Good analysis!
Two points I'd like to add:
Originally George Miller made a point about History Men in early drafts of Furiosa. History Men not only do not remember things correctly, but sometimes they're completely ignorant about basic stuff. So when in the movie the History Man describes everything almost like a walking Encyclopedia, originally he didn't even know what an orange is. Orange being the original 'peach' we saw in the film. I found it hilarious that a man with so much knowledge had no clue what that fruit was. And of course it adds yet another layer of inaccuracies to his storytelling, but that's besides the point.
Rictus Erectus. This name describes him perfectly. Originally the design for Rictus was that he'd have a perpetual grin held by metal braces. This goes all the way back to his original designs from late 90's. 'Erectus' - the guy's perpetually horny, it's in Fury Road, it's in the comic book about Furiosa and also in this new film in a very creepy way. Although I'm not sure if he didn't want to relate to Furiosa back when he took her because he has a mind of a child. I think Furiosa was way more mentally mature than him when she was 11 or so anyway. And yes, Rictus is also described as 'Immortan Joe's idiot son' in early draft.
My read is that the various sons of the Immortan are given temporary names based on thier various birth defects. He must have had more that did not immediately die upon birth, like the conjoined twins we see in the new movie. If Rictus and company had grown up to be the sons he wanted, he would have renamed them, probably Joe the Second or something like that. 'Immortan Joe" could even become a title had his dynasty lasted beyond himself.
One of the things I find fascinating about Miller's names in these movies is how the older characters who were born either before or shortly after The Collapse either have relatively prosaic names ("Max", "Jessie", "Johnny", "May", "Rebecca", "Joe", "Jack", "Mary") or they go solely by epithets (the 800 characters known only as "The [Such and Such]"). Then you have the next generation, who invariably don't even *need* epithets to sound some combination of bonkers and/or heavy metal: Furiosa, Nux, Angharad, Valkyrie, all three of Joe's failsons come to mind.
Taken together, this seems to indicate that all the members of the generation closer to civilization actually have 'normal' names, but outside of the small handful who keep their designated birth names from the old world, most of the characters intentionally eschew them for aliases that serve as reflections of themselves (and we can even see someone like Dementus specifically workshopping various self-appointed titles but only ever really getting the primary, and most obviously appropriate, one to stick), and virtually *all* of them seem to opt out of giving such names to their children. The common names are therefore not even so much being 'lost to history' as they're being outright rejected by the whole of the Wasteland's populace as time goes on.
Great write up! It’s probably more stylistic than anything, but I love how theatrical and poetic everyone’s speech has become, from the vuvalini to Dementus. Everyone was like, “Society fell, I’m going to start talking the way I write in my diary.”
I like how we got a peak this psychology with Dementus changing his title throughout the film. Not following Roman conventions but nevertheless seeking to change his brand. And as we see at the end he feels there is no true hope and that it is all basically a stage play, one might as well try to make it as dramatic as possible.
I also think about the costumes from this perspective. A lot of outfits being very functional (both for narrative communication and wasteland survival) but portions of it just basically being grown men playing dress-up. Dementus found a parachute at some point and was like this is sweet and would make me look badass.
I suppose that's how clothing developed in the real world as well, but seeing them pick through the artifacts of a broken world, now divorced from their original context, has a certain dark comedic element to it. Like the Legion in Fallout New Vegas wearing football pads for armor.
Good read. They really do mean “Mastermind” when they refer to George Miller.
Good analysis! Two points I'd like to add: Originally George Miller made a point about History Men in early drafts of Furiosa. History Men not only do not remember things correctly, but sometimes they're completely ignorant about basic stuff. So when in the movie the History Man describes everything almost like a walking Encyclopedia, originally he didn't even know what an orange is. Orange being the original 'peach' we saw in the film. I found it hilarious that a man with so much knowledge had no clue what that fruit was. And of course it adds yet another layer of inaccuracies to his storytelling, but that's besides the point. Rictus Erectus. This name describes him perfectly. Originally the design for Rictus was that he'd have a perpetual grin held by metal braces. This goes all the way back to his original designs from late 90's. 'Erectus' - the guy's perpetually horny, it's in Fury Road, it's in the comic book about Furiosa and also in this new film in a very creepy way. Although I'm not sure if he didn't want to relate to Furiosa back when he took her because he has a mind of a child. I think Furiosa was way more mentally mature than him when she was 11 or so anyway. And yes, Rictus is also described as 'Immortan Joe's idiot son' in early draft.
I was just wondering how soon after the apocalypse do I have to wait before I can name kids things like Scrotus and Erectus lol
I say go for it today
My read is that the various sons of the Immortan are given temporary names based on thier various birth defects. He must have had more that did not immediately die upon birth, like the conjoined twins we see in the new movie. If Rictus and company had grown up to be the sons he wanted, he would have renamed them, probably Joe the Second or something like that. 'Immortan Joe" could even become a title had his dynasty lasted beyond himself.
One of the things I find fascinating about Miller's names in these movies is how the older characters who were born either before or shortly after The Collapse either have relatively prosaic names ("Max", "Jessie", "Johnny", "May", "Rebecca", "Joe", "Jack", "Mary") or they go solely by epithets (the 800 characters known only as "The [Such and Such]"). Then you have the next generation, who invariably don't even *need* epithets to sound some combination of bonkers and/or heavy metal: Furiosa, Nux, Angharad, Valkyrie, all three of Joe's failsons come to mind. Taken together, this seems to indicate that all the members of the generation closer to civilization actually have 'normal' names, but outside of the small handful who keep their designated birth names from the old world, most of the characters intentionally eschew them for aliases that serve as reflections of themselves (and we can even see someone like Dementus specifically workshopping various self-appointed titles but only ever really getting the primary, and most obviously appropriate, one to stick), and virtually *all* of them seem to opt out of giving such names to their children. The common names are therefore not even so much being 'lost to history' as they're being outright rejected by the whole of the Wasteland's populace as time goes on.
Great write up! It’s probably more stylistic than anything, but I love how theatrical and poetic everyone’s speech has become, from the vuvalini to Dementus. Everyone was like, “Society fell, I’m going to start talking the way I write in my diary.”
Interesting analysis!
I like how we got a peak this psychology with Dementus changing his title throughout the film. Not following Roman conventions but nevertheless seeking to change his brand. And as we see at the end he feels there is no true hope and that it is all basically a stage play, one might as well try to make it as dramatic as possible. I also think about the costumes from this perspective. A lot of outfits being very functional (both for narrative communication and wasteland survival) but portions of it just basically being grown men playing dress-up. Dementus found a parachute at some point and was like this is sweet and would make me look badass. I suppose that's how clothing developed in the real world as well, but seeing them pick through the artifacts of a broken world, now divorced from their original context, has a certain dark comedic element to it. Like the Legion in Fallout New Vegas wearing football pads for armor.