Hope And Glory

It may seem sometimes that all hope is lost when we hear North Korea doing nuclear tests and Russia who have invaded Ukraine for several years now never seems to stop the invasion. I fear that if we let dictators control our nations we will fall, and the ones who will suffer mostly is ordinary civilians who have done nothing wrong. Beneath all that suffering and sadness we need to keep hope alive or we will have nothing more to fight for. I remember the first time back in the 80´s i did get a view of the future when i for the very first time witnessed a VHS film at our neighbors known as The Ostwalds when they had Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in their VHS shelf. Seeing legendary actor Mel Gibson on the front cover as the character Mad Max was the beginning of my big passion for apocalyptic action films. At that time i didn´t know there was 2 other films made before this one so i would eventually pick those films up as well. The whole world surrounding Mad Max seemed so bizarre but at the same time fascinating. Seeing legendary actor Mel Gibson taking on the character of Mad Max was a perfect match and in all of the three films he made in this franchise he brought something magical to each film. My personal favourite is without a doubt The Road Warrior and i can not tell you how many times i have watched this film from director George Miller. I do enjoy the first film as well but for personal reasons i find The Road Warrior much more entertaining than the original film. If you have not seen the three Mad Max films with Mel Gibson for some reason, please check them out on streaming or physical media. The 2015 post apocalyptic action film Mad Max: Fury Road turned out to be one of the best films of that year with actor Tom Hardy as Mad Max and actress Charlize Theron as the bad ass character Furiosa. This film is still today one of my favourite action films in the last 9 years and i am really excited to my cinema visit to see the new prequel Furiosa: A Mad Max Prequel. Not that long ago i read online there was a new Mad Max fan film released on the YouTube channel Brightstone Pictures. The fan film title is Hope And Glory and i noticed some really positive reactions. Since i love watching fan films to classic franchises i just had to check this film out. Is this one of the best fan film i have seen in years or is it not as good as i was hoping it would be?

Out in the wasteland there is nothing more than sand and suffering. Max Rockatansky ( Daniel Grave ) travel through the endless desert to find gasoline and supplies just to be able to survive. As he rescue a captured woman named Hope ( Inken Paland ) from savages, her family offers to supply him with gasoline if he accept to rescue Hope´s little girl Glory ( Lotti Eckle ).

I have seen plenty of fan films over the years and some of them have been surprisingly good, while some of them might have not impressed me that much. I do support fans of films to continue to make fan films because without the fans these franchises would not be able to survive. When it comes to the Mad Max fan film Hope And Glory i have to be honest and say this is the best fan film i have ever seen so far. Not only does this film manage to capture the world surrounding Mad Max but i also feel this film manage to capture the personality and the suffering that Max carry with him everyday. But that´s not all, they also manage to capture the apocalyptic world of Mad Max with so many wonderful details such as the car design, the costume design and in general the atmosphere of the Mad Max universe can be found here with some really nice violence. To be able to pull all of this off in a film less than 50 minutes shows that directors Adrian Martin and Erik van Schoor have done an incredible job on this film and have definetely made the most professional fan film i have seen so far. I also love cinematography from Ludwig Bachmann and Johannes Pfau who clearly worked hard to make this film look as good as it does. Let´s get into the performances and let us begin with actor Daniel Grave playing the character of Max. If you have seen the Mad Max films with Mel Gibson i feel that Daniel Grave tried to capture the same emotional damage that Max had with facial expressions, the anger growing inside of him and i am really impressed with Daniels acting in this fan film. I do enjoy the performance of  actor Alec Rosenthal as the character The Commander, he is the kind of character who Mad Max probably would punch in the face eventually for being so annoying. Hope And Glory is a true love letter to the legacy of Mad Max and there is so much to be pleased about this fan film. It may not reach the same quality level of the real Mad Max films but i am really surprised how good this is. Hope And Glory is must watch for anyone who appreciate apocalyptic films and the end of the world scenarios, that sounds exactly like my kind of paradise.

Rating: DDDD

If you want to see the full film on Brightstone Picture´s YouTube channel, just copy and paste the following link to watch the film:

https://youtu.be/ScyL5W8HZkM?si=YAeT--Y3WaMXWO--