MAD MAX (1979) Retrospective / Review

they say people don't believe in Heroes well damn them you want me max back to heroes you really expect me to go for that perhaps in the not-too-distant future there will be no civilization there will be no heroes [Music] [Music] [Music] Holcomb so the night rider had broken from custody and escaped in the police vehicle awaiting arraignment on charges relating to the slaying of a main port whoever officer in a roadblock made actors that must be your friend over there I didn't leave much of him the night rider is a code 3 you're in a few days ago I'm not ready I've got a problem well I was friends words out they're out to get you it's good choice no Matt trash well I'll add it to my threat collections now who you are fraud we'll see you on the road scat [Music] long as the paperwork's treating your boys can do it July [Music] [Music] Mad Max exploded onto the big screen in Australia the 12th of April 1979 hit the UK in November and made his way to the USA in March of 1980 produced for a small budget of just over 350,000 Australian dollars he made a huge profit worldwide totaling a hundred million dollars which was a world record for the time it was one of the most profitable movies ever made owing to its low budget with it being shot in Australia and containing an Aussie cast the US distributors American International pictures decided to dub the movie as they fell audiences wouldn't understand the dialogue and terminology this upset the actors they felt that if they had known this would happen they could have easily done an American accent this dubbed version would often be used when it came to VHS laserdisc and early DVD releases but thankfully now more focus has been placed on retaining the original audio where the US stopped being kept as a second option for people to use when watching the movie with the movies minimal dialogue and ambiguous location if that lucky could be set anywhere with a dystopic future and thus it worked for audiences around the world owned two Mad Max it's violent scenes it was banned in New Zealand and Sweden the death of goose was one scene that caused complaints and the attack remote couple that escaped from the gang and eventually get cornered was cut in some countries he was later shown in full in New Zealand in 1983 after the success of the sequel Sweden eventually lifted their ban in 2005 despite the movie being dubbed it made Mel a huge star in the United States even before Mad Max was released in Australia there was already buzz about his performance people knew he was a superstar in the making the director George Miller's career was also boosted as he continued with two follow-ups in the 80s Mad Max 2 and Beyond Thunderdome he later moved on to other genres proving himself a very versatile director George returned to the Mad Max series in 2015 with fury road starring Tom Hardy and Hugh keays-byrne who plays Toccata in Mad Max returning as a new character called immortan joe the movie proved a huge success as 70 years old George once again demonstrated that he was still an absolute pro when it came to action and spectacular visuals as I'm sure many Mad Max fans know George Miller in the 1970s was studying and working as a medical doctor assisting in an emergency room in a hospital in Sydney way saw many injuries and deaths that would later be depicted in Mad Max during his studies to be a doctor George formed a production company after meeting the late Byron Kennedy in 1969 at a film course in Melbourne University George had a keen interest in filmmaking and he used his medical career to help finance the company's productions the giro produced two short films together violence in the cinema Part 1 and the devil in evening dress they wanted to move into feature films but that dream would have become a reality until 1979 when they started developing Mad Max they met first-time screenwriter James McCausland who helped them develop their story George and James wrote a script based on the idea that people would do almost anything to keep vehicles moving and the assumption that nations would not consider the huge cost of providing infrastructure for alternative energy until it was too late this idea was spurred on by the oil crisis in Australia of 1973 George envisioned a silent movie with only score and a simple narrative employing highly kinetic images reminiscent of Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd to tell its tale Millard believed that audiences would find his violence story more believable if settin a bleak future after a world war where societies on the brink of collapse George and Bryan needed funding and created a presentation to sell their movie they successfully managed to secure a large chunk of the budget but more money was needed so George's brother Bill invested money becoming an associate producer George did extra emergency medical calls to help get the final budget up to 350,000 Australian dollars when it came time to casting Mad Max George had considered casting an American in the lead but an effort to keep the money down he decided to keep with local talent Mel Gibson and his friend Steve Bisley who had both just graduated from the National Institute of Dramatic Arts and starred in summer city together auditioned for parts in the movie Mel turned up looking a mess as he had been on a fight the day before and he had to read a large paragraph dialogue he just winged it and had lived luckily he got the part he had the looks and talent to take on the lead his friend Steve would end up playing Max's best friend goose the role of tokus I went to Hugh keays-byrne who had already starred in a number of movies playing smaller roles he was a classically trained actor when playing the part he would change his accent so each scene has a slightly different voice he had just recently starred in the man from Hong Kong alongside Raja Ward who would play the head of the police force Hugh and the other actors were based in Sydney but the production couldn't afford to fly them down to Melbourne so they shipped out the motorbikes which had been donated by Kawasaki and the actors drove them down to Melbourne they were already getting into character some of the extras were members of actual outlaw motorcycle clubs and rode their own motorcycles in the film originally filming was scheduled to take 10 weeks six weeks our first unit and four weeks on stunts and chase sequences however four days into shooting rosie bailey who was originally cast as Max's wife was injured in a bike accident production was halted and bailey was replaced by TV actor Jaron Samuel shooting took place in and around Melbourne using disused factories and even the Melbourne University underground carpark Max's house was located near the coast of Australia and is still there to this day apparently it's rented out as a holiday home Milla described the whole experience as guerrilla filmmaking where the cast would close roads without filming permits didn't use walkie-talkies because their frequencies coincided with the police radio and after filming was done Miller and Kennedy would even sweep down the roads there was little money to pay the crew they worked long hours and many of the stunt team were just given large amounts of beer instead of money some of the crew expressed frustration with George due to his lack of experience and not getting enough shots done within the day there was a lot of improvisation going on and a lot of the scenes weren't storyboarded so nobody had a clear idea what was going to be shot on the day because of the film's low budget all but one of the police uniforms in the film were made of vinyl leather with only one genuine leather uniform made from Mel Gibson Mel later said in an interview that he soon wasn't leather so it's hard to know if they actually did spend the money on his outfit I'm guessing the former and thinking male may have not realized at the time for the vehicles they had three police cars and two black interceptors based around the Ford Falcon the yellow interceptors could barely push over 60 miles per hour but you wouldn't know as they managed to put the camera in the right spot to give it that same of speed the most memorable car maxi's black pursuit special was a 1973 v8 powered Ford Falcon gt3 5-1 a car predominately exclusive to the Australian market the Falcon has a great lineage dating all the way back to 1960 and was only discontinued as a model in 2016 the main modifications are the Concorde style front end eight side mounted exhaust pipes and the supercharged of protruding through the bonnet this was not functional I'm afraid and only done for its looks superchargers also cannot be engaged and disengaged and the drivers will despite how its portrayed in the film by the end of filming 14 vehicles had been destroyed in the chase and crash scenes including George Miller's own master Bongo the small blue van that spins out of control near the beginning to help make it light enough to spin they stripped out the engine [Music] with the film story it's set in the not-too-distant future the world is on the brink of collapse a townspeople are being terrorized by a group of bikers led by toecutter after the death of one of his gang Knight Rider they want revenge on the local police who are struggling to cope with the high crime rates and deaths Max's partner goose is targeted by the gang and taken out by the rebellious Jonny he is left severely burned which causes max to lose the confidence to do his job and he needs to get away he takes a break with his wife and child and escapes to the country but they run into toecutter and his gang who gruesomely kill his young family Max is pushed to return to his duties as he struggles to maintain his sanity he suits up and takes a new v8 interceptor he is no longer max he is a Mad Max [Music] the lead composer Brian May composed a score to Mad Max and would return to provide the music to the road warrior a sadly not for Beyond Thunderdome Brian came to George Melies attention thanks to his work in the 1978 film Patrick may score resembled the work of Bernard Herrmann George wanted a big symphonic score that had energy and bite to it the score became a combination of classic orchestrations and mechanical sounds giving the film a huge soundscape complementing the highly-charged chase scenes and dystopian future backdrop the score does also have an emotional core to it with his love theme for max and his wife this is a lush theme that incorporates a slice of jazz with this use of a saxophone this could possibly be my favorite piece of music in the film you could argue the score in some places doesn't fit the direction the movie is going in but overall it does complement many of the visuals I think composers today working on a movie such as this would have the school be very minimal and played down in the mix to create an unsettling atmosphere but this was 1979 and the interaction must have this big score full of character and loud in the sound mix now sometimes the score is a bit too loud often drowning out the dialogue due to its budget limitations they couldn't afford the newly released audio encoding of Dolby stereo so they used the traditional mono soundtrack and I get the impression that the individuals involved with the SOL mix was struggling to balance the audio either that or the recording of the dialogue just wasn't very good so you have a lot of inconsistent levels of sound effects at dialogue and music all fighting for airtime in the mix there is a moment when a police officer arrives to meet Max and his wife they discover a severed hand on their car and the music just overpowers what they are saying it sounds like music for a chase sequence but slapped over a regular piece of dialogue it's such an odd creative choice on behalf of Miller and May there are other moments where the dialogue is so inaudible you have to play it back to double-check what they said this is not the fault of Ozzy accents but the poor quality of the dialogue recording a score was issued on LP in 1980 with 31 minutes of music it didn't get a CD release until 1993 which featured one extra track of outtakes additional music cues and sound effects due to the renewed popularity of LP he got a limited release in 2070 this was identical to the 1993 CD version and the music wasn't further expanded upon the CD releases company very pricey on the second-hand market but thankfully it's available on iTunes for 8 pounds and definitely worth picking up Brian Mays work on Mad Max 1 & 2 is superb and their respective scores work wonderfully by themselves but if you had to compare the two I would say the first film has the edge a lot of the themes were carried over into the sequel but it was missing the emotional music that comes with Mad Max 1 [Music] I saw the first Mad Max in full way after I seen Mad Max 2 and Beyond Thunderdome at that point I was familiar with the world of the sequels and seen the first movie it felt like the odd one out as a kid I recall seeing the big black Warner Brothers rental tape and thinking how awesome the cover was but this was an 18 rated movie and I would never get a chance to see it till I was older so I just rented Superman 3 instead for like the fifth time our 7 years old give me a break the original 1979 movie in my eyes is a non-stop chase action sci-fi adventure it's science fiction is a bit loose and it doesn't do a particularly good job of setting up the world you have this distant future setting but it seems very much isolated to this large town that is surrounded by a lot of open land there is an obvious disconnect from the world but society hasn't fully crumbed would like the sequels in a more recent interview George Miller said that was not the intention when a script was written to set it in a post-apocalyptic world this was done because I didn't have the money for extras improperly maintained buildings in order to cover for this production value limitation the title card was added to the beginning explaining that the story was set in the distant future this also accounts for why there was more an established society in this movie come a sequel it kind of rec comes to Ceres and gives a little more story to establish the world and how society has fallen apart although the writers intent was to comment on the oil crisis of the 70s there isn't much of a reflection of that in the movie the sequel really pushed that idea and oil becoming gold to them a second want advice for it you only see them once in the first movie near the end trying to steal petrol the action and chase scenes are spectacular and very well shot for the time this is really the movie selling point there are some tense moments when a child walks into the middle of the road and narrowly avoids being run over this was made during the time of optical effects on blue-screen but owing to their low budget there are no optical techniques employed everything is done for real the cinema photographer david eggby captures some daring shots that today would be probably impossible to do due to health and safety regulations very low camera shots were achieved by the cameraman riding on a bike as a passenger holding and operating the camera while traveling at top speed a lot of the shots were improvised on the day and despite this there are no reflections of the camera operators in the cars or mirrors see car being propelled at ridiculous high speeds by military rocket is something that hadn't been done before and probably not since in one shot you see a stuntman get whacked by the will of a bike as he comes off his own motorbike on the bridge he gets clobbered by the well as it slides across the floor it's all left in short thankfully the stuntman just got up and walked away after the take the movie is like a wonderful show rule for the director and the stunt team involved very professionally done despite its crude nature and filming methods the movie has themes of friendship tragedy and revenge all happening in this hostile world revenge is very much its main theme however as Max is driven over the edge to hunt down and kill Toccata and his gang by the murder of his friend and family the story is pretty straightforward but for me it doesn't really hold itself together to tell a smooth an overall satisfying experience this is not to say I don't like it far from it but it feels a little unfocused and all its attention is on the action a DP nicely put it as a script in moments rather than an actual story there are odd plot holes and things that aren't made entirely clear the gang leaves Johnny at the side of the road after they attack the couple then Toccata once Johnny back after he is arrested maybe they left him due to his crazy like behavior but it isn't made clear why they decided to do that what is consistent however and clear is Max's story and his overall arc in the movie we see a confident guy who begins to struggle with the job and needs to get away after the loss of his best friend he wants his superior that he'll go crazy if he stays on the road any longer he's finally pushed over the edge by the loss of his child and his wife being badly injured and becomes Mad Max this is for me when the movie becomes really interesting I like how max is hunting down the gang and eventually fun still need to get his revenge I think they could have been more of a face-off between Max and toecutter as Toccata is taken out pretty quickly once max is on his tail but this is unone and nitpick Mel Gibson looks totally cool and calm throughout the movie he easily falls into the role and deftly portrays the emotions the character required he shows the anger the loss and the love of his friends and wife hitting all the emotional beats effortlessly and when he gets shot by the gang and falls to the ground seeing him struggle to stand up and slowly crawl to his car looks so real Mel makes it look very painful and shows even his acting skills on a physical are to a high standard if I had seen the series in order I would probably have a stronger appreciation for this film but in the situation I'm in with it being the last one in the Mel Gibson trilogy I watched sadly I find it the weakest of the series now there's not a huge drop-off in its level of quality Thunderdome has its problems but there are stronger themes and ideas in that film whereas the 1979 film doesn't have a full clear vision I like the world George Miller created for Mad Max - George had not intended to make a trilogy at the time and he never planned a follow-up to Mad Max so when it came to doing a sequel they wanted to try something different each one therefore has a loose connection to the last but there wasn't that intention from the outset in an official capacity even in regards to the latest one George says it's set after Thunderdome but there are moments in the film that don't make that in time we clear the smite saying all this I would still recommend the first mild max it's easy to get hold off if you haven't seen it is available in box sets and more recently a shark factory collector's edition blu-ray which is the one I would recommend it contains a decent amount of special features and presents the original sound mixing 5.1 dts-hd the option to have the Australian version or a US dub depending on your preference in light of this being George's first feature film I'd say that he pulls it off and demonstrates his skills behind the camera with a slick visual style the majority of the shots of a great industrial backdrop which creates an unfamiliar setting and he had singers top-notch with a great use of cross dissolves as he cuts from one location to another it shows off his energetic style but also shows that he can do the quieter and more tender moments as with all directors who move from short films to feature films it's never a smooth transition and Mad Max definitely asked those issues with its storytelling cut Mad Max - George is totally confident in his ability as a visual storyteller and filmmaker Mad Max is a b-movie with aspirations above its station its crudeness complements it but ultimately it's not a perfect film and not entirely original is a great piece of Australian cinema and it gave us a preview of the new talent coming from Australia that would eventually make it to Hollywood and flaunt their skills on a bigger scale [Music] just can't get it clear my head Jason give yourself full of living you know read the friendship ice on it now there's nothing Here I am trying upon sex to it I know there isn't any I'll be alright must be clear right [Music] I'm scared if you know why [Music] I'm beginning to enjoy what is this body week look any longer out on that road and I'm one of them you know a terminal crazy a bronze badge to say I'm one of the good guys you are so what the Molly [ __ ] you think you're doing you and me are gonna talk about the toecutter I'll say the names and you say yes or no [Music] there's more johnny-boy us where look at the time [Music] [Music] if you enjoyed the video don't forget to Like and subscribe if you want to gain early access to my retrospective reviews episodes are fix it in post and commentary podcasts you can pledge to my patreon thank you

Channel: Oliver Harper

Views: 107,501

Rating: 4.9405746 out of 5

Keywords: mad max retrospective review, george miller, mel gibson, 1979, road warrior, brian may, mad max, movie review, oliver harper, retrospective review, oliver harper retrospective, oliver harper commentary, retrospective, ollie harper, ollyh82, podcast special, discussion, commentary, making of, documentary, beyond thunderdome, mad max fury road

Id: 7a23VAlo6Ro

Length: 22min 42sec (1362 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 10 2018

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[u/ZeTian]

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