10 Things You Didn't Know About MadMax

[Music] Mad Max a movie that started the post-apocalyptic car stunt action movie released in 1979 it tells the story of a broken-down futuristic society destroyed by violence and twisted gang members who roamed the roads looking for their next victims where police officer and family man Max Rockatansky played by a very young Mel Gibson does his best to protect the law and his family in a sick and uncaring society where his humanity is put to the test with devastating consequences as he succumbs to the violence that roams the rows and becomes Mad Max a vessel hell-bent on revenge in this movie that catapulted Australian cinema into the widespread domain of Hollywood and pop culture Mad Max is considered a masterpiece and the movie that made Australian movies a thing so today let's check out 10 things that you didn't know about Mad Max while putting on American accents while saying weird sentences like we're a hundred percent snack food no literally they really say that so let's check it out [Music] you [Music] number ten real-life tragedies led to the creation of Mad Max max was the brainchild of Australian director George Miller the motivation behind the tale of showcasing some pretty terrifying roads of Australia was the fact that he grew up in rural Queensland where horrendous road accidents were a common occurrence in fact before Miller even turned 20 he already had several friends died on the roads in devastating accidents Miller would go on to work as a medical doctor in Sydney where he would continue to bear witness to road fatalities where he also met Byron Kennedy who was an amateur filmmaker and would go on to produce Mad Max where the two would go on to make a short film together called violence in cinema part 1 and from there the Wills were set in motion for what would become Mad Max number 9 it was originally set in modern-day Australia [Music] Mad Max paints the picture of a bleak futuristic Australia of sadistic gangs and violence an uncaring time where even someone as good willed as max would eventually snap and become a product of the vilest that wrecks havoc on the roads Mad Max however was originally to be set in modern 1970s Australia the inspiration behind the violence in Mad Max was a real-life oil crisis which hit Australia in 1973 which according to Miller would often lead to fistfights and other acts of violence over gasoline where petrol and gas stations would often lead to brawls there were several Australian Road movies at the time involving gangs including stone which also featured Hugh keays-byrne who would go on to play mad max's main protagonist toecutter and kundalini once his handbag along with the kharsa eight paris and running on empty which came out a few years after Mad Max but what sets Mad Max from the rest was the decision by George Miller and Byron Kennedy to set Mad Max in the future to show a tragic and dystopian world on the edge of destruction had the violence of the 1973 oil crisis continued number eight silent movie George Miller wanted to create a particular style for Mad Max known as silent movie with sound a style with limited dialogue and explanation where the story is more simplistic and mainly displayed visually on the screen so basically anyone could watch the movie and know exactly what's going on and be able to follow the story for this style Miller took inspiration from Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd and he does successfully create a tragic story which is explained more in a visual style rather than one where tons and tons of dialogue is used to fill the viewer in exactly what's going on although George Miller first used this style with Mad Max I feel like he perfected this craft with Mad Max - the road warrior which apparently only had a number of 16 lines of dialogue in it number 7 casting possibilities Miller's original choice for the character max was Irish born James Healy who at the time was working in an abattoir in Melbourne and was seeking a career in acting however after reading the script he felt that it wasn't his taste so he turned the part down it was considered at one stage to cast a well-known American actor in the lead role of Mad Max but Miller then vetoed the idea as he soon realized that had they taken this approach then pretty much all of the movies budget would have gone into the casting Mel Gibson was a student of the National Institute of Dramatic Art where a casting agent seeked him and other young men from the class to audition for Max and he got the role on the spot as Milla was impressed with his delivery of dialogue and improvisation there are claims that Gibson was bruised in black and blue during his audition due to a prior fight and that that helped him get the part but that claim has been debunked by several people including Miller Gibson's friend and coach student of the National Institute of Dramatic Art Steve Bisley was cast as Max's friend and ill-fated partner Goose most of the bikie gang members seen in Mad Max were real-life gang members an actress called Rosie Bailey was originally cast as Max's wife but after several days of filming she was injured due to a bike accident which actually halted the movie's filming by two weeks so she was then replaced by Joanne Samwell who was cast in the role as seen in the movie number six funding Mad Max Mad Max was a very low budget movie particularly considering it was both a science fiction and car stunts movie it was made on a budget of $350,000 and even that was an effort to achieve as in order to fund the movie directed Miller and produce some Kennedy were not to take on unique measures as the two funded Mad Max by taking medical calls waking Miller with C and tend to patients while Kennedy would be the driver taking him to the locations and so yes this movie about destruction and violence was made by caring for and helping people there is a kind of happy irony about that the lesson to be learned here is that um I guess it helps to be a doctor and a filmmaker number five guerrilla filmmaking Mad Max was filmed with a widescreen anamorphic lens making the movie look much more cinematic with more scope and scale it is popular belief that Mad Max was the first Australian movie to use this technique when in fact the first Australian movie to be shot in this style was in fact the cars at 8:00 Paris which came out in 1974 first unit filming of Mad Max was wrapped up after six weeks in 1977 however it was filming the second unit stunt work which also took six weeks followed by another two weeks of reshoots which really caused complications the filming took place around Melbourne particularly Geelong Ballarat and Seaford in order to film any of the dangerous car stunts the crew would have to close off some roads which by the way was done without permits they couldn't use walkie-talkies as a means of communications as with most car stunts scenes in movies at that time as they interfered with police radios the whole process was described by Miller as being a guerrilla style of filmmaking however when Victoria place learned of the movies production they were actually pretty cool about it and even helped the movies crew to close down some roads for filming and the movie shoot would see a total of 14 cars destroyed one of them even being George Miller's own car well if that's not dedication I don't know what is even the movies editing process was pretty rough and non-conventional as the movie was edited in a friend of Kennedy's apartment in Melbourne also while filming Mad Max George Miller himself would have to sweep the roads declare off any debris while filming the car sequences number four all action no Gibson considering the movie is called Mad Max it's very interesting that the original trailers of the movie didn't have much well max yep all mad and no max this is because at the time Mel Gibson was an unknown star to American audiences so the powers that be simply didn't know how to market the movie around him despite the fact that he is not only the movie's main lead but his part is who the movie is named after so instead with marketing the movie the u.s. his main focus of the film were shifted to the action and thus the movies trailers mainly focused on the stunts and set pieces than it does Gibson although he does show up in glimpses I think the difference in marketing between America and Australia can be seen in the movies posters as in the Australian poster you can clearly see Mel Gibson as the main focus point of marketing whereas in the American one there is this illustration which doesn't look a thing like Max where we see what I'm guessing to be Max wearing a helmet which we actually never see him wear in the film like they are deliberately trying to cover up Gibson's face don't get me wrong I actually really like this posters artwork but I do think it misrepresents the movie even the American logo and the font that is used just doesn't look right in my opinion of course number three the music of Max Mad Max was composed by Brian May nope not that Brian May this guy Brian May Australian composer who before Mad Max scored the insane horror movie film Patrick George Miller approached me and asked him if he could compose something akin to burn at Herman but with a gothic twist and I got to say I love the score May composes for Mad Max and it has a sense of urgency and terror about it while also sounding classical and even has a sense of noir about it in my opinion the score really makes the movie come to life and feel otherworldly may would go on to compose many more films including Mad Max - the road warrior frog dreaming and dr. giggles and sadly he passed away in 1997 leaving a legacy of great musical contributions to Australian cinema number 2 movie release woes Mad Max was released in Australia by a roadshow film distributors in 1979 but despite going on to become a classic its release wasn't exactly met with welcoming arms Mad Max was banned in both Sweden and New Zealand due to a scene involving Max's friend and co-worker goose being burned by a gang member while being trapped in his car it was felt the scene was too similar to a real-life incident the movies ban was eventually lifted in New Zealand in 1983 particularly due to the success of its sequel however the band wasn't lifted in Sweden all the way till 2005 yeah a staggering 26 years later Mad Max was released in America by American International pictures and Warner Brothers but because this was something of an introduction of Australian cinema to the States it was felt the American audience wouldn't understand the Australian accents or some of the Australian phrases used in the film this led to American read abs with the film now featuring American voiceovers opposed to the original Australian ones with the dialogue changed words and phrases more familiar with Americans so they can understand the film and if all that wasn't tough enough even some big profile names didn't like the movie mainly Stephen King who called the movie quote that's her key number one Mad Max held a record for 20 years [Music] [Applause] Mad Max would go on to become a huge success despite poor reviews at the time particularly from the New York Times who called the movie quote ugly and incoherent it actually really resonated with audiences and clearly hit a chord with the right people namely Steven Spielberg who would go on to work with George Miller for the Twilight Zone movie Mad Max broke a record for being the most profitable movie ever made making it into the Guinness World Records as it made 100 million dollars on a 350 thousand dollar budget which is just insane and is a credit to the power Mad Max had over film audiences at the time Mad Max held this record for 20 years until 1999 when it got beaten by the Blair Witch Project look you know you're watching an Australian movie when it has characters with names like mud guts and toccata bye regardless Mad Max is a huge achievement in the history of Australian cinema now I'm not saying it's the best Australian movie but let's just say it's the Australian movie that got its toes through the door of mainstream of which many other Australian movies would follow Mad Max is a sad tragic and almost Shakespearean tale of loss and revenge and destruction of the soul and I couldn't praise it enough anyway I'm inky and apparently Kundalini still wants his hand back so yeah [Music] [Music]

Channel: Minty Comedic Arts

Views: 364,802

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Id: OEsrcbC2--A

Length: 14min 59sec (899 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 05 2019