By Daniel Ivey
Critical Review - Mad Max
Film Information
|
Director George Miller
Producer Cinematographer
George Miller Byron Kennedy Writing
credits (screenplay) James McCausland George Miller Music Brian May Editors Cliff Hayes Tony Paterson Special Effects Chris Murray Stunt Coordinator Production Companies Crossroads Kennedy Miller Productions Mad Max Films |
Crew Mel Gibson Max Rockatansky Joanne Samuel Jessie Rockatansky Hugh Keays-Byrne Toecutter Steve Bisley Jim Goose Tim Burns Johnny the Boy Roger Ward Fifi Macaffee Vincent Gil Nightrider |
Release Dates
Mad Max was
re-released to the
Box Office Figures
Mad Max was quite a low budget film, with only $350,000 (1979) being spent on production. There are two interesting facts, the first being that Mel Gibson put in $15 000 of his own money for the production. This film grossed a whopping $100 million which provides the next interesting fact, Mad Max held the record for roughly twenty years in the Guinness Book of Records because of this earnings to cost ratio, in fact the movie earned 285 times what it cost to produce (now second only to the Blair Witch Project).
Bibliographical Details of
Interviews
Peary, Danny,
"Directing _Mad Max_ and _The Road Warrior_: An Interview with George
Miller." Omni's Screen Flights/Screen Fantasies: The Future According
to Science Fiction Cinema. Garden City,
No author, "Max Impact" Ralph magazine, August edition 2003,
pp90-94.
Bibliographical Details of
Reviews
(Courtesy of
imdb.com)
Online Presence
The online presence for Mad Max is phenomenal, this cult classic is still running hot through the blood of its fans, and with the coming of Mad Max 4 the online presence is only increasing.
Method of Collection
Being a multimedia student the first place I began looking for information on Mad Max for this assignment was the internet, 'Google' to be precise. My first search produced over 11 000 hits so I was not without texts, however the webpage at the top of the page imdb.com provided me with every detail about Mad Max I could possibly wont, which is where most of the information above came from.
Apart from this information upon Mad Max, I found it very useful to cross-reference between the Oz Film Database, imdb.com and my essay. This was particularly helpful when finding out information about past and present Australian cinema and what the actors had been up to after the filming of this epic movie. I also found record of an interview with George Miller in an article in a Ralph magazine, and since my friend I knew had a subscription to Ralph I was able to track it down.
Critical
Review of Mad Max and its Literature
Plot
The film is set only years from what it was made (1979) and shows the landscape of a desolated world, where population is sparse and ruffians are plenty. Mad Max begins with a very memorable car chase involving two police squad cars, Mel Gibson in his Interceptor and Nightrider (Vincent Gil) in a stolen police V8. There are a number of crashes and spinouts involved in this thrilling car chase, the final involved a toddler, trailer and a telephone booth before there are but two warriors left to fight the battle, Mad Max and the Nightrider. These two rev heads push their roaring beasts to the limit but as the usual straight roads that are characteristic to rural Australian lead to a bend, Nightrider fails to brake in time for a broken down Road Train and spins out of control and bursts into flaming heap.
After the death of this gang member Max hears rumours that revenge is in the air but he takes no heed of this warning. Max soon finds himself once again face to face with a member of the same gang when they begin causing havoc in a small town. The gang, lead by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) are there to pickup the body of the Nightrider, but when a young couple get frightened on the noise and destruction the motorcycle gang is causing and try and flee they are set upon by dozens of the bandits. They are swiped off the road by Hugh Keays-Byrne with an axe (which he still owns today). Their car is "chewed up and spat out" (Bubba Zanetti quoted from Mad Max, 1979) and the pair are violated and humiliated.
Max and his partner Jim Goose are the first on scene as they happened to be driving past this road and not only find the two victims but Johnny the Boy who is one of the gang members who had passed out near bye after smoking too much marijuana. However the Bronze cannot hold Johnny the Boy as none of the tows folk showed up for the trial due to fear of retribution from the outlaw gang, causing hysteria in Jim Goose and fuelling the spite between the gang and the Bronze.
Jim Goose is the first of the duo targeted as his motorcycle is sabotaged under the cover of night by Johnny the Boy himself. Jim Goose is flung off the road as his bike looses grip around a fast corner but managed to survive, but again the gang targets him knocking his now Ute down a cliff. He once again manages to survive but it seems three times is not lucky for this police officer as his car which is now leaking gasoline is set on fire leaving him unrecognisably burned and left on life support.
Max gets worried and quits the force, but once again he runs into the motorcycle gang, this time resulting in the death of his wife and infant son Sprog causing blind rage and hatred on the part of the suitable named 'Mad Max'. Bent on revenge Max drives the 600 horsepower nitro burning black Interceptor he was recently offered as a bribe to stay on the force out of the police station and onto the roads to hunt his foe. Several scene chases later which result in the death of all gang members but one Johnny the Boy, who is found by Max syphoning the fuel out of a crash victim's car. Max lets Johnny have the same fiery death that he bestowed upon Goose except giving him one escape option, saw through his leg before the gasoline reached the lighter.
As Max drives away from the crash scene an explosion is seen in the distance, leaving the audience wondering whether or not Johnny the Boy, the last of Toecutter's outlaw motorcycle gang lived or died·
Even today the original Mad Max is a true cult classic around the world which shows just how universally appealing George Miller created this film. The film was privately funded which meant Miller had to make sacrifices in certain area's but boosted the career of three before unknown Australian talents Mel Gibson, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Steve Bisley. Although there was a somewhat simple plot the dialogue written for this movie was excellently put together in my opinion, but what interested me the most was the fact that the first Mad Max VHS I owned was the dubbed American version. It wasn't until the DVD was released that I heard the true Australian 'ocker' accent which further increased the acting and dialogue appeal to me, however these dubbed American vocals did add to the 'western' type of film that Mad Max shared so many characteristics with.
A large inspiration for this western feel was the great scenery and
cinematography David Eggby encapsulated, it seemed as if some of those roads would go
on forever. However it was Miller who first envisioned these straight long
barren country roads that took the world by storm. Also to be noted apart from
the great open landscape Eggby managed to portray to the world, was the great
sound work especially the roaring grunt of the V8's and to accompany the great
sound effects was the music itself created by David May.
Critical Uptake
In the year of its release Mad Max did extremely well inside Australia, with six AFI award nominations hurtling the crew into line light and managing to pick up three of these 'Best Achievement in Editing', 'Best Achievement in Sound' and 'Best Original Music Score'. It was an obvious sensation in the box office, but critics were also very forthcoming with praise.
Even though Mad Max grossed $100 million in the
Circumstances of
Production
As mentioned earlier Mad Max cost $350 000 to produce ($15 000 was Mel Gibson's) and did unbelievably well at the box office bringing in over $100 million. This privately funded film was desperately in need of funds and many sacrifices had to be made, roughly '20% of the chase scenes scheduled were not shot due to lack of money' (imdb.com), all but Max's street leathers were made of Vinyl. This lack of funding meant the film could not be as epic as Miller had hoped but ways were found to cut corners, only sparing elements where the continuity of the film was put at risk. In fact 'financial consultant Noel Harman got 35 small-time investors' (Ralph magazine) to help raise the funds necessary to produce Mad Max.
Work in Relation to the
Film
George Miller created his first film 'Violence In the Cinema' in 1971 with the aid of producer Byron Kennedy, the duo coming together eight years later to create Mad Max. . After this release Miller helped produce a film of the same genre type 'The Chain Reaction' (1980) which depicted a dangerous leak at a nuclear waste storage facility in a rural outback town. Miller decided to keep to the same type of film due to the success of Mad Max, and dually noted this film contained two cast still riding the Mad Max phenomenon Steve Bisley and Hugh Keays-Byrne. With more money in the wallet Miller kept many key elements that worked in Mad Max such as an ocker Australian attitude towards life (but not striking), great cinematography and sound scapes such as the roaring grunt of the V8 cars, not the mention the action, explosion and car chases.
A final note to this film was the cameo role Mel Gibson played as a mechanic, maybe a choice by him to try and assure the public that Mad Max was still alive and well after the lead role he played in the romantic cheap budget Australian film 'Tim' (1980). After Gibson's role as a soft hearted yet slow minded man in Tim he once again showed how versatile his acting career could be by staring in the Australian war classic 'Gallipoli' (1981) which brought him back into the Australian spotlight. There is one key ingredient all Mel Gibson's early work has in common however, they all contain elements of a drama genre film.
Mel Gibson and George Miller were part of the 'Australian New Wave' of Australian Cinema that emerged in the early 1980s along with colleges Peter Weir and Judy Davis, Australian cinema was booming at this time and our talents were succeeding overseas. After working on 'Gallipoli' it was once again time for Mel to adorn his leathers and take on the legendary name of 'Mad' Max Rockatansky role, in 1981 George Miller produced 'Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior'. This sequel had a lot more action rather than the drama of the first, but there was still a very strong western style to the genre. Max finds himself in a new town and after proving himself to the people of the under siege fort he must battle the 'Indians' to escape and save his new found friends and dependants, and what western isn't complete without a great music once again created by Brian May.
The release of Mad Max 2 was a much bigger hit in America and
allowed Mel Gibson to star in American films along similar drama/romantic male
lead roles until 1985 when he came back to Australia to shoot 'Mad Max: Beyond
Thunderdome'. Once again Max is the alone drifter, passing through towns never
staying, not wanting trouble but always finding it. After this film he went
back to
A last note is that Mad Max will hit the world's screens again in
2005 when George Miller releases the fourth movie staring Mel Gibson as the
road warrior, Mad Max -
Uptake
The success of Mad Max and its sequels at the time of production and
continuing into present day shows just how important the Road Warrior was to
Australian Cinema and the Western
Genre
With the relatively small size of the Australian film industry
compared to such overseas makers as
The ocker Australian characters that have developed throughout Australian Cinema were present in Mad Max, especially through such characters and Johnny the Boy and Jim Goose and in 1986 the world was again given a taste of the characteristic Australian lifestyle with the film 'Crocodile Dundee'. However Paul Hogan's role was a lot more extravagant in terms of its Australian ocker ideology which proved to be another landmark in Australian Cinema in the world market.
Over Twenty five years later westerns like Mad Max are still being made by Australia and are being critically accepted with such recent films as 'Rabbit-Proof Fence' (2002) and the latest 'Ned Kelly' based film staring Heath Ledger in 2003 which one two AFI awards and was nominated for another seven incredibly. Rabbit-Proof Fence also went down exceptionally well with the critics taking home nominated for ten AFI awards, but only taking home two. Again in both these films the Australian landscape's beauty is a key element in the cinematography with the accompanying music cord.
References
Gillard, G. 2004, "Western", Australian Cinema Lecture Notes,
No Author. 2004, "Mad Max (1979)", Internet Movie Database, [online] Available: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079501/
No Author. 2004, "Mad Max (1979)", Rotten Tomatoes, [online]
Available: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/MadMax-1012976/
No Author, "Max Impact" Ralph magazine, August edition 2003,
pp90-94.
Filmography
Violence In The Cinema (1971)
Mad Dog Morgan (1976)
Mad Max (1979)
Tim (1980)
The Chain Reaction (1980)
Breaker Morant (1980)
Gallipoli (1981)
Mad Max 2 - Road Warrior (1983)
Mad Max 3 - Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Crocodile
Lethal Weapon (1987)
Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
Ned Kelly (2003)
Mad Max 4 - Fury Road (predicted 2005)