Mad Max

Of the four films in the Mad Max tetralogy, I had seen the last three, but hadn't seen the first film until yesterday. Made on a $400,000 budget in 1979, director George Miller fashioned what is really an old-fashioned biker film into something a bit more futuristic, as it is set a few years in the future, but unlike the following films, it is not post-apocalyptic. It's just getting there.

An impossibly young Mel Gibson plays a policeman who causes the death of one of the gang. He and his partner are marked for revenge. The partner gets burned to a crisp, and Gibson wants to quit the force. We keep seeing idyllic scenes of his pretty wife and baby son, so we're just waiting for something to happen to them. It's fairly late in the film, which doesn't leave much time for Max to get mad.

As these type of pictures go, it's fairly stylish. Of course there are lots of vehicle chases (the use of guns is fairly limited). The bad guys are appropriately scary, particularly the head gangster, called Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne). The film was polarizing upon its release, as some saw it as nasty and foul, but given what has come since it appears relatively tame now.

Gibson was an unknown at the time. Miller initially sought an American star, but realized that would blow most of his budget. Instead he launched the career of an international superstar, but it wouldn't be until the second film, called The Road Warrior in the U.S., that Gibson would really make his mark.

Mad Max is really a violent exploitation film made by a director with considerable skill.