Mad Max

Origin: Australia (Crossroads, Kennedy Miller) 1979
Length: 93 minutes
Format: Eastmancolor
Director: George Miller
Producer: Byron Kennedy
Screenplay: James McCausland, George Miller
Photography: David Eggby
Music: Brian May
Cast: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward, Lisa Aldenhoven, David Bracks, Bertrand Cadart, David Cameron, Robina Chaffey, Stephen Clark, Mathew Constantine, Jerry Day, Reg Evans
Links: Mad Max Trailer, Mad Max Wiki

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Although the 1981 film The Road Warrior - the second installment of writer/director George Miller's postapocalyptic "trilogy" (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome followed, and a fourth film is also in the works)- tends to receive most of the critical acclaim, the jaw-dropping Mad Max, released two years earlie, is where it all started. For it was here that Miller first brought to the screen his hellish vision of a barren, gang ridden Australia, with the aid of a new young actor by the name of Mel Gibson.

Gibson was just 23 years old when he won the role of Max Rockatansky(as legend has it, Gibson auditioned the day after being in a bar fight and his distinctively black-and-blue face stuck in the mind of the casting director), and was such an unknown that when Mad Max was released in America, the preview trailer didn't even feature him but instead focused on the movie's explosions and car crashes. In retrospect, of course, Gibson's portrayal of a leather-jacketed antihero is an essential element of the picture.

Review coming soon...