After Star Wars blew audiences away in 1977, everyone was lining up to try and make something dramatically different in hopes that it might catch on as well. This occurred to such a degree that an individual had to look hard for a movie that was truly unique and still worth watching, and such was the case with Byron Kennedy and George Miller’s 1979 Australian-made Mad Max. Although today virtually forgotten and infinitely overshadowed by its two sequels, Mad Max was the underground movie that started both the series and the momentum of one Mel Gibson’s acting career.
Mad Max takes place in a turbulent world in the not-so-distant future where vicious biker gangs rule the roads and the law is nearly powerless to stop them. Lost in the shuffle, a young, hotrodding patrol officer named Max Rockatansky (Gibson) who has begun to have doubts regarding his job and wants away to spend more time with his wife and child. Max’s superiors, however, are determined to make him stay, as they realize he’s their best hope for restoring a sense of heroic dignity to the thoroughly ridiculed police force. In the end, it’s the biker gangs that make the decision for Max, as they start to terrorize first his friends and then his family, leaving him with no other alternative but to seek revenge.
At least, that’s the basic idea.
A subtitle during the opening sequence of the movie designates Mad Max as taking place “a few years from now,” which is either an insightful message as to the instability of our world or a clever way of avoiding the task of making things seem too far removed from present time. Either way, don’t expect a grand post-apocalyptic vision as seen in The Road Warrior or Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. With Mad Max, it’s often difficult for an American viewer such as myself to completely discern if particular elements of the movie were really creative perceptions of the future or just typical, everyday Australian conventions in the late seventies. Did parents there ordinarily name their kids “Sprog”?
Don’t get me wrong, however, as Kennedy and Miller certainly have a vision, and Mad Max is unarguably unique. And, despite having been aspiring, low-budget filmmakers at the time, both Kennedy and Miller knew what they were doing when they made this movie. Every scene is professionally and sometimes innovatively shot, with cinematographic direction taking inspiration from a veritable assortment of genres, each one used at exactly the right moments.
Most notable are the automobile scenes, though, which prosper through quick, dramatic shots that add a sensation of pure intensity and speed. The lore of Mad Max is heavily encircled in motor vehicles, probably the greatest appeal to many of the movie’s fans. This does not necessarily focus on car chases, which are actually rather few and far between, but a deep, abiding respect for the vehicles and their performance, to a degree where they and the road actually feel like significant characters themselves. The car chases that do take place are rather raw and gritty, all legitimately performed in days before filmmakers could cheat using computer animation.
In fact, just about all of Mad Max is raw and gritty in some respect. It’s not a particularly bloody or gory movie, but it is very graphic in respects to its often-sheer brutality. For instance, a scene where the biker gang demolishes a young couple’s car (with the couple still inside) while laughing maniacally is considerably unsettling, despite the fact that no actual harm is seen inflicted upon the victims. Most of the violence is implied, just done so in a way that makes it more effective than had it actually taken place onscreen. The music, definitely much better than the standard low-budget fare, helps immensely in heightening the emotion and overall gloomy atmosphere.
And, okay, yeah, this movie stars a young Mel Gibson. Mad Max was the movie that introduced him to American audiences and changed his acting career forever. Even here, in his early twenties, he’s admittedly got a charm that probably destined his future in Hollywood. The intimate monologue Max shares with his wife partway through is really the processed cheese portion of the movie, but Gibson does his best with what the script had to offer. And he does manage to portray the psychological change in his character near the end stunningly well.
Gibson is a good actor, although, if you’re watching the original U.S. release of Mad Max, you’re not quite getting the full effect of his performance. For some bizarre reason, distributors over here decided to dub over the Australian voices, including that of Mel Gibson. The result isn’t quite as bad as Godzilla-dubbing, and some casual viewers may fail to notice it, but it still isn’t perfect. Gibson does, at the very least, sound like a younger version of the one we’ve come to know.
The other actors are relative unknowns over here, but they all do a great job in their respective roles. Hugh Keays-Byrne, actually a Shakespearian performer, is a strange yet intelligent choice as the Toecutter, the biker gang’s charismatic leader. Steve Bisley, who plays Jim Goose, Max’s best friend and fellow patrol officer, has the problematic habit of sometimes having infinitely more personality than Gibson. My personal favorite, however, is Roger Ward, who stars as Max’s boss, a towering, bald, cigar-smoking man brilliantly named “Fifi Macaffee.” His character’s name alone makes him worth mentioning.
Conclusively, Mad Max definitely lives up to its name as a cult classic. It’s peculiar at times, campy at others, but it’s a very powerful movie, one that warrants and often sometimes necessitates repeated viewings to get the full effect. Fans expecting another Road Warrior won’t get exactly what they’re looking for, but will still find another cult movie worth watching, even if just for the sake of curiosity.
If you do plan on checking out Mad Max, I strongly recommend looking for the recently released DVD special edition. Not only is it the first-ever offering of the Australian dialogue here in the U.S., but it’s also packed full of great special features, a new 5.1 Dolby Digital track, and options for both the widescreen and “pan and scan” versions of the movie. And, for those who were weaned otherwise, the dubbed voices are still available here, too. With a retail price of only $14.99 or so, it’s probably the best DVD investment I’ve made in a long time.
Setting Mel Gibson on a sure path to superstardom, this highly acclaimed crazy collide-o-scope (Newsweek) of highway mayhem cinematically defined the ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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