Review: Mad Max (1979)

by Marco Tremble

Australia; Directed by George Miller; Starring: – Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Steve Bisley, Roger Ward, Hugh Keys-Byrne, Vincent Gill and Geoff Parry.

Mad Max is the underrated phenomenon that started a genre, the first mainstream dystopian fall of society. Set in an Australia with its society on the brink of collapse, terrorized by scores of nomadic biker gangs who have little or no regard human life and policed by young men who have little or no hope of turning the tide yet still they try.

Its here we find Max (an early role for troubled megastar Mel Gibson), involved in the pursuit of a cop-killer called The Nightrider (Vincent Gill). Miller doesn’t actually start the action with our protagonist but rather his colleagues Roop and Charlie.

Roop, indulging his voyeuristic habits through the scope of sniper rifle is called to a hot pursuit of the cop killer whose “wasted a young probie” and stolen one of the Main Force Patrol’s or MFP’s prized cars a pursuit special.  This is where the chase begins, the boys in their super hot, souped up pursuit and interceptor vehicles chase down the Nightrider as he psychotically pontificates over the radio at “The Bronze” as he calls them.

The driving and the action is frenetic and violent and eventually entwines Max’s best friend, the motorcycle cop Jim Goose (Steve Bisley), who after several more accidents low-sides his bike and break’s his leg… Enter Max, we have seen him in brief cut scenes working on his interceptor, but now he enters his own, called by “The Goose” into the pursuit Max plays a high octane, high horsepower game of chicken. This as all games of chicken do ends badly, for The Nightrider that is and so begins our story.

Essentially we have two tales of revenge in this movie; first we have the maniacal Toecutter (Hugh Keys-Byrne) and his gang seeking revenge on Max and his friends and family. It’s this sadistic and prolonged revenge when punctuated by the murder of Goose and Max’s wife and son that sends Max mad.

 

This is where the fun really starts; Max stealing the iconic last of the V8 Interceptors systematically hunts the Toecutter and those responsible for his unbearable losses and destroys them eventually one at a time after plowing through most of the gang and leaving them battered and dead.

I have deliberately not gone into detail as I deplore spoilers, this film though old requires watching, it is a classic. Only recognized after it’s time and due to its sequel The Road Warrior which was a greater financial and critical success than it predecessor and is equally worth viewing although the threequel Beyond The Thunderdome was somewhat underwhelming.