Cirrus@Austlit

'In an early scene in Furiosa, the fifth film in the Mad Max series, the Guardian of ‘Gastown’ (Peter Stephens) is found patiently painting atop his comically high tower, completing a scale reproduction of Hylas and the Nymphs, a legend from Greek and Roman mythology in which nymphs seduce a brash, youthful male hero while he searches for drinking water, painted initially by British artist John William Waterhouse in the late 1800s. Gastown, for those few who’ve never caught a Mad Max movie, is the reserve holding the petrol that powers the all-important vehicles in the Wasteland, the landscape in which the film cycle is set. The Guardian is unaware that a ‘great horde’ is descending upon his Wasteland fortress to depose him. When interrupted by a phone-call warning, the Guardian turns towards the camera, revealing his sallow beard and almost Bonapartist regalia, while surveying the impending threat. The following shot is trained on the horde leader Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), rapidly encroaching on the Wasteland’s sole ‘guzzolene’ refinery, riding in on a tri-motor cycle-powered Roman chariot.' (Introduction)