sad weary guy in his dirty raincoat, about what his life is like, how he got here, and like you said, the cruel world that isn’t helping him, etc
I don’t disagree with any of your points, hell, I agree with all of them!
My point, I’ll exemplify by Kojima here, is you don’t work yourself into a character like (also named) Big Boss, Die Hardman, The Sorrow or whatever. You start there and work yourself backwards to make it somewhat believeable, considered.
And I feel like the same thing applies to Fury Road. You start off with a sick ass character like Immortan Joe and then figure out how the world works around him as a central figure. I mean you could take any of the aforementioned, give them like 0 explanation and consideration and they’d still be good. Big Boss the supersoldier is cool on it’s own. Die Hardman President of the Post-Apocalypse US is a fucking baller concept. Immortan Joe the monster truck driving manbeast? Needs no further work, to work.
But they did and that’s what elevates them as pieces of media. Immortan Joe isn’t just a sick ass villain with no explanation, he’s a sick-ass believable villain.
Cause that’s when you get this, and I’d argue Kojimas works also do this. You take MGS or Fury Road and strip all the world building out of it, you’re left with Hardcore Henry, which I’d argue is still a very good movie in the sense of it accomplishes exactly and near-perfectly what it sets out to do, but it’s just a 2 hour action romp.
Cool, thank you for explaining your perspective! : )
:heart
I think of it as a process of:
So like, if I have an image of something like, say, a man in a dirty raincoat and it makes me sad to think about it, after this process I might eventually think “it’s sad because I see this man as a lonely victim” or something and now I have a full vibe to work with. I can start looking at this sad weary guy in his dirty raincoat, about what his life is like, how he got here, and like you said, the cruel world that isn’t helping him, etc
Rotating Immortan Joe in my mind
Powerful image, he rotates with the power of a victorious patriarch assured of the stability of his postion