|
Mad
Max
TOP
GUN online slot profile
Mad
Max is an Australian apocalyptic action thriller
film from 1979 directed by George Miller and written
by Miller and Byron Kennedy. The film, starring
the then little-known Mel Gibson, was released
internationally in 1980.
This
low-budget film's story of social breakdown, murder,
and vengeance became the top-grossing Australian
film, and has been credited for opening up the
global market to Australian films. The movie was
also notable for being the first Australian film
to be shot with a widescreen anamorphic lens.
Mad
Max was followed by two sequels, Mad Max 2: The
Road Warrior and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.
As of April, 2008, a third sequel, Mad Max 4:
Fury Road, remains "in pre-production."
Plot
summary
The
story is set in Australia in the near future,
depicting a poorly-funded police unit called the
Main Force Patrol (MFP), which struggles to protect
the Outback's few remaining townspeople from violent
motorcycle gangs. The film depicts the future
Australia as a bleak, dystopian and impoverished
society that is facing a breakdown of civil order,
the causes of which are not detailed in this film
but which Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior explains
as being caused by widespread oil shortages and
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome explains resulted
in a nuclear war following the shortages. The
film introduces a young MFP police officer, Max
Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), who is considered to
be the MFP's "top pursuit man".
One
of the biker gang members, nicknamed the Nightrider,
escapes from police custody by killing an officer
and stealing his vehicle. Max pursues the Nightrider
in a high-speed chase, which results in the Nightrider's
death by fiery explosion. Following the dangerous
chase, which resulted in injuries for a number
of officers, the police chief warns Max (who thinks
nothing of it at the time) that now the bandits
are out for him because of the death of the Nightrider.
The
biker gang, which is led by the Toecutter (Hugh
Keays-Byrne) plans to avenge Nightrider's death
by killing MFP officers. Toecutter's young protegé,
the biker Johnny the Boy (played by Tim Burns),
sets a trap for Max's close friend and fellow
officer, Jim Goose (played by actor Steve Bisley).
When Goose's vehicle is flipped over, the bikers
burn him alive ("the Goose is cooked")
in retaliation for the Nightrider's death. The
Goose survives and Max, after seeing Goose's charred
body in the hospital's burn ward, becomes angered
and disillusioned with the police force. He resigns
from the MFP with no intentions to return. Max
takes a road trip to spend time with his wife
and infant son in the relatively peaceful coastal
area north of their region.
Meanwhile,
the gang's vicious leader, the Toecutter, is still
thirsting for revenge against Max. The two cross
paths once more when Max and his family are on
vacation in a remote beachfront area. The gang
runs down Max's wife (played by Joanne Samuel)
and son, leaving their crushed bodies in the middle
of the road. Max arrives too late to intervene.
His son is pronounced dead on the scene, while
his wife suffers massive injuries. (It is revealed
in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior that she later
died from her injuries.)
Filled
with a burning, obsessive anger, Max once again
dons his leather police outfit and straps on his
sawn-off shotgun. Driving the supercharged, black
Pursuit Special, he goes out to avenge the death
of his family. He hunts down and kills the gang
members one by one, including the Toecutter. When
Max finds Johnny the Boy, he handcuffs his ankle
to a wrecked, overturned vehicle with a ruptured
gas tank. Max lights a crude time-delay fuse and
gives Johnny a hack saw, leaving him the choice
of trying to saw through the handcuffs (10 minutes)
or his ankle (five minutes). Over Johnny's hysterics,
an embittered Max drives off into the desolate
Outback as the fuse he constructed explodes behind
him, presumably killing Johnny.
Conception
George
Miller was a medical doctor in Australia, working
in a hospital emergency room, where he saw many
injuries and deaths of the types depicted in the
movie. While in residency at a Melbourne hospital,
he met amateur film maker Byron Kennedy at a summer
film school in 1971. The duo produced the short
film Violence in the Cinema, Part 1, which was
screened at a number of film festivals and won
several awards. Eight years later, the duo created
Mad Max, with the assistance of first time screenwriter
James McCausland (who appears in the film as the
bearded man in an apron in front of the diner).
Miller
believed that audiences would find his violent
story to be more believable if set in a bleak,
dystopic future.
The
film was shot over a period of twelve weeks in
Australia, between December 1978 and February
1979, just outside Melbourne. Many of the car-chase
scenes for the original Mad Max were filmed near
the town of Lara, just north of Geelong (Victoria,
Australia). The movie was shot with a widescreen
anamorphic lens, the first Australian film to
use one.
Mel
Gibson, a complete unknown at this point, went
to auditions with his friend and classmate Bisley
(who would later land the part of Jim Goose).
Gibson went to auditions in poor shape, as the
night before he had gotten into a drunken brawl
with three men at a party, resulting in a swollen
nose, a broken jawline, and various other bruises.
Mel showed up at the audition the next day looking
like a "black and blue pumpkin" (his
own words). Mel did not expect to get the role
and only went to accompany his friend. However,
the casting agent liked the look and told Mel
to come back in two weeks, telling him "we
need freaks." When Gibson returned, he was
not recognized because his wounds had healed almost
completely; he received the part anyway.
Due
to the film's low budget, only Mel Gibson was
given a jacket and pants made from real leather.
All the other actors playing police officers wore
vinyl outfits. The police cars were repeatedly
repainted to give the illusion that more cars
were used; often they were driven with the paint
still wet. The film's post-production was done
in Kennedy's house, with Wilson and Byron editing
the film in Byron's bedroom on a home-built editing
machine that Byron's father, an engineer, had
designed for them. The duo also edited the sound
in Kennedy's house.
Success
The
film was very successful at the box office, holding
a record in Guinness Book of Records as the highest
profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture, conceding
the record only in 2000 to The Blair Witch Project.
Mad Max was independently financed with a reported
budget of $300,000 AUD; of which $15,000 was paid
to Mel Gibson for his performance. The movie went
on to earn $100 million worldwide. The film was
awarded four Australian Film Institute Awards
in 1979.
When
the film was first released in America, all the
voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character,
were dubbed by U.S. performers at the behest of
the distributor, American International Pictures,
for fear that audiences would not take warmly
to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents.
Much of the Australian slang and terminology was
also replaced with American usages (examples:
"See looks!" became "Look see!",
"windscreen" became "windshield",
"very toey" became "super hot",
and "probie" became "rookie").
AIP also altered the operator's duty call on Jim
Goose's bike in the beginning of the movie (it
ended with "Come on, Goose, where are you?").
The only dubbing exceptions were the voice of
the singer in the Sugartown Cabaret (played by
Robina Chaffey), the voice of Charlie (played
by John Ley) through the mechanical voice box,
and Officer Jim Goose (played by Steve Bisley),
singing as he drives a truck before being ambushed.
The
original Australian dialogue track was finally
released in the U.S. in 2000 in a limited theatrical
reissue by MGM, the film's current rights holders
(it has since been released in the U.S. on DVD
with both the US and Australian soundtracks on
separate tracks). Both New Zealand and Sweden
initially banned the film.
Two
sequels followed, Mad Max 2 (known in North America
as The Road Warrior), and Mad Max 3 (known in
North America as Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome) while
a fourth movie, Mad Max 4: Fury Road, is in pre-production.
Vehicles
Max's
yellow Interceptor was a 1974 Ford Falcon XB sedan
(previously, a Melbourne police car) with a 351ci
Cleveland V8 engine and many other modifications.
The Big Bopper, driven by Roop and Charlie, was
also a 1974 Ford Falcon XB sedan, but was powered
by a 302ci Cleveland V8. The March Hare, driven
by Sarse and Scuttle, was an in-line-six-powered
1972 Ford Falcon XA sedan (this car was formerly
a Melbourne taxi cab).
The
most memorable car, Max's black Pursuit Special
was a limited GT351 version of a 1973 Ford XB
Falcon Coupe (sold in Australia from December
1973 to August 1976) which was modified by the
film's art director Jon Dowding. After filming
was over, this Interceptor was bought and restored
by Bob Forsenko, and is currently on display in
the Cars of the Stars Motor Museum in Cumbria,
England .
The
Nightrider's vehicle, another Pursuit Special,
was a 1972 Holden HQ LS Monaro coupe.
The
car driven by the civilian couple that is destroyed
by the bikers is a 1959 Chevrolet Impala sedan.
Of
the motorcycles that appear in the film, 14 were
donated by Kawasaki and were driven by a local
Victorian motorcycle gang, the Vigilantes, who
appeared as members of Toecutter's gang. By the
end of filming, fourteen vehicles had been destroyed
in the chase and crash scenes, including the director's
personal Mazda Bongo (the small, blue van that
spins uncontrollably after being struck by the
Big Bopper in the film's opening chase). (Credit:
Wikipedia)
Website
Mad
Max Online
Profiles
Mel
Gibson
Media
Man Australia
Movie
Reviews
|
