Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 4.0
They say people don't believe in heroes anymore!
"Mad Max" is a pretty simple revenge tale, a rousing sci-fi biker and car-crash-a-thon. Mel Gibson plays Max, a police pursuit driver in an unspecified future where roadgangs terrorize the innocent. Evidently road rage is way out of hand! When motorcycle thugs kill Max's best friend Goose (amiable Steve Bisley), his wife (Joanne Samuel) and son Sprog (!), Max gets mad... and gets even. What elevates this drive-in flick to cult classic status is director George Miller's use of low-riding, wide-angled shots to give the chase scenes an intensity never before seen. And Mel's presence, too, I suppose. Mel looks awful young, but flashes the charm and charisma that keeps him atop the box office charts all these years later.Like all cult movies, "Mad Max" has its cheesy moments. Max's scenes with his wife feature some goofy dialogue, and there's a very cheap-looking nightclub set at one point. But Hugh Keays-Byrne, as the reprehensible Toecutter, and Tim Burns (an Adam Ant lookalike) as the psychotic Johnny, provide ample menace. Plus, Miller and company throw in some very unusual-looking supporting players. And then there are the spectacular stunts and kinetic camerawork; they've been ripped-off a thousand times since!This "Special Edition" features a crisp, widescreen print (ooh!) and, even better, the original Australian vocal track (ahh!). Finally, someone wised up and banished the cartoon voices. The original actors perform solidly throughout, even subtly in places. At last, you can see why Samuel Z. Arkoff would bother to import this movie. But why'd he mangle it with bad overdubbing? No matter. The sequel ("Road Warrior") remains the superior film, but this new-to-the-U.S. version of the first movie provides some adrenaline-inducing adventure. Includes some nice commentary with plenty of inside trivia on the stuntwork and how they risked their lives just filming it! Truly death-defying work. As Max's boss Fifi says, "We're gonna give 'em back their heroes!"