![]() ![]() While Goose visits a nightclub in the city that night, Johnny sabotages his police motorbike, causing it to lock up at high speed the next day and launch Goose off the road. No witnesses appear in court and Johnny is deemed mentally unfit to stand trial, however, so, against Goose's furious objections, he is released into Bubba's custody. Max and fellow officer Jim "Goose" Rains arrest Toecutter's young protégé, Johnny the Boy, at the scene. A young couple attempts to escape, but the gang destroys their car and rapes them. Nightrider's motorbike gang, which is led by Toecutter and Bubba Zanetti, run riot in a town, vandalising property, stealing fuel, and terrorising the populace. A conversation between Max's superior, Captain Fred "Fifi" Macaffee, and Police Commissioner Labatouche reveals the Pursuit Special was authorised to bribe Max, who is becoming weary of police work, into staying on the force. Nightrider is able to elude the MFP until the organisation's top pursuit man, Max Rockatansky, manages to break his concentration and steer him into a roadblock, resulting in a fiery crash that kills both Nightrider and his girlfriend.Īt the MFP garage, Max is shown his new police car: a specially-built supercharged V8-powered black Pursuit Special. In a near-future dystopian Australia that is facing a breakdown of civil order primarily due to widespread oil shortages, berserk motorbike gang member Crawford "Nightrider" Montazano kills a rookie officer of the poorly-funded Main Force Patrol (MFP)-one of the last remaining law enforcement agencies-and escapes with his girlfriend in the dead officer's Pursuit Special. In 2020, a fifth film, to be titled Furiosa, was announced. The film became the first in the Mad Max series, giving rise to three sequels: Mad Max 2 (1981), Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Fury Road (2015). The success of Mad Max has been credited for further opening up the global market to Australian New Wave films. Filmed on a budget of A$400,000, it earned more than US$100 million worldwide in gross revenue and set a Guinness record for most profitable film. ![]() The film initially received a polarized reception upon its release in April 1979, although it won four AACTA Awards. Principal photography for Mad Max took place in and around Melbourne and lasted for six weeks. James McCausland and Miller wrote the screenplay from a story by Miller and Kennedy. Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, and Roger Ward also star. Mel Gibson stars as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a police officer turned vigilante in a near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse. More of a cornered animal striking out, his magnetism keeps us vested, as does Miller's H'Wood-level stunt spectaculars.Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and produced by Byron Kennedy. You can't turn away, even if this iteration of Max lacks the steely cool machismo of Road Warrior. For now, however, this less assured young actor exhibits definite chops but still exudes lethal weapons-grade charisma. In the next two superior installments, Gibson's Mad Max assumes the mantle of lone wolf-turned-reluctant hero. Driven but cagier than in future stories, the titular anti-hero gets played more as a feral vigilante here. George Miller and Mel Gibson seem to be planning this road trip as it goes. ![]() In this R-rated thriller, a vengeful Australian policeman (Gibson) sets out to stop a violent motorcycle gang in a self-destructing post-apocalyptic world. It's more dialogue driven and stagy than the superior follow-up, The Road Warrior, and shares only basic DNA with Fury Road, but it sets a winning grindhouse cinema tone that carries through to this day in top shelf form. Staging Fast & Furious-level hot-rod blockbusting on a Two-Lane Blacktop budget, this origin tale exhibits a biting - albeit offbeat - sense of humor and balletic violence that rightly earned it an instant cult status. It was shot mostly on the cheap, but you wouldn't know it. More grindhouse than post-Apocalypse wheelhouse, this drive-in adrenaline rush established a blockbuster brand and put Mel Gibson on the map. ![]()
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