Mad Max (1979)

Director:

George Miller

Writers:

George Miller (story) and
Byron Kennedy (story) ...

Release Date:

12 April 1979 (Australia)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

The Maximum Force of the Future.

Plot:

In a dystopic future Australia, a vicious biker gang murder a cop's family and make his fight with them personal.

Plot Keywords:

Biker | Mad Max | Road | Police | Highway

Awards:

4 wins & 4 nominations

Cast

Mel Gibson	...	Max
Joanne Samuel	...	Jessie
Hugh Keays-Byrne	...	Toecutter
Steve Bisley	...	Jim Goose
Tim Burns	...	Johnny the Boy
Roger Ward	...	Fifi
Lisa Aldenhoven	...	Nurse
David Bracks	...	Mudguts
Bertrand Cadart	...	Clunk
David Cameron	...	Underground Mechanic
Robina Chaffey	...	Singer
Stephen Clark	...	Sarse
Mathew Constantine	...	Toddler
Jerry Day	...	Ziggy
Reg Evans	...	Station Master

Runtime:

88 min

Country:

Australia

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:X (theatrical rating) | Singapore:NC-16 | Netherlands:16 | UK:18 (cut) (1986) | Ireland:18 | Brazil:16 | Italy:VM18 | Argentina:16 (re-rating) (1999) (uncut) | Argentina:X (original rating) | Argentina:18 (re-rating) (1982) (cut) | USA:TV-MA (cable rating) | Australia:R | Canada:18+ (Quebec) | Canada:18A (special edition) | Canada:R | France:-16 (re-rating) | France:X (original rating) | New Zealand:(Banned) (original rating) | New Zealand:R18 (re-rating) | Norway:18 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:(Banned) | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:18 | Finland:K-18 | Germany:BPjM Restricted

Filming Locations:

Anakie Rd, Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Company:

Kennedy Miller Productions

Trivia:

Filmed on a meager 350,000 dollar budget.

Goofs:

Continuity: After the old lady locks the gang inside that barn the door is locked. When she is running to the car after that you can see the door is wide open, in the next seen it shows the door closed again.

Quotes:

Max: I just can't get it clear in my head, Jess. He was so full of living, you know? He ran a franchise on it. Now there's nothing. And here I am trying to put sense to it, when I know there isn't any.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Never Back Down (2008)

"Mad Max" stays to this day a striking, desolate, and memorable piece of cinema…

In spite of the fact that the 1981 film The Road Warrior—the second influential cinematic work of writer/director George Miller's Dystopian vision of the near future trilogy—leads to receive the anti-hero Max, released two years earlier, is where it all started… For it was here that Miller first brought to the screen his hellish vision, where civil society is under siege by crime and disorder, with the strength and charisma of a new young, tough, good looking actor by the name of Mel Gibson…

Gibson was just 23 years old when he took the role of Max Rockatansky—a young hotshot cop so emotionally wounded—and was such an unknown star that when the film was hitting the screens in the States, the preview trailers didn't even mentioned him but instead focused on the movie's coolest and most original car action ever filmed… In retrospect, of course, Gibson's portrayal of a relentless vigilante is an essential element of the picture…

In the Australian outback, Rockatansky is a motorcycle cop trying to keep order in a quickly disintegrating society… Vicious lawless bikers and road-raging psychopaths race up and down the forbidden territories, raping and pillaging the peaceful towns, and one such bunch ends up at the door of Max's wife (Joanne Samuel), and their 2-year old son… When they are both lying dead in middle of the road, Max is all driven over the edge, and so starts a high-speed pursuit involving wild rides, chilling fights, and memorable fast-motion suspenseful scenes rarely equaled in cinema…