There are many almost forgotten films in the history of cinema, which seem to be nameless, but inadvertently promote the development of cinema.
On April 12, 1979, [Mad Max] was released in Australia, and the vast desert, the furious motorcycle party, and the angry police began a story of revenge.
Although it did not make much waves at the time, it unexpectedly opened a new style of film, that is, the "wasteland wind" that is now highly respected.
©️ [Mad Max] 1979
Although many people probably began to contact and understand this series from [Mad Max 4: Fury Road], this "apocalyptic and dilapidated aesthetic" has already laid the foundation in the first part.
Because of the first attempt, there were three later wasteland films.
©️ [Mad Max 4: Fury Road] 2015
At this year's "North Film Festival", the "Series of Food" section will be fully screened [Mad Max] tetralogy, and we plan to talk about the origin and flow of wasteland movies.
Survival and destruction can be regarded as an enduring theme in the history of human culture, whether it is literature or image, religion or science, there seems to be an inexhaustible creative impulse on this topic.
In the Old Testament Genesis 3,000 years ago, there is a clear record of Noah's Ark, in which God, angry at human greed and sin, washed away the world with a flood, and only the beings in Noah's Ark survived.
The Mayan civilization's prophecy of the end of the world is even more blunt, which is the end of the world in 2012, which also has a disaster film that shows the picture of the end of the world like [2012].
©️ [2012] Apocalyptic landscape is presented
People's infinite imagination of the end times is rooted in human fear of death and the desire for survival, on the basis of which two types of films have been derived, one is a disaster film, and the other is a wasteland film.
Disaster films focus on why the world was destroyed, and wasteland films go deeper, and destruction itself is not the focus, it focuses on the exploration of surviving civilization and humanity after disasters.
Of course, the early wasteland films are not called this name, but a somewhat vague type division, from the emergence to the self-contained faction also underwent a not short process.
In detail, the earliest wasteland themes should be traced back to the Period of World War II. The source is humanity's fear of the crisis of nuclear war.
In August 1945, U.S. troops dropped two atomic bombs on Japan's Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the two cities were razed to the ground almost instantaneously, killing countless people. This is the first and only time in history that human beings have used nuclear weapons in war, and the huge lethality has made mankind wake up to the fact that the end is not far away from us.
The apocalyptic panic of the industrial age spread, but there was no such word as "wasteland."
©️Ruins of Hiroshima after the atomic bombing in 1945
In 1968, a movie called "Planet of the Apes" was released, which caused a lot of repercussions.
This is the first film to deal with the "concept of wasteland", which is also undefined but the idea is quite close to the later wasteland film, and the structure of the entire worldview is directly striking.
The film is based on the novel of the same name by French writer Pierre Buller, in which a spaceship from the 20th century finally crashes on Earth in 3978 after nearly six months of light-speed flight.
©️ [Planet of the Apes] shows a post-apocalyptic era in which an ape ruled over humanity
At this time, human beings have already rapidly declined in greed and mutual killing, and are almost extinct, the owners of the earth have been replaced by autonomously conscious apes, and humans have become beasts for their hunting and study.
The dilapidated Statue of Liberty by the sea is the symbol of this apocalyptic world.
©️ [Planet of the Apes] ends with a classic scene that strikes straight at the heart
If [Planet of the Apes] is a superficial taste of the "Wasteland" form, then the "Mad Max" series 11 years later is a complete attempt.
On April 12, 1979, Australian director George Miller released the first installment of his new "Mad Max" series. The film depicts a chaotic society, representing the irregular, unstructured Biker Party running rampant in the desert, and the policeman Max takes revenge for his friends and family, and finally embarks on the road of wandering alone.
Although the film does not yet conform to the world structure of the "wasteland of the end times" and is generally regarded as a road movie, the vast expanse of yellow sand, the galloping locomotives and the decorative style of steampunk all paint a prototype for the subsequent "wasteland world".
Two years later, George Miller exploded into a god-made [Mad Max 2], and this time the film's setting went a step further, for the depleted earth, life withered, dreams were destroyed, order was lost, and everything returned to its original state.
Under the law of survival, only the cruel predators have the right to live. In order to survive on the fuel, Max the Wanderer and the road warrior chase and fight, the desert is uninhabited, the locomotive with skulls, the rock warrior with a Mohican head and a riveted leather coat, wearing an iron mask and a dirty picture, a rough and bleak picture of the end of the world jumps to the screen.
©️ [Mad Max 2] already has the prototype of a fourth "Fury Road"
The wasteland aesthetic has since taken shape, and [Mad Max 2] has become a landmark work on the subject.
One Earth, One Worry. When this apocalyptic decadent aesthetics arose in Australia, the island nation of Japan, far across the Pacific, also began to study the subject. Because of the atomic bomb itself and the limited resources of the island countries, the Japanese people are only worried about the end of the world compared to other countries.
Inspired by Mad Max in 1984, Japanese manga artists Takeruzumi and Tetsuo Hara created the fighting manga Hokuto Shinken, which was adapted into an anime by Toei in the same year.
In "Big Dipper God Fist", the nuclear war that swept the world buried the entire human civilization, the earth cracked, the sea dried up, and the human beings who survived had to fight for fresh water and food in order to survive. In order to rescue the slaves of human beings, Kenjiro, the heir of the Hokuto Divine Fist, walks alone in the ruined heavens and the earth, becoming a savior against the powerful forces.
©️ "Big Dipper God Fist"
In the animation, the tone is dull and the scene is violent, and on the basis of [Mad Max's] truckpunk and mechanical industry, some oriental elements and architecture are integrated, decadent and desolate, forming a composite and diversified apocalyptic beauty.
Six years later, this doomsday wave blew into the gaming space.
Electronic Arts (EA) has developed a video game called Wasteland, which is set in a barren earth after the nuclear war in 2078, when human civilization has completely collapsed, and players need to survive in a "wasteland" after being bombed by nuclear bombs.
Due to its creativity, the game has also been revered by players as the godfather of the "post-disaster" game style, winning numerous awards.
©️ Wasteland video game
And this apocalyptic and dilapidated aesthetics, which gradually emerged from The Second World War, was also officially titled "Wasteland" in this year. From the prototype to the perfection to the name, the "wasteland" aesthetic took a total of 20 years.
However, "Wasteland" only enjoyed popularity in the United States and did not have a huge impact on the world. The term "wasteland" was really well known to Chinese players in 1997.
This year, the American company Interway launched another post-disaster game, "Fallout". The main story line is similar to that of Wasteland, but its concept design and details are more perfect, especially the two elements of dog and mechanical armor, which became a common thing in the later creation of Wasteland art, and the mecha and puppy in [Alita: Battle Angel] are examples.
©️ Elements of dog and mechanical armor in Fallout
©️ [Alita: Battle Angel] shows a wasteland world after the World War
In 2015, [Mad Max 4: Fury Road] was released, sweeping the Oscars of that year, and won six awards for best costume design, art direction, makeup and hairstyles, and sound effects. Many people learn that wasteland movies start with this film.
Thick apocalyptic wasteland storms, death rock spitting basses that burst into flames, and adrenaline-pumping modified locomotives fill the screen, running wild and too cool to be described in words. It creates a full and three-dimensional, flesh-and-blood picture of human survival after the end of the world.
Compared with [Mad Max 3] 30 years ago, [Mad Max 4: Fury Road] has been exhausted in both aesthetic style and picture detail texture, and wasteland movies are close to perfection.
©️ [Mad Max 4: Fury Road] is the pinnacle of the Wasteland aesthetic
Although more than 50 years have passed since its emergence to maturity, in the eyes of loyal fans, "wasteland films" have been juxtaposed with disaster films and science fiction films, but in fact, there is still no very accurate positioning of the "wasteland film genre", and most of the time it is still a branch of science fiction films, but it is stained with a strong "visual wasteland feeling".
In the final analysis, the biggest charm of wasteland movies is the inner worldview structure and the depth of thinking about the fate of mankind.
When the existing civilized order is destroyed, when everything returns to a primitive and dilapidated state, where should human beings go, whether they will fall into the dark and live in the dark, or will they fight for hope with good intentions?
Survival or destruction has been a serious problem since ancient times. On this basis, wasteland films not only show the process of human civilization and new order, but also explore the struggles and choices of survivors' human nature, which is both story and thought, which is why this subject has been full of vitality for half a century.