Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is out next week and a friend and I decided to have an epic viewing of all of the Max Mad movies in preparation. We will finish with the black-and-white version of Fury Road next week.
So, the Mad Max movies went from a humble revenge movie to an epic post-apocalyptic battleground. How?
Mad Max (1979)
Unknown at the time, Mel Gibson, plays Max. A dystopian future is on the way, there is a breakdown of society underway. Law and order are hanging by a thread. We meet the Nightrider, who kills a rookie Main Force Patrol (MFP) officer and escapes in the officer’s Pursuit Special. The MFP calls for their best man, Max, to end the pursuit.
Max is an interceptor and the criminals fear him, including the Nightrider. The chase ends with Nightrider and his girlfriend dying in a fiery crash. This doesn’t please Nightrider’s motorcycle gang, led by Toecutter and Bubba Zanetti.
The rest of the movie is a game of cat and mouse with the gang going after Max. They eventually kill his wife and child, laying the foundation for Max to extract his bloody revenge. Come on, you know the story and the movie, it’s awesome.
Car Porn
This is a man’s movie. There are cars, guns, cars, revenge, more cars, and amazing action. There’s no politics, no diversity, nothing for the “modern audience”. It’s just all about cars and killing. What more could you ask for?
Geroge Miller’s direction is lean and focused. There is nothing fancy, no CGI (obviously), and it’s all played out with great acting and great stunts. It’s simple and effective.
The introduction to Max is tight. As the Nightrider wreaks havoc on the roads, we get glimpses of Max, getting his car ready, putting on his shades, and starting the car. It’s only when Nightrider is dead that we see Mel in all his blue-eyed glory.
The rest of the movie is so well done. The tension builds as the gang outwits Max and they try to kill one of Max’s MFP buddies. This all builds and builds until Max finally gets revenge for his friend, his wife, and his child.
The gang make great bad guys. They are menacing and a genuine threat. I loved how some of them were just mad, but then Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) is very cold and calculating. He’s really evil in this, but clever evil. He doesn’t just want Max dead, he wants him to suffer first.
The original Mad Max is excellent. I honestly can’t fault it. A classic action movie in every respect.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
I haven’t seen this one in many years and had forgotten most of the story, so I was very pleased to watch it again. The dystopian future that was just getting underway in Mad Max has now really set in. The world is more like the one presented in Fury Road. There is little in the way of greenery or cities and everyone is after just one thing, fuel.
Max meets the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), who shows him an oil refinery, with all the fuel Max could want or need. The problem is that Wez (Vernon Wells), the Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson), and their bandit gang are also targeting the oil refinery. This builds to a standoff between Max, the people in the refinery, and the gang that is hell-bent on killing and getting the fuel.
Again, you know the story. It’s all very well told and the action is great. It all builds to one of the biggest explosions in cinema history.
Car and Gyrocopter Porn
The addition of a gyrocopter is great as it adds another dimension, literally, to the movie. Spence is good fun as the pilot, being caught by Max and used to further Max’s own aims. He finds redemption by the end of the movie.
The stunt work in this movie is outstanding. The shot of the biker hitting the car was accidental. He was only supposed to fly over the car but instead he hit it, shattered his leg, and landed very badly. He was rushed to hospital where he made a full recovery. He was told he could have been killed. Miller liked the shot so much, he left it in the movie.
The tanker crash at the end of the movie was considered so dangerous that the stunt driver was told not to eat or drink 12 hours before the shot. This was in case he needed to be rushed into surgery afterwards. No CGI back in those days, it was all real.
Mad Max 2 is as awesome as the first one. It’s a different movie, like Alien and Aliens, but they both work together really well.
I will be watching Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road soon, before Furiosa. More to come…
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