Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 5.0
Quintessential Australian film!
As an Aussie who saw this as a boy way back in 1980 I am saddened and dumbfounded to find that this was ever the victim of pathetic overdubs into US speak from the original Australian, as though this helped the film in any way? Was the premise that Americans are so jingoistic that they aren't capable of understanding English spoken by Australians, or simply that Americans only want to hear themselves? In any case this is a classic Aussie film back in the days when Mel Gibson considered himself an Aussie and was seen by Aussies to be an Australian.I won't harp on about the plot because other reviewers have done the plot to death. This film was shot in South Australia and the many brilliant and genius techniques for filming the amazing road scenes were developed by the Australian Director of this movie, later to be adopted by film makers the world over. Anybody who doesn't understand that this movie is the BEST of the series has missed the point of MAD MAX as far as I'm concerned. I'm sure Aussies and Kiwi's alike understand the superb grittyness which has the stamp of Australian and New Zealand (Once Were Warriors) film making all over it without losing all the best features of great film making to HOLLYWOODISM...MAD MAX 2 was also a good film but Thunderdome became too Hollywood for my money and sadly doesn't do justice to the series like the original. I almost feel sorry for people who thought this wasn't ans Australian film... it's like thinking "Gone with the Wind" was Canadian and sticking "eh" on the end of "Quite frankly I don't give a damn (eh?), talk about inappropriatsville! This is the the ONLY version worth watching...