Review: Mad Max (1979)

Mad Max

Rating

Director

George Miller

Screenplay

James McCausland, George Miller, Byron Kennedy

Length

1h 28m

Starring

Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward, Lisa Aldenhoven, David Bracks, Bertrand Cadart

MPAA Rating

Review

The gritty futuristic world of Mad Max is a familiar one to modern audiences. Much of our post-apocalyptic fiction is built around it, but when looking back at the genre’s forebears, it becomes obvious that high ideas often came out of the least expensive productions.

Before George Miller made a name for himself in Hollywood, his breakthrough feature was this 1979 Australian drama set in the near-future. How much of the lore we know from his subsequent three features or which originated here is difficult to say. The seeds are there, but they aren’t nearly as fleshed out as they would be in his 1981 follow up, The Road Warrior. Like that film, this one stars a pre-stardom Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, the Main Force Patrol’s top pursuit officer whose wife and young son are in the cross-hairs of one of the motorcycle gangs in the story.

The Acolytes are led by the morally reprehensible Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and are seeking revenge for the death of one of their own in the high speed chase that opens the film. Their brand of brutal violence is reminiscent of that employed by the Droogs in A Clockwork Orange. A familiarity with Kubrick’s masterpiece only diminishes the impact of the violence in this film, it doesn’t excuse it or make it bearable. These films are a part of a subgenre of science fiction that posits a darker, more dangerous world in the future.

Gibson has only ever been a serviceable actor. His performances always have a patina of superficiality to them and this is no different. Part of that is a script that writes Max in rather broad strokes. Add to the fact that most of the story is told through car chases and violence, his lack of emotive capabilities don’t inhibit the film as they have in other efforts. They fit his persona almost perfectly. It’s an example of a strong writer and director working with what he has rather than what he wants.

Like Kubrick’s film, Miller’s is filled with stylistic flourishes. Whereas Kubrick’s films have always had a certain gloss and sheen to them, Miller goes for a more visceral and dirty aesthetic, creating the gritty future he envisions. Kubrick had that capability, but his perfectionism sometimes got in the way. Miller has no such illusions and uses that eye for setting to drive home the film’s thematic elements. Mad Max is the work of a director with a strong vision starting out on a career that would ultimately impress.