Filmmaker George Miller has gone on record saying that the best version of Mad Max: Fury Road - his critically-acclaimed revival of the post-apocalyptic Mad Max franchise - is a black and white silent cut, which he wanted on the film's Blu-ray release. Unfortunately, Warner Brothers did not include that version with the movie's regular Blu-ray release, to the dismay of many fans.
Nevertheless, a black and white version of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road has now lived and died online - but will Warner Brothers let it live again?
Miller described his ideal version of Fury Road as being not just black and white, but also having “an option to hear just the isolated score as the only soundtrack”, which he argued would be the “purest and most-stripped down version of Fury Road you can imagine.” One fan decided to take on Miller’s vision and posted it to https://blackandchrome.wordpress.com/, which included the black and white version with no dialogue to “realize Miller’s alternate vision”.
Dubbed Black and Chrome, the alternate version was uploaded to Vimeo, but it has unfortunately already been taken off the site. The creator of Black and Chrome went back on the site to express their hope that “the right person(s) will have WITNESSED this and we can look forward to an official version of Mad Max: Fury Road in black and white”.
Considering that the black and white version was missing on the current Fury Road Blu-ray release, it should be expected that the Internet would set out to re-create the alternate version on its own. Given how quickly the video went from trending to being taken down, this illustrates just how large a demand there is for Miller’s "true vision" of the film.
By not including Miller’s black and white version on the Fury Road Blu-ray, WB has denied fans a better glimpse into Miller's mind and the influence of silent film on his work. Miller has said “all film language is defined by the silent movies,” so this alternate version would be a study in how a weird, exhilarating, and downright visually gorgeous movie like Fury Road plays out in the style of silent cinema. To inspire audiences to explore forgotten eras like the silent era would only improve the education of the viewer - maybe WB will take the hint and drop such an official version of the film, at some point in the future?
Mad Max: Fury Road is now available for purchasing on DVD and Blu-ray.
Source: Black and Chrome