Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 4.0
Five stars for Mel Gibson, three for the movie
I like the _Mad Max_ series, but I think the two sequels are better movies than this one.It's not that it's _bad_. It's just that it consists mostly of an hour and a half of atmosphere. Another film would have had this entire plot take place in the first half-hour and gone on from there.The idea -- a postapocalyptic mood piece set in the Australian Outback -- is wonderful, and naturally enough the scenery is gorgeous. And considering the shoestring the movie must have been made on, it's very good. It's just not much fun to watch twice, because it takes so bleedin' long for anything to _happen_.The best thing about it is the young Mel Gibson, who perfected the likeable-handsome-lug persona a generation ahead of George Clooney and who plays Max with just the right combination of rogueish charm and leonine ferocity. When he finally _does_ go 'mad', his puckish humor evaporates and he burns like a slow and deadly fire.The rest of the cast does well too -- and having previously owned this film on VHS, I'm glad that the DVD special edition includes the original voices. The thick Strine may be a little hard for U.S. audiences to follow at first, but once you pick up the wavelength you won't have any trouble. (Besides, the old U.S. dubbed version is available as an option.)Anyway, as a longtime SF geek and an avid devourer of postapocalytpic films and novels, I really like the atmosphere and the concept of this movie. I just have a hard time watching it too many times close together. For that, I prefer the two sequels.But this one is still worth watching, and owning, for the story it tells -- the mythical tale of the birth of one of modern cinematography's great heroes/antiheroes.