Most parents take their young children to see Disney movies and family flicks during their impressionable years of development, to help give them a skewed vision that the world is a happy place where everything works out in the end and nobody gets hurt. My parents, well, they used to take me to the old drive-in, where they subjected me to movies like Mad Max and Cheech & Chong’s Up In Smoke. In fact, this is my favorite childhood film, and it still holds a special place in my cold, iced-over, critic's heart. Sure, there are those who would chastise my parents, saying they ruined my mind and that stuff like Mad Max turned me into the serial killer I am today, but hey, it's not like they could've known I'd wind up sharing my body with the God of Death and Embalming!
Mad Max also features the debut of Mel Gibson to the big screen, and all of us know Mel from box office hits Lethal Weapon, Lethal Weapon 2, Lethal Weapon 3, and yes, even Lethal Weapon 4! Oh yeah, he also did some little thing called Braveheart... I think it’s about a guy who can read women’s minds and tries to use that to become the “perfect man” or something… you know, it had that goofy looking chick from Trancers in it… Anyway, Mad Max is also directed by George Miller, the dude responsible for not only the two Mad Max sequels, but also the classic "Terror at 20,000 Feet" segment in Twilight Zone: the Movie, as well as a variety of other movies, from The Witches of Eastwick to Lorenzo’s Oil to Babe: Pig in the City… Yeah, after hearing that you'd think Mad Max was gonna be shit in a plastic casing, but no, it's actually quite the antithesis.
Spawned in Australia (hatching place of the leathery faced Paul Hogan... and no, I didn't say "Leatherface"), Mad Max was a huge box office hit over there. When it came over here it didn't do so great, as everyone's voice was dubbed over by English actors (despite all of the dialogue already having been done in English…) and the whole thing was relegated to drive-in screens and grindhouse theaters. So unknown was this movie here in the states that when it’s sequel finally came along, the appropriately titled Mad Max 2, it had to be renamed The Road Warrior so people wouldn't go, "ewww, a sequel to a movie I've never seen!? I think I'll stay home and watch reruns of All in the Family instead"... As such, I guess I'm glad the American release company changed the title, however Mad Max has since gone on to be the definitive post-apocalyptic future feature, being referred to by many many people in, uhm, situations involving, uh.... guys... who... fuck it, enough about the background and let's get to the plot!
"A few years from now..." (as many dystopian movies like to cop us out with), in our futuristic wasteland of a planet (not hard to believe, since Australia's a wasteland in any time period), gangs of evil motorists roam the highways, causing terror and destruction wherever they go, like one of those old biker flicks where the riders do nothing but rape women and beat up rednecks. To help keep some semblance of law and order, the police forces are beefed up, not with more cops, but with cops with more balls! One such balls machine is Max (you know, the MAD guy in the title), who plays the role of what's called an "Interceptor". This job basically requires Max to sit at the end of a long stretch of road, and if the other fuzz can't catch a bad guy coming his way, he pulls out and plays chicken with the bastards! Though it may sound like a tough guy's job, Max is actually quit the softy with a heart of gold and an undying devotion to his lovely wife Jessica and their toddler son Robert. But, hey, when the job calls for it, Max is one guy you don't want speeding toward you head-on!
To illustrate this point, we open the flick with one such scene as, after his fellow 5-0 fail to bring down a motor city madman cop killer named the Night Rider (or is it "Knight Rider"?... plase no! No David Hasslehoff and his talking car! Kit! Kit, don’t touch me there! Waaaaaaaa!), Max is called into duty and he takes that drunken bastard and his skank for a ride down the Highway to Hell! The cop killer goes down, as Max forces his speeding automobile into a pile of dangerous highway debris, sending the car through the air with the greatest of ease, and turning it into a ball of fire on the landing... Miller sure knows how to start a flick! Maybe if Babe: Pin in the City had opened like that, it wouldn't have been so critically slaughtered. Yeah, I can see it now, Babe, decked out in leather, plays a game of street pizza with a rogue sheep that refuses to be herded. In the melee, the sheep goes headlong into a trailer, and its severed head is seen bouncing down the asphalt until it lands at a little girl's feet! Hmmmm that gives me evil ideas for evil projects...
After this, Max decides it's about time he gave up the Interceptor life, as it's too dangerous and he's tired of all the death and mayhem that's he's constantly forced to wade through up to his eyeballs. So, in the better interests of his wife and child, he decides it's time to drop off the force. But, in the hopes that they can bribe Max to stay on (the cops don't wanna lose the only decent guy around!), his boss offers him a fancy fine hot rod, the last of the beloved V-8s... why would someone want a car that runs on vegetable juice? Max says he'll think about it before he heads off for a little downtime with his family, but things look bad for the baby-faced Max when Night Rider's nomadic amigos in the local biker gang feel it necessary to avenge their pal street style: hard up eye-for-an-eye revenge! Despite a witness testimony against one of the gang (after the unfriendly thugs rape and beat a couple in a hot rod), the damned lawyers of "a few years from now..." get the kid off the hook using the old "police brutality" loophole... yep, in the future, bikers have legal representation, motherfucker! So don't screw with them, or they'll send the bloodsuckers after you too!
After the release of Johnny the Boy (the goon who was stupid enough to get caught), Toecutter (leader of the group) decides it's time to break the law, and when I say "law", I'm talking about "those who enforce it". Their first strike is the cooking of Max's longtime best body on the force, Goose... get it, they "cooked his Goose"?! Oh man, I should be the God of Jokes, baby! The tragedy sends Max into the arms of his family once more, as he officially quits his Interceptor job. After all, what's the point in fighting the good fight if the good guys lose? This is much to the delight of Jes of course, until she runs into some trouble. After purchasing some fine "iced cream", she is confronted by Toecutter and his gang, who try to intimidate her. Well, as we all know through Hollywood, the wives of cops don't get intimidated, so she just knees him in his sac, shoves the chilled confection in his face, and makes a run for it, accidentally taking off one thug's hand with her big van! This surely leads to return fire, as Jes and young Rob are eventually run down in the middle of the road by the malicious motorcyclists while Max is on a wild chase elsewhere... damn, I guess being Mel Gibson ain't so great after all. As if you couldn't guess already, this is a bad move by the bad guys, cuz it pushes Max completely over the edge. Kick a borderline psychopath’s only crutch out from under him and he's gonna fall and fall hard... and he's not going alone!
Suiting up in his bad ass leather duds and hopping behind the wheel of his bad mama-jama V-8, Max finally throws the rule book out the window and prepares to take the law into his own hands, DESPITE what that creepy announcer guy on "The People's Court" always told us! Take that ya goofy suit wearing weirdo! Max singles ‘em out one-by-one, running them down and blowing them away in his road rage, but not without paying a cost, as he winds up with a broken arm and big gunshot wound in his leg to call his own. Oddly enough he takes out the Manson of the group, Toecutter (who winds up under the wheels of a semi), early and saves Johnny the Boy for last. Whether it's because Johnny's extermination might've prevented all this crap in the first place or just because Max was more distraught over Goose's death than that of his wife and child, it's not really important, as Max gets some measure of sick pleasure, handcuffing Johnny to an overturned car. Not a big deal till you take into account the stream of gasoline inching ever closer toward the open lighter Max leaves behind. He gives Johnny a choice: hack off your hand at the wrist and live, or try to saw through the cuffs and die a fiery death as a pair of baby back ribs. Fool and pussy that he is, John Boy goes for the latter and gets fried like a few drumsticks of the Colonel's finest before we end with a final shot of Max that seems to yell out "justice has been served".
Not to take anything away from Mr. Mad, but if these fucks had killed my best friend and my family, I think I would've done far more torturous things than just running them over or shooting them in the face. You know, stuff like making them listen to Cher for a week and force feeding them Taco Bell food after sewing their sphincters shut. Or, to make it worse, make Max's boss Police Chief Fifi (wearing nothing but his leather pants and silk scarf) feed them... with his bald throbbing head! Speaking of which, I could do without all the homo-erotic innuendos in this movie, but oh well, I'm secure enough in my masculinity to enjoy a good "the future sucks" flick. I did think the murders were a little too rushed, but hey, they probably had to cut it to shreds to bring it in under a 90 minute limit. Either way, what is there is great action and suspense by Miller, who shows off his budding talent in the director's chair.
As for the dubbing, I have no idea why that was necessary... then again, I have no idea why somebody apparently though Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles was necessary either. Guess I just don't have the proper celestial insight that I should. As for Hugh Keays-Byrne, he makes a good, nigh-religious zealot villain as the Toecutter, despite the fact his name makes him sound like a deadly pair of toenail clippers... As for the action, the touching tale of bloodthirsty revenge, and the occasional injection of well placed humor and suspense, they all make Mad Max one of the most underrated films of the last few decades and the second best movie to come out of Australia... and I’m sorry to say that Razorback ain't number one. And besides, if you ever wanted to get your girlfriend (or boyfriend... we don’t judge here) into sci-fi car movies, show ‘em Mel Gibson here, in his first starring role... 100% guaranteed panty-peeler!
The Moral of the Story: "Hey fella! You're a turkey, ya know that?"
H.O.P.E.L.E.S.S. Rating: 
- Bad dubbing and brutality make for some party fun, but if you're looking for more action and people in weird dystopian type costumes, pass it and head for
The Road Warrior or
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome.
Sequels: The Road Warrior ; Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
If You Liked This Flick, Check Out:
Escape From New York or
Savage Dawn
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