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One of the dilemmas facing movie producers is how much money to make available for a certain movie. Needless to say, a critical factor is the potential financial return. When a low budget affair returns many times more than its original investment, we inevitably have cult status along the lines of Blair Witch Project. An equally strong example was made in 1979. Directed by George Miller, Max Max went on to spawn two further sequels (one good, one not so good) as well as propelling the lead role into a career that has eclipsed the last four decades. ------------------------------------------------------ Main Cast:
Mel Gibson ~ 'Mad' Max Rockatansky Joanne Samuel ~ Jessie Rockatansky Hugh Keays-Byrne ~ The Toecutter Steve Bisley ~ Jim Goose Tim Burns ~ Johnny the Boy Roger Ward ~ Fifi Macaffee
Director: George Miller Writing Credits: George Miller/Byron Kennedy Running Time: 93 minutes Cert: 18 ------------------------------------------------------ Mad Max is the archetypal road movie. Based around a vision of a dystopic future, Mad Max of the title is Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) who is an atypical family man making his living by keeping law and order as a cop.
The movie in its simplest form is a story
of revenge. When a gang of bike crazies severely injure Max's partner, Jim Goose (Steve Bisley), Max decides to resign from the police force. However, whilst on the subsequent sabbatical with his wife (Joanne Samuel), the latter day Hell's Angels catch up with the family precipitating the murder of Max's wife and daughter.
Determined to wreak revenge, Max hits the road in his super charged roadster determined to exact a violent retribution on those responsible for his wife and child's death.
The director, George Miller was born in Queensland in 1945. Responsible for other notable productions including the eclectic "Twilight Zone - The Movie", "Babe" and "Dead Calm", Miller has a reputation for delivering something different. With "Mad Max: Fury Road" in production it seems that The Mad Max saga is destined to continue despite it's apparent fizzling out in "Mad Max 3: Beyond Thunderdome". In this case, both direction and cinematography (David Eggby) are aided by the Antipodean settings although Mad Max would hardly qualify as a sweeping epic.
Bearing in mind the mediocre script, Mel Gibson (aged only 23 and raw as a baby's bottom in acting terms) carries the strong silent-type of hero well enough to secure future roles of an increasing magnitude in subsequent movies. He does dominate the cast with the exception of the uncomfortably convincing Hugh Keats-Byrne as the Toecutter. With a practised crazed expression and seemingly little in the way of morals, Keays Byrne plays the kind of part guaranteed to wake the viewer in the middle of the night as the worst form of nightmare. At times making little sense, his ruthless philosophy (including, it seems, to kill cops when given the chance) lends the shallow motives to the story albeit that rock opera type of death accompanied by loud music (think "The Crow" if a lot less dramatic) makes the film a compulsive watch for those with that kind of disposition.
There are little curios in the film that lend it that far way feel that so rarely make it into modern-day movie making. The scene shot with Max's boss, Fifi Macaffee (Roger Ward) is overtly camp with the seemingly macho police chief watering his plants whilst donning an apron and bare chest. The site of the cigar crunching, inferred homosexual is enough to make the most hardened viewer double take as the obvious dichotomy of the character in that scene is only compounded with a bizarre appeal to Max to think things over rather than quit the force entirely. Remember, the whole "coming out" thing was not that common at the time the movie was made.
Mad Max as a movie has plenty of faults. The special effects belong to the cheapest of horror flicks typified by one of THE most obvious dummies disappearing under a lorry to herald the death of one of the characters. As mentioned already, the script is banal and frankly ludicrous at times. After all, would the gang really want one of its member's dismembered hands returned in exchange for a child held hostage? Perhaps most confusing of all, why would anyone run down a road that appears to go on forever when chased by gangs on motorbikes when there are fields either side which may prove more difficult to negotiate by the pursuers?
Notwithstanding the above, Mad Max is a classic film. Whilst being too short with an abrupt ending and, at times, lacking morale conviction, the movie is a shining testimony to what can be achieved with a low budget. OK, it is prone to the kind of vigilante/fascist accusations thrown at Dirty Harry (which proved the rationale for making Magnum Force) but what makes it compelling is the apocalyptic adrenaline rush it gives to it's audience when watching the white lines down the middle of the road go from day to night as the avenging angel of the title hunts down the bad guys. For anyone with a sense of political correctness then this will not be the movie for you. There are strange religious overtones at the heart of the amoral raping and pillaging of the gang (almost akin to Kubrik's "A Clockwork Orange")whilst the depressing outlook of a world where petrol/gas is the ultimate (if scarce) commodity seems to draw on a Blade Runner kind of Philip Dick, borderline manic depressive scenario of where we all might be in some future time.
Perhaps for a movie of this kind, the Australian outback was the ultimate setting for the 93 minutes of action that was banned in Sweden. Befitting what went before, the finale is as decisive as it is brutal and leaves the viewer to make their own mind up as to the ethics in question. My ultimate recommendation lies in the number of times I've seen Mad Max i.e. several. A slave to it's genre, a master class in low budget shock that is still compelling 24 years later.
Thanks for reading
Marandina
Available on Video and DVD.
DVD priced at £6.99 on Amazon
Technical info: Warner Home Video Edition Details: Region 2 encoding (Europe, Middle East & Japan only) PAL, Widescreen, Dubbed ASIN: B00005MHN8 Catalogue Number: D011170
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Production Year: 2007 - Science Fiction - Director: Francis Lawrence - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Alice Braga, Charlie Tahan, Dash Mihok, Will Smith, Salli Richardson, Willow Smith
The story of Mel Gibson's stately anti-hero begins inMad Max, George Miller's low-budget ... more
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The story of Mel Gibson's stately anti-hero begins inMad Max, George Miller's low-budget ... more
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Nov 18th, 2003
(Nov 19th, 2003)
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