Featuring innovation direction from George Miller, Mad Max is an intense, high octane action classic that features great chase sequences, sensational scenery, and a star making turn from Mel Gibson.
Set in the not-so-distant future in outback Australia, Mad Max stars Gibson as Max Rockatansky, the Main Force Patrol’s top pursuit cop who must contend with the murderous and sadistic Toecutter (Hugh Kaeys-Byrne) and his vicious motorcycle gang who have sworn revenge on Max due to his involvement with the death of a well-respected gang member.
When Max’s family becomes the target of the Toecutter’s wrath, Max takes to the road in his black nitro charged V8, pursuing the Toecutter and his men and delivering justice in a land void of law and order.
Forever known as the film that launched the careers of Miller and Gibson, Mad Max was made on a shoe-string budget and for years held the record for the highest profit-to-cost ratio of any motion picture before The Blair Witch Project beat it 20 years later. Despite financial limitations, Miller has created a truly terrific action movie that more than matches up against the big budget action movies that Hollywood have released since then.
Gibson portrays the first of many tortured souls in his career, with Max a man whose dark recesses contains an unsuitable thirst for revenge, resulting in one of cinema’s quintessential loners along with Clint Eastwood’s Man with no name and Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle. Gibson is very green in his first big role, but there are glimpses of the movie star he will become.
True to form with most Ozploitation films, Mad Max is full of weird, quirky characters. The villains are an especially eccentric bunch; a group of fuel injected suicide machines who have a knack for the theatrical. Special mention should be given to Hugh Kaeys-Byrne who gives his sadistic gang leader Toecutter a touch of flair that is unique in delivery.
Top grade vehicular violence and excellent stunt work feature throughout an influential Australian-made action classic that spawned a franchise and countless imitators.
