Mad Max (1979) - by J. Molotov

Last night I watched "Mad Max". I have seen "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" a couple of times, at least in a fragmentary sort of way. If you're close to me, you know this because as a test of our friendship, I have probably asked you to try to explain the plot of that movie and answer all of my questions without getting angry at me.

So, even though everyone warned me that the three movies in the trilogy have little to nothing to do with one another, I decided to attempt to unravel the mystery for myself.

First off, there was nothing in this movie to make me understand that this was supposed to be "post-apocalyptic Australia". Part of that is that most of Australia is a wasteland (albeit a beautiful one), and for lack of money, the filmmakers decided that merely shooting on the long, abandoned stretches of highway outside of Melbourne would convey that "end of the world" feeling. It didn't, but I appreciate the attempt. I was just confused because "Beyond Thunderdome" is much more clearly post-apocalyptic, and I wondered what the hell could possibly happen in "The Road Warrior" that leads us from personal vengeance on a motorcycle gang to the apocalypse. But I get it now, it's already happened. It's just so hard to tell! Bartertown in the third movie is so completely alienated and full of madness. In the first movie, yeah, the crazy gang will kill you on the highway and the police station is pretty dilapidated, but in that world there are houses, and people have families and go on beach vacations and can purchase ice cream.

That being said, there are three great things about this film.

1) The suspense. I spent the better part of an hour thinking "they're gonna get her now...oh...no, now. wait. NOW!" Even knowing the plot beforehand, I haven't seen such an unpredictable movie in a long time.

2) The effects/stunts. Although (and happily for squeamish me) almost all personal violence was artfully kept off screen, the car and motorcycle action was often really awesome, especially given that this was 1979 Australia and on a tiny budget. This led a lot of people to comment that the cars were, in a way, the real stars of this movie. But I beg to differ, which leads me to:

3) The Toecutter. The Toecutter is one of the most fascinating villains I have ever encountered. I think if this film had been made in America and a little bit later, they would have gotten Kiefer Sutherland to play this role, with much less success. Supposedly the actor who did play him, Hugh Keays-Byrne, modeled his performance on Genghis Khan. He comes off as this sort of Simon LeBon-looking, half-feral, yet psychologically astute cult leader, complete with repellent/alluring charisma. This was award-winning work, if you ask me.

One last piece of trivia that I think is cool:

As of 1998, Mad Max is listed in the Guinness Book of Records for the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture (it cost approximately $400,000 to make, and made over $100 million). I believe that record has since been broken,  but it is nonetheless impressive.