Mad Max

Released:  May 9^th, 1980

Rated:  R

Studio:  American International Pictures

Starring:  Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward

Directed by:  George Miller

Written by:  James McCausland, George Miller

Personal Bias Alert:  don’t hate Mel Gibson, not a fan of cheesy action flicks

4 of 10

            You know what’s a disappointing piece of trivia about Mad Max?  Most of the leather was fake.  That’s right, this notoriously low-budget piece had to buy vinyl outfits just to keep costs down.  I’m guessing their heart was in the right place, though, since such drastic measures certainly freed up some precious money for car wrecks, and that’s what we all came for, right?

            Mel Gibson stars as Max, who for most of the movie is not mad but slowly succumbing to the violent allure of the road.  He has the free pass of being a cop, meaning he gets to legally dabble in the violent lifestyle of the ‘terminal crazies’ that roam the highways in this version of post-apocalyptic Australia.  Anchoring him down is his fellow officers, his wife, and his young son.  That’s just enough to keep his head on straight, at least until a series of encounters with a biker gang pushes him even further towards the edge.

            Now I watched the version that is on American Netflix, which seems to be the extended 93 minute special edition with the original Australian audio track.  Why anyone would want to watch this with American dubbing is beyond me.  I’m guessing that Max and Fifi and Bubba running around spouting American slang would make this movie even stranger, and not in the brazenly fun way it thrives on.  This film’s all car chases and manly posturing, sliding right along with a slightly off-kilter energy that never left me feeling bored, and I don’t even particularly care for car chases and posturing. 

            Gibson and the rest of the cast are game for this cheese-fest, hamming up their parts with as much glee as their bad leather (or vinyl) pants allow.  This is one of those movies where it’s hard to say if the acting is good or not, because it’s intentionally b-movie bad.  The first scene makes this film’s aspirations pretty clear.  It’s a chase scene, with the bad guy spouting insane lines like “I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!” and practically foaming at the mouth.  Lines like that make me gag, but to the film’s credit, at least it’s up front about what it is.

            The part that I did like, that provided some good, visceral fun, was the car chases.  And the wrecks.  And the explosions.  The carnage is constant and all over the place, simultaneously graphic and ridiculously fake.  Seriously, a dummy being run over by a truck never looked more like a dummy being run over by a truck, but that’s because they had no budget for special effects.  Whatever stunts were going to take place had to be performed for real, and you can’t run over your actors for the sake of art or entertainment.  By the same token, that means that the car chases and the wrecks were all real, and they’re actually filmed quite well.  I imagine they only had one take for most of this stuff, and they managed to enthusiastically capture the thrill of the road, of tires screeching and metal rending, in a way that even I was into.

            The problem with Mad Max’s focus on the cars, even with that aspect being done well, is that there’s barely enough time left for a real plot.  Granted, that might be for the best considering how insanely nonsensical the small plot we do get is.  I swear, there’s a sequence where the leader of the biker gang threatens another member, then inexplicably starts walking them both out into the ocean.  Where does he think he’s going?  He’s clearly going to have to stop in a few steps or they and their guns will go underwater.  Then we cut to a bar scene, a seemingly nice bar where the waiters wear suits and a nice lady sings cabaret, a place where none of these characters would ever go.  Yet here is one of Max’s friends catching the eye of the singer, because this is a movie, so if the writer says that’s what happens then that’s what happens.  It seems that no one gave two cents about coherence, consistency, or pace when writing this film.  I’m guessing there were far more discussions about what cars would look coolest summersaulting through the air than what would actually happen in this movie.

            What it comes down to is that this film just isn’t for me.  I like plot and character, and I like it when they come together to explain what the hell is going on.  I like car chases and leather, too, but I need more than that to enjoy a film.

            Other Notes:

Ø  “That thing in there, that’s not Goose!”  Wow, you could be a little more accepting of people with severe burns.

Ø  “Dad used to take me on long walks.”  Dad didn’t have much money, did he?

Ø  Those villains were intentionally cartoonish, but that didn’t make me cringe any less.

Ø  Very subtle with the Anarchie Road sign.

Ø  I must say, I could definitely see the guys in Bellflower liking this movie.