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Mad Max (1979)
Movies about car chases and stunts reached new heights with this sleeper flick about a post-apocalyptic future ruled by road gangs and patrolled by remaining highway officers, including the relentless Max Rockatansky. Mad Max not only marked the directorial debut of former medical doctor (and Australian native) George Miller, but also the debut of its leading man, the American-born Mel Gibson. More accurately, the setting of this fast-paced story is a small town, with truck shops, diners and police stations still intact, and what remains of a contemporary civilization but slowly becoming a wasteland.
The high points of this film are its car chases and crazy stunts (including an iconic crash through a white camper). Everything is on display: cars, motorcycles, trucks, you name it. Following Steve McQueen in Bullitt and Gene Hackman in The French Connection, Gibson’s Max is a man of few words, but with a lot to say physically, as he goes toe-to-toe with various kinds of psychopathic criminals—ruthless, sadistic, and exploitive. Metaphorical snakes, if you will. Miller has described Mad Max as “a silent picture with sound,” and as “a western in new clothes.” (Read IMDb trivia.) Agreeably, the film is full of kinetic energy and thunderous impact.
Brian May’s score is equal parts action-fueled, emotional (particularly with Max’s family life), and at times terrifying (like a horror show); one gang scene involves a meat cleaver, and another a target practice on a naked statue. There are other scenes of nudity as well; others reveal bloody after-effects. Then there’s that split-second shot of one character’s bulging eyeballs.
Max’s character changes over the course of the film, from determined to traumatized to vengeful; from hero to anti-hero. It’s a brilliant three-act structure, no doubt. But a bleak and ambiguous one, at that. In other words, Mad Max is a slow-burn thriller under the hood.
The Road Warrior (1981)
One of the rare sequels to improve on its predecessor in just about every way. Thanks to a bigger budget and more creative freedom for director George Miller and his team, The Road Warrior (a.k.a. Mad Max 2) shifts into higher, full-throttle gears of action, adrenaline, mythology, history, and sociology. Furthermore, this is the Mad Max chapter that set the standard for what this cinematic world represents: a post-apocalyptic setting of a desert wasteland, scrappy colonies, and global loss.
Max continues his existential journey as a steampunk “Lone Ranger” (with a dog as his only companion), in a future where people fight for gasoline, and even dog food is used for meals. The film provides another commendable three-act structure, which involves Max wandering the dusty highways, running into a community of desperate survivors, and ultimately helping those people, if only to get himself out of the situation. Even so, the traumatized, former police officer is asked about what he’s looking for, and what his purpose is. He’s even offered an opportunity to start a new life.
More significantly, The Road Warrior succeeds as an even more engrossing “silent picture with sound,” as Miller once called the first film. It has strong sound design and editing, not to mention massive and insane set pieces, as well as gripping chase sequences. But it also contains a few jump scares, some brief images of nudity (including one rape scene), and some bloody results.
The filmmakers came up with more unique (and standout) vehicle designs and crazy costumes, whether for the antagonistic gangs (led by the bulked-up Lord Humungus, whose hockey mask predates horror icon Jason Voorhees), the aerial scrapper that Max keeps running into (veteran character actor Bruce Spence), or the survivors looking for a better world—a promised land, a Garden of Eden. As the saying goes, it’s a long road ahead.
TRIVIAL FACT: Late cinematographer Andrew Lesnie (a frequent collaborator of Peter Jackson) worked on this film earlier in his career, and is credited as “Documentary Cameraman.”
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
This third chapter in the original Mad Max saga leans more into mythology and world building than in action. TV director George Ogilvie assists franchise co-creator George Miller behind the camera this time around. And as the first and only PG-13 entry in the series, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome feels like two movies for the price of one.
In one corner is a society that gets its fuel from pig manure and holds gladiatorial matches to the death in the titular arena. Running this show is the charismatic Auntie Entity (played by Tina Turner, in her screen debut), who uses the elusive road warrior (Mel Gibson takes up the mantel one last time—and with longer hair) to take back control of her community from a supposedly-fierce competitor. (Max is just looking for supplies that were stolen from him.) In the other corner is a tribal society of lost children, waiting and hoping for a lost war pilot a la Lord of the Flies or Peter Pan’s Lost Boys of Neverland. (I wonder if Steven Spielberg was inspired by this movie when he made Hook years later.)
Definitely a product of its era (in style and tone), Thunderdome is a bit uneven and tamer than its predecessors, but a distinct and dynamic vision from a brilliant filmmaker nonetheless. Instead of mostly automotive action, it’s more about adventure and discovering a larger world. But that doesn’t mean it’s devoid of ambitious set pieces, including the titular match, and the climactic chase sequence (complete with a thunderous score). Plus, it’s incredible hearing Turner’s voice over the soundtrack (including the profound anthem, “We Don’t Need Another Hero”).
Beyond Thunderdome was reportedly the inspiration for Dr. Dre & Tupac Shakur’s 1995 music video for their rap hit, “California Love”. Two years after this film, Gibson helped launch another successful franchise with Richard Donner’s buddy-cop action flick, Lethal Weapon, opposite Danny Glover.
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