Starring: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns Directed By: George Miller Average Rating: Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Binding: DVD Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC Label: MGM (Video & DVD) Number of Items: 1 Region Code: 1 Release Date: January 01, 2002 Running Time: 93 minutes Theatrical Release Date: 1979
Description: Setting Mel Gibson on a sure path to superstardom, this highly acclaimed "crazy collide-o-scope"(Newsweek) of highway mayhem "cinematically defined the postapocalyptic landscape" (TV Guide). Featuring eye-popping stunts that are "electrifying and very convincing" (Variety) and "an authentically nihilistic spirit" (The Village Voice), Mad Max is "pure cinematic poetry" (Time). In the ravaged near future, a savage motorcycle gang rules the road. Terrorizing innocent civilians while tearing up the streets, the ruthless gang laughs in the face ofa police force hell-bent on stopping them. But they underestimate one officer: Max Rockatansky (Gibson). And when the bikers brutalize Max's best friend and family, they send him into a mad frenzy that leaves him with only one thing left in the world to live forrevenge!
Amazon.com: The Road Warrior is already a classic, sans condescending genre distinctions like "sci-fi" or "action." But the story of Mel Gibson's stately antihero begins in Mad Max, George Miller's low-budget debut in which Max is a "Bronze" (cop) in an unspecified postapocalyptic future with a buddy-partner and family. But unlike most films set in the devastated future, Mad Max is especially notable because it is poised between our industrialized world and total regression to medieval conditions. The scale tips towards disintegration when the Glory Riders burn into town on their bikes like an overamped cadre of Brando's Wild Ones. Representing the active chaos that will eventually overwhelm the dying vestiges of civil society, they take everything dear to Max, who will exact due revenge. His flight into the same wilds that created the villains artfully sets up the morally ambiguous character of the subsequent films. --Alan E. Rapp
Mad Max starring Mel Gibson: The movie that led to the Road Warrior The Mad Max film threaded the needle for the successful Road Warrior film. Mad Max is just as good as the Road Warrior. Mad Max takes place in a time prior to the Road Warrior. In the Mad Max film, Max ... (played by Mel Gibson), loses his family and his police partner (the Goose), which turns him into a man full of hidden feelings.
I highly recommend seeing this movie, since it preps your mind for watching the Road Warrior. (kind of like watching part one and part two of something)
It was the Mad Max film that gave birth to Max's black Ford Falcon with the blower sticking out of the hood. This Ford Falcon makes it into the Road Warrior film also.
Awesome movie.
Reporter Joseph Toth Washington Micro Bank BBS
Not quite mad enough yet In a post-apocalyptic Australia, Max (Mel Gibson) and his fellow officers try to keep order on the highways as nihilistic biker gangs grow ever bolder. We are given the definite impression that the final bastions of civilization are on their last legs as chaos encroaches.
This film presents intriguing characters and a suitably bleak scenario. It starts strong, but it loses its energy before the end. Perhaps I was spoiled by seeing the classic action sequel "The Road Warrior" first. When Max goes mad at the end of this first film, director George Miller doesn't set the action sequences up very well or provide much of a payoff. The most exciting set pieces actually come much earlier in the movie. However, his next film will prove that he can be a master of action.
Inspired by A Boy and His Dog... Personally I loved Mad Max. To me and more than a few of my friends who were into bikes back then (79 to 85) Mad max along with Quadrophenia made us feel like we were badguys (hey we were young). After watching Max and co young bikers across the UK attempted to emulate Max, Goose, Toecutter by being mean moody and more than a bit sad just as their predecessors had tried to emulate Marlon Brando (The Wild One) and Peter Fonda (Easy Rider) years before.
The film although low budget is none the worse for that as it takes away some of the glitz that hollywood loves to throw into films and sometimes ruins by doing so (e.g. Thunderdsome Mad Max 3).
The stunts are terific and the use of outback shots enhances the desolation the film seeks to portray. The acting is weak in some respects but the actors who portray 'the Goose' and 'the Toecutter' stand out even above Mel Gibson with performances that while believable are just the right side of over the top.
The sound is excellent with good mood music work by Brian May. However in some places the speeded up driving and riding shots fail to work as well as they might. But in other areas the feel is just right e.g. Goose's ride out the morning after his night of passion with the nightclub singer.
Overall a real groundbreaker which has rarely been beaten and which will still be remembered in years to come as a classic of Aussie cinema.
A classic. Saw this movie many years ago and decided it needed to join my collection. Despite the assless chaps and flagrant homo-erotcism it is still a fun to watch movie with lots of action. Its a snapshot of a different time and place in movie making a glance back in time as represented in the style of clothes the characters wear. A story of a cop pushed over the edge to vigilante vengeance, with the death of his partner and young wife and child. Set in a somewhat post apocalyptic time where law and order is a slippery concept at best. Sets the scene for a great series of movies.
Great Movie!!! Ive always loved the mad max movies and the special edition one is a great movie has extras and everything!!
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