Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 4.0
Mad Max (1979)
A catalyst in the Contemporary Era revenge-actioner movement, this George Miller flick features a young, then-unknown Mel Gibson in only his second movie role, as top-cop Max Rockatansky. After a pursuit of Max's ends in a fiery crash, killing the pursued (a biker named Nightrider), he is targeted by motor-terrorists for the death of their fellow gang member. When Max goes on a vacation trip with his wife and their infant son, they are attacked by the malicious, vengeful mob, leaving Max a childless widower hungry for his own violent revenge--and that's exactly what he gets. Set in post-apocalyptic Australia, this film, made for a meager $400,000, held the highest cost-profit ratio of any film in Hollywood history until 1999, when Blair Witch surpassed its mark.