Mad Max: Fury Road - The Silent Cut (2020)

Director George Miller wanted a version of Mad Mad: Fury Road on the Blu-ray/DVD consisting of only the musical score accompanied by black & white visuals. This fan edit is an attempt to create what he referred to as "The Silent Cut" using the visuals from the "Black & Chrome Edition" of "Mad Max: Fury Road" and the original motion picture soundtrack by Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL). This version is not for profit and is merely an attempt to give fans a cut of the film that even George Miller himself said he preferred.

The following is George Miller in an Indiewire interview (23 July 2019):

"With sound, film lost its agility; suddenly cameras and sound equipment were massive. It took a decade or two before technology allowed the cameras to be more mobile. So by then for people most film language was defined. The biggest change since then is the digital dispensation, when you are able to do virtually anything and move the camera where you want to move; the film language has shifted to the point that we’re speed-reading now.

But that’s what got me. These were really the prime movers of the first 'Mad Max.' I wanted to make a movie, as Hitchcock said, 'where you didn’t have to read the subtitles in Japan.' You could read it as a silent movie and still get most of what you needed in terms of the story. I really took that seriously. I remember living near a drive-in in Melbourne on top of a hill; I’d drive past it outside and watch the movie purely silently. I got into the habit of turning off the sound on my favorite movies if they come up on television, and realized how the film had to read first as a silent movie before the advantage of information came to you sonically.

We did the same thing with 'Fury Road.' We insisted on not putting the temp music and sound effects in as we watched the movie. Margaret was with me on this: If it plays as a silent movie, if you can read it and it’s clear and smooth and creamy, you know it will play with sound and the music."

Thanks to George Miller, Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) and everyone else (too many to list) involved in making this film that I personally consider to be not only incomparably well-crafted in every single detail but also timeless in each and every way. In my opinion, this film now needs to be mentioned in the same breath as films like 1927's "Metropolis" (1927) and 1926's "The General." (Personally, I think it's better than the former, but nothing will top the latter) ;-) - Tim Stabers (editor of this not-for-profit fan edit)