Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 5.0
The cult classic that launched Mel Gibson's career
Mel Gibson has a history of playing borderline psychotic, revenge-driven loners from contemporary actioner Martin Riggs ("Lethal Weapon") to widescreen epic hero William Wallace ("Braveheart") to hard-boiled noir tough guy Porter ("Payback") to historical fiction family-man-pushed-too-far Benjamin Martin ("The Patriot") to the classic Shakespearean originator of the mold Prince Hamlet ("Hamlet"). You could almost say it's his niche.And in all fairness, he started young. Mel Gibson was an impossible 21 years old when he starred in this 1979 throwback to 1960's biker thrillers produced by the then-unknown team of George Miller and Byron Kennedy. A huge hit in Australia, it was limited to small theatres, drive-ins, and arthouse runs in the United States...where, despite a dubbed dialogue track that would make most kung fu movies seem Academy Award-worthy, it picked up a loyal cult following and enabled a small group of would-be hipsters to be able to say "Mel Gibson? Oscars? P'shaw...he'll always be 'Max Rockitansky' to me."The movie is not exactly original...it's a redux of the American western with elements of the aforementioned biker flicks, but it is VERY original in its use of some very innovative cinematography (cameras mounted at fender-level on fast-moving cars...I'm not certain it had ever been done before) and some of the more unbelievable stunts ever filmed, the like of which would not be seen again until the sequel's release in 1982 ("Mad Max 2" or "The Road Warrior", depending on your location). The action is more personal because it is REAL.Mel Gibson's performance might not seem on par with his better roles since, but the role he was playing was that of someone much older than himself at the time...and it can't be denied that even at 21 he had a command of the camera he has never relinquished; you can't take your eyes off him. Of his earlier roles Gibson is rather self-conscious of his performance in "Mad Max"; he refers to himself as "Mr. Porkchop" in this movie, somehow under the impression that he must have been overweight at the time...but fans of his will want to see this movie to see how he looked before his days as a household name and to chart his development as an actor.Fans of action movies will want to see how movies of this nature looked in the "old skool" days before high-budget special effects when the level of action in your movie was dictated by how far your stuntment were willing to push the envelope of sanity. In Australia during the making of this movie and "The Road Warrior", it fast became evident that no such envelope even existed. The result is a piece of hand-made brilliance of guerilla filmmaking that would inspire latter day innovators such as Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez into accomplishing so much with so little.And of course the fact that this DVD is equipped with the Australian dialogue track is a selling point unto itself (it also shows exactly why a dub track was used for US distribution; it's not that we can't understand the accent, mates...we just have no idea what the slang means). That and the commentary track by the production team make well-received treats for those of us who are old enough to have loved this film since its original release. A retrospective on Mel Gibson's career and its beginnings is also a nice addition. I can only hope that "The Road Warrior" gets a similar treatment (and soon).In short you have a great movie with a a great DVD extras package at a VERY reasonable price...I don't know what more a movie buff could ask. This is definitely a "must-own" for your collection.