Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 5.0
the first--and greatest--Angry Mel movie
Mel Gibson has made a career of playing Angry Mel--an initially decent man who, having suddenly and violently lost what he holds most dear, gets royally pissed and goes on a vicious, vengeful rampage--in movies from Lethal Weapon to Payback to The Patriot to Braveheart, but it all started with this one.Mad Max takes place in a dystopic future. Not the postapocalyptic wasteland of the later Mad Max movies, but a decaying, semiliterate society frighteningly close to our own. In this time motorcycle gangs, led by the sadistic, maniacal Toecutter, have taken over the roads of Australia, and the government (or what passes for the government) can barely manage to keep things just shy of anarchy.Only the Main Force Patrol (MFP), the police force, stands in the way of the gangs. However, they aren't much better, for in their mad pursuit of their quarry, they tend to leave a trail of civilian casualties in their wake, and they seem far more concerned with the thrill of the chase than maintaining the peace.In this world the only things that matter are speed and quick reflexes. Whoever has those rules the roads. Those who have neither, on the other hand, usually end up as flaming wrecks on the side of the highway.Into this state of affairs enters Gibson as Max Rockatansky, the top Interceptor on the MFP, who, with his fun-loving partner Goose, daily takes to the roads to pursue the Toecutter's gang. He seems to be a more decent sort than his fellow officers, hence more sensitive to the endless parade of horrors he sees on the job, but manages to hang on to his sanity thanks to his loving wife and young son. Of course this happy (?) situation can't last, otherwise we wouldn't have a movie...and you can guess what happens next.There are so many things to love about this movie: the brutal, suspenseful car chases (done on a shoestring budget and, even so, more inventive than what you'll see in most Hollywood action movies), the bizarre slangy, gabbly Aussie futurespeak, the crazed gangsters with their scruffy, outlandish punk costumes, and the garish, Wild-West-through-a-funhouse-mirror universe it all takes place in. As for Mel Gibson: if you ever harbored doubts the man could act, this movie should put them to rest forever, because he turns in a superb, fully-rounded performance here. But don't worry, for those who crave Angry Mel, he shows up too.Highly recommended.