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Mel Gibson achieved global recognition with this Australian action-thriller set in the near dystopian future from writer/director George Miller (The Witches of Eastwick, Babe). Gibson plays Max Rockatansky, a policeman who inadvertently starts war with a violent motorcycle gang after one of their members dies in a police chase. After another gang member is released from jail on a technicality, Max quits the force to spend time with his wife (Joanne Samuel) and young child. But the gang pursues him relentlessly, endangering his family and forcing him to become the title character in not just one movie, but a trilogy of films that become increasingly post-apocalyptic.
Miller imbues Mad Max with operatic drama and comic book violence for a tone and feel unlike anything else audiences had seen at the time. Character development and personality are conveyed with an economy of dialogue in a script that moves rapidly. Gibson is a natural in the film. Max is part of an ensemble in the beginning, but as the motorcycle gang gets more and more dangerous, Max’s rage brings him closer and closer to stand-alone hero status. Hugh Keays-Byrne gives a memorably ruthless performance as the gang’s leader, ‘Toecutter’, a man who is revered by his underlings almost as a religious figure — a theme that Miller would revisit and enhance in subsequent Mad Max movies. (Keays-Byrne would return to the franchise as the villainous Immortan Joe in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road.) The rest of the supporting players are all more than competent, including Steve Bisley and Roger Ward as two of Max’s fellow cops, Tim Burns and Geoff Parry as gang members, and Sheila Florance as an elderly woman who tries to help Max and his family in their time of need.
In execution, the film is a bit rough around the edges. The sound recording is rough in spots, making it difficult to understand some of the dialogue. (This problem persists even in modern 5.1 surround upgrades.) Brian May’s score also feels too loud and overwrought at times. But Miller achieves a distinct, visceral style with this film that fits its revenge narrative like a glove. The never-ending stretches of empty road and desolate landscapes lend a spooky, apocalyptic vibe to the movie. The exaggerated personalities of many characters, and their often fetishistic leather costumes, underline an odd, ironic, animalistic joyfulness about the film’s impending ‘the end times’. Mad Max is a unique, thrilling film on its own, but it’s just the beginning of Miller’s fascinating exploration of humanity in survival mode, dancing at the edge of extinction.
With David Bracks and Bertrand Cadart.