Mad Max, the original and still the best.
The original MAD MAX, the movie that started it all, still holds up, and you can’t say that about every classic from back in the day, especially an action film dependent on stunts and effects that have only gotten bigger and grander in the years since its release in 1979, just watch the FAST AND FURIOUS franchise to see what I am talking about. Not only does Max and his bad company hold up, it is still one of the great thrill rides in cinema, a visceral experience, even on repeat viewings. Though considered a classic of the action genre, which it redefined, it remains one of the finest mash ups of action and scifi, along with outright horror. MAD MAX has one foot firmly in one of the ‘70s most conspicuous genres – the vigilante cop film, an eclectic group that includes everything from DIRTY HARRY to WALKING TALL. In story structure, MAX very much resembles a classic western with the forces of law and order doing battle with a gang of outlaws, just switch out horses for Ford Falcons and motorcycles. It also went a long way toward establishing the post apocalyptic dystopia genre that is still with us, just watch any season of THE WALKING DEAD, and you can find a few tropes that MAX made popular – how much different are Negan and the Governor from The Toecutter, Lord Humongous, and Auntie Entity? And of course, MAD MAX is a legitimate contender for the greatest car chase movie of all time, another ‘70s subgenre that began with BULLITT and THE FRENCH CONNECTION and went on to SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT among many others. In fact, by the end of the decade, critics were complaining loudly about how tired they were of hearing squealing tires and seeing vehicles crash, just read any contemporary review of THE BLUES BROTHERS. If anything, MAX reinvigorated, and reinvented, a tired cliché, and gave it new life.
Though it is remembered as the film that put Mel Gibson on everyone’s radar, looking back, it is obvious the true star of MAD MAX is George Miller, the former Australian MD turned Down Under movie director. It’s Miller who infused the script with his own real life experiences from working in an emergency room, and observing his countrymen’s violent reaction to gasoline shortages in the early ‘70s where violent fights erupted when someone tried to cut in the long lines at gas stations. It also helped that Australia had a vigorous car culture as well. The script, written by Miller and producer, Byron Kennedy, is a masterpiece of economical storytelling, produced on a budget coming in under $500,000 (Miller and Kennedy had to put up some of their own cash), with principle shooting taking place around Melbourne in late 1977 and early 1978. Some of the shoot legitimately qualified as “guerilla film making” as they did not have permits to set up cameras at some of the locations, although by all reports, the Victoria police proved to be quite cooperative. It was Miller’s use of widescreen and panning in establishing shots, and more importantly, mounting cameras on fenders, along with tight editing that made the film such a stunning experience, not mention a classic of visual storytelling. During the many chase scenes, we feel like we are truly there with Max, or the Goose, or the hapless victims of the villains. We ride right along with Toecutter and his gang, all but sharing the fate of some character just before impact obliterates them – who can forget the image of eyes bulging in their sockets with the realization of imminent death. Brian May’s score seldom gets mentioned when the film is discussed, but with its echoes of Bernard Herrmann’s best work for Hitchcock, it is essential to the film’s success.
The film itself clocks in just over a tight hour and half, and I am forever impressed with the way Miller seamlessly changes moods, and genres, from one scene to the other. The opening, where the harried police (called The Bronze), chase down the out of control Nightrider (“I’m a fuel injected suicide machine”) along the two lane black tops, is an action film masterpiece, while introducing two of the main protagonists, the up for anything Jim Goose, and the quieter, but very competent, Max Rockatansky. There are few other films, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK might be the exception, that hit the ground running better. But very soon the villains of the piece show up to claim the remains of their fallen comrade, and terrorize a small community in the process – just like Brando and his gang in THE WILDD ONE. This culminates with one innocent bystander dragged to his death behind a motorcycle, and a young man and a girl being chased down and gang raped. When one of the younger members of the gang is arrested by Goose, a series of increasingly deadly confrontations are set in motion, with many casualties, and lots of collateral damage, until only two characters remain. And then there is one, who rides away into the sequel. While we just remember the incredible action scenes, equally memorable are the domestic scenes between Max and his wife Jessie and their toddler son. Played by Jeanne Samuels, Jessie is such a great wife; she and Mel Gibson make a wonderful couple. It is essential that we understand what Max loses when the Toecutter’s gang catches up with them, and his family’s horrible fate (that much worse because we don’t see the graphic details) haunts him through all the subsequent films. And the seamless switch between genres is never more evident than in the sequence where Jessie walks through the woods to the beach, gradually becoming aware that she is not alone – this is right out of a horror film. This leads to a finale, where Max hunts down those who have destroyed his family, and gets his revenge; one of the finest, most suspenseful, and tightly edited action sequences to be found anywhere. There are few films that have a stronger third act than MAD MAX. Then we come full circle back to horror in the climax between Max and Johnny the Boy, which directly influenced SAW.
One of the reasons why MAD MAX works so well is that while it has a great appealing hero in the young early 20s Mel Gibson, it also has some spectacularly nasty villains. Bubba Zenetti, Cundalini, Johnny the Boy, and their leader The Toecutter, are not only punk sadists, but there is a strong suggestion of sexual degeneracy (long a plot device by writers to make readers hate the bad guys more) rampant among them. “Push me, shove you, says who?” that, and the strongly implied rape of a boy and girl by the gang, not to mention the fey Toecutter’s strong interest in Johnny the Boy, are a striking contrast to the straight arrow Max, and his happy home life with Jessie. All this is due to the fine acting by Hugh Keays-Byrne as the smirking, sadistic, one eye browed Toecutter, and Tim Burns’ smarmy Johnny, a clear cousin to Andy Robinson’s Scorpio from DIRTY HARRY. What is also so striking now is how well MAD MAX plays off the deep anxieties of the late ‘70s, the era of the energy crisis, rampant inflation and low economic growth, the fall of South Vietnam, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the rise of the Ayatollah. World events seemed to be sliding toward some kind of disaster, either economic or an outright world war – maybe both - with no political leadership capable of turning things around. The opening of the film says that it is set a few years into the future, where the situation has only gotten worse. Some reviewers state that MAD MAX takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between the super powers, but that is more clearly stated in the immediate sequel, THE ROAD WARRIOR, where civilization has vanished entirely. I think the original film happens in a world where there has been an economic meltdown, where governments have gone broke, especially local ones, where an under manned police work out of a burned out HQ, allowing criminal gangs to roam with virtual impunity as the underpinnings of society crumble just a little more each day.
MAD MAX was a huge hit in Australia, and worldwide, being released in America in the spring of 1980 by American International Pictures, the legendary AIP, a company well known for releasing exploitation films. Most Americans didn’t know what to make of it, the poster sold it as a scifi film, and it really didn’t find an audience to embrace it until the movie began running in heavy rotation on cable a year later. By the time Miller’s sequel, MAD MAX 2 or THE ROAD WARRIOR, as it was known in America, was released in the fall of 1982, it was highly anticipated and became a big hit. When the third film, BEYOND THUNDERDOME (Gibson’s last turn as Max), opened in the summer of 1985, it was a genuine blockbuster. But for me, there is something about the original that is still unsurpassed, it bursts with the energy of film makers who are filled with joy at the prospect of making a labor of love, and the eagerness to take chances, the kind you don’t take when you are working on a big budget sequel, and having to worry about meeting fan’s expectations.
After the initial three films, Max went on a long hiatus, not reappearing until 2015, when MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was released, proving that he was a perfect fit for the 21st Century. Hugh Keays-Byrne was back playing the Big Bad, this time a monster named Immortan Joe, but this new Max swapped out Tom Hardy for Mel Gibson (who’d had a lot of mileage since his days as a fresh faced kid in the first movie), but George Miller was back in the director’s chair, proving that time had not diminished the true star of MAD MAX. This time Max snagged a Best Picture Oscar nomination. He should have won.
I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords
Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmgS
Though it is remembered as the film that put Mel Gibson on everyone’s radar, looking back, it is obvious the true star of MAD MAX is George Miller, the former Australian MD turned Down Under movie director. It’s Miller who infused the script with his own real life experiences from working in an emergency room, and observing his countrymen’s violent reaction to gasoline shortages in the early ‘70s where violent fights erupted when someone tried to cut in the long lines at gas stations. It also helped that Australia had a vigorous car culture as well. The script, written by Miller and producer, Byron Kennedy, is a masterpiece of economical storytelling, produced on a budget coming in under $500,000 (Miller and Kennedy had to put up some of their own cash), with principle shooting taking place around Melbourne in late 1977 and early 1978. Some of the shoot legitimately qualified as “guerilla film making” as they did not have permits to set up cameras at some of the locations, although by all reports, the Victoria police proved to be quite cooperative. It was Miller’s use of widescreen and panning in establishing shots, and more importantly, mounting cameras on fenders, along with tight editing that made the film such a stunning experience, not mention a classic of visual storytelling. During the many chase scenes, we feel like we are truly there with Max, or the Goose, or the hapless victims of the villains. We ride right along with Toecutter and his gang, all but sharing the fate of some character just before impact obliterates them – who can forget the image of eyes bulging in their sockets with the realization of imminent death. Brian May’s score seldom gets mentioned when the film is discussed, but with its echoes of Bernard Herrmann’s best work for Hitchcock, it is essential to the film’s success.
The film itself clocks in just over a tight hour and half, and I am forever impressed with the way Miller seamlessly changes moods, and genres, from one scene to the other. The opening, where the harried police (called The Bronze), chase down the out of control Nightrider (“I’m a fuel injected suicide machine”) along the two lane black tops, is an action film masterpiece, while introducing two of the main protagonists, the up for anything Jim Goose, and the quieter, but very competent, Max Rockatansky. There are few other films, RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK might be the exception, that hit the ground running better. But very soon the villains of the piece show up to claim the remains of their fallen comrade, and terrorize a small community in the process – just like Brando and his gang in THE WILDD ONE. This culminates with one innocent bystander dragged to his death behind a motorcycle, and a young man and a girl being chased down and gang raped. When one of the younger members of the gang is arrested by Goose, a series of increasingly deadly confrontations are set in motion, with many casualties, and lots of collateral damage, until only two characters remain. And then there is one, who rides away into the sequel. While we just remember the incredible action scenes, equally memorable are the domestic scenes between Max and his wife Jessie and their toddler son. Played by Jeanne Samuels, Jessie is such a great wife; she and Mel Gibson make a wonderful couple. It is essential that we understand what Max loses when the Toecutter’s gang catches up with them, and his family’s horrible fate (that much worse because we don’t see the graphic details) haunts him through all the subsequent films. And the seamless switch between genres is never more evident than in the sequence where Jessie walks through the woods to the beach, gradually becoming aware that she is not alone – this is right out of a horror film. This leads to a finale, where Max hunts down those who have destroyed his family, and gets his revenge; one of the finest, most suspenseful, and tightly edited action sequences to be found anywhere. There are few films that have a stronger third act than MAD MAX. Then we come full circle back to horror in the climax between Max and Johnny the Boy, which directly influenced SAW.
One of the reasons why MAD MAX works so well is that while it has a great appealing hero in the young early 20s Mel Gibson, it also has some spectacularly nasty villains. Bubba Zenetti, Cundalini, Johnny the Boy, and their leader The Toecutter, are not only punk sadists, but there is a strong suggestion of sexual degeneracy (long a plot device by writers to make readers hate the bad guys more) rampant among them. “Push me, shove you, says who?” that, and the strongly implied rape of a boy and girl by the gang, not to mention the fey Toecutter’s strong interest in Johnny the Boy, are a striking contrast to the straight arrow Max, and his happy home life with Jessie. All this is due to the fine acting by Hugh Keays-Byrne as the smirking, sadistic, one eye browed Toecutter, and Tim Burns’ smarmy Johnny, a clear cousin to Andy Robinson’s Scorpio from DIRTY HARRY. What is also so striking now is how well MAD MAX plays off the deep anxieties of the late ‘70s, the era of the energy crisis, rampant inflation and low economic growth, the fall of South Vietnam, the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and the rise of the Ayatollah. World events seemed to be sliding toward some kind of disaster, either economic or an outright world war – maybe both - with no political leadership capable of turning things around. The opening of the film says that it is set a few years into the future, where the situation has only gotten worse. Some reviewers state that MAD MAX takes place in the aftermath of a nuclear exchange between the super powers, but that is more clearly stated in the immediate sequel, THE ROAD WARRIOR, where civilization has vanished entirely. I think the original film happens in a world where there has been an economic meltdown, where governments have gone broke, especially local ones, where an under manned police work out of a burned out HQ, allowing criminal gangs to roam with virtual impunity as the underpinnings of society crumble just a little more each day.
MAD MAX was a huge hit in Australia, and worldwide, being released in America in the spring of 1980 by American International Pictures, the legendary AIP, a company well known for releasing exploitation films. Most Americans didn’t know what to make of it, the poster sold it as a scifi film, and it really didn’t find an audience to embrace it until the movie began running in heavy rotation on cable a year later. By the time Miller’s sequel, MAD MAX 2 or THE ROAD WARRIOR, as it was known in America, was released in the fall of 1982, it was highly anticipated and became a big hit. When the third film, BEYOND THUNDERDOME (Gibson’s last turn as Max), opened in the summer of 1985, it was a genuine blockbuster. But for me, there is something about the original that is still unsurpassed, it bursts with the energy of film makers who are filled with joy at the prospect of making a labor of love, and the eagerness to take chances, the kind you don’t take when you are working on a big budget sequel, and having to worry about meeting fan’s expectations.
After the initial three films, Max went on a long hiatus, not reappearing until 2015, when MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was released, proving that he was a perfect fit for the 21st Century. Hugh Keays-Byrne was back playing the Big Bad, this time a monster named Immortan Joe, but this new Max swapped out Tom Hardy for Mel Gibson (who’d had a lot of mileage since his days as a fresh faced kid in the first movie), but George Miller was back in the director’s chair, proving that time had not diminished the true star of MAD MAX. This time Max snagged a Best Picture Oscar nomination. He should have won.
I am an indie author and my latest novel is ALL THE WAY WITH JFK: AN ALTERNATE HISTORY OF 1964. It is available at the following:
http://amzn.to/2jVkW9m on Amazon
http://bit.ly/2kAoiAH at Smashwords
Visit my Goodreads author's page at:
http://bit.ly/2nxmgS
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