Of Films, Music Festivals and Mad Max

One of the greatest problems with music festivals is that they can be noisy until three or four am for days in a row. This means that sleep is affected. It is because sleep patterns are altered that it is the perfect excuse to watch several hours of television a night for several days in a row.

Usually I try to be disciplined. I try to watch one or two episodes of two or three shows, and then head to sleep. During a music festival I take liberties. I watch an hour or two of TV, and then I watch a full length film. Usually I don't watch films because I don't want to watch the same thing for an hour and a half or two.

Due to the Caribana last night I noticed that the music was especially loud past midnight, so loud that even with an industrial fan going full force I could hear the noise pollution from the festival. If I hear noise pollution, such as that from a music festival I can't sleep.

My solution was to watch [Mad Max](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max), Fury Road. It took me from half past midnight to half past two in the morning. It's a film I have seen advertised on Netflix plenty of times. I didn't think I would enjoy the genre.

Most people saw the film years ago but as I don't go to the cinema much, at the moment, and as I was unable to watch films during the peak of the pandemic watching films has only become an occurance again, for me, recently.

If I over-summarise it, it's a "The grass is greener on the other side road trip movie where they reach their projected destination, realise it's crap, and turn back." It is more nuanced than that. It's about a dystopia in which people get around by cars in a world that has suffered from desertification. It has "Cirque Du Soleil" elements with acrobats swining from long poles with counterweights from cars to cars, it has the drummers on a vehicle, and the guitarist.

The use of sound is interesting in this film. At moments you are in the middle of the quiet desert and then you hear one group, with the drums and electric guitar, then then you hear the other vehicle. You see plenty of motorbikes doing stunts.

You also have "Handmaids" tale moment, where the women exist just to be bred. What's curious about these women is the way they talk. One whispers, the other seems okay with inventory...

It's a strange dystopia, because "gasoline" and cars are still around. At one point they take stock of how much fuel has been spent, what vehicles have been destroyed and more. It's a "dystopia" and "road trip" movie, rather than walking or cycling.

There are a few subjects that the film could explore in more depth.The topic of water is one. The reason for the "wives" is another. I don't understand why they drive to get fuel either. The film is filled with plot holes.

## And Finally

I watched this film, not because I had a burning desire to watch it. but rather to have context for if, and when, I see [Furiosa](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVswuip0-co).

I am reading The Three Body Problem ahead of watching the TV series too.

To have my freedom to sleep taken away by a music festival is unpleasant, but that loss of the freedom to sleep