Mad Max - 1979
Posted on March 9, 2008 at 9:35 pm by Administrator
Looking at the Mad Max trilogy as a whole, a few unusual things stand out. First, it’s one of the rare series flicks where episode two [The Road Warrior, aka Mad Max 2] was seen by a vastly larger audience than the original. And second, despite going through a transformative series of changes in tone, the Mad Max trilogy has single-handedly re-defined the post-apocalyptic film.
Director George Miller reportedly worked as an Emergency Room doctor in his native Australia to raise the money to film Mad Max. Through wise use of story and setting, the lack of funds barely shows–or at least not any more than your avergae low-budget movie. Max [Mel Gibson] is an Australian cop in a near-future where society is at it’s last stand. Roving gangs of bikers and hot rodders roam the highways of the Australian outback. Max and his fellow officers are the final hand of authority, attempting to maintain order from behind the wheel of their police interceptors.
Early in the movie Max chases down a gangleader named “The Night Rider”. With a methodical patience he hounds the Night Rider on the highway, bumping him from the rear, eventually causing him to lose control and crash in a fiery explosion. When Max’s family is killed by the gang in retaliation, he dusts of his ultimate pursuit vehicle, the co-star of the movie, the Ford Falcon Coupe XB GT, a car which has been manufactured by Ford in Australia since 1960. Not be confused with the US or Argentinian vehicles of the same name.
What ensues is a violent chase movie, set against the backdrop of rural Australia. Which brings me to an aside… In The Road Warrior [aka Mad Max 2] and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome [Mad Max 3], George Miller’s story, co-written by Byron Kennedy, does explain the post-apocalyptic nature of the setting to some degree, however Mad Max appears to happen in a world that is not-quite-post-apocalyptic–the grass is still green, crops are still growing, and most social order still exists. And then at the open of The Road Warrior, the world has been destroyed by a nuclear war. Unless I’m figuring wrong (which I could be), a nuclear war happened some time between Mad Max, and The Road Warrior. They should make a movie out of that story!
The real thrill of Mad Max is the amazing chase scenes and dozens of crashes, explosions, and violent death scenes. Max pursues the members of the gang relentlessly, never giving mercy, and never feeling a thing. Mad Max wasn’t a sensation at the box office, but it should be noted Mad Max arrived at about the same time as HBO and exposed a whole generation of young fans to a movie they probably wouldn’t have seen otherwise. And an interesting side note, the movie was originally shown to American audiences with Mel Gibson’s voice dubbed because producers were afraid Americans wouldn’t understand his Australian accent. The voice track has since been restored to Gibson’s original.
In essence Mad Max is a car movie. The soundtrack is little more than pistons and percussion, plus the cop sirens sound badass and futuristic somehow. Add in the right-drive Australian pursuit vehicles, and it’s a car-lovers paradise. As a childhood fan of movies like Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry, and Vanishing Point, this one sat well with me growing up.
The tone and story are considerably different in each of the sequels, and if you’re like me, you may find yourself liking one and disliking the others. Originally, the sequel was released in the United States as “The Road Warrior” and only recently was it re-titled Mad Max 2, presumably to maximize DVD sales of Mad Max to an audience which has never given it more than cult status.
**** Four Stars ****
