MAD MAX

* * * ½

STARRING: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Roger Ward, Vince Gil

1979, 90 Minutes, Directed by: George Miller

Description: Max (Mel Gibson) is a policeman, the last guardian of civilization and order in a devastated world reduced to chaos. But when a leather-clad gang of sadomasochistic speed demons mows down Max's family, his remaining connections to humanity are also permanently severed.  — Amazon.com

Low budget post-apocalypse cult action movie in which crazed outlaw bikers roam a devastated Australia with only a few law enforcers in souped-up V8s to stop them. A much younger Mel Gibson in an early role stars as Mad Max. (In fact the film was re-dubbed with American voices when the film was first released in the States!) There's some amazing stunts (despite the small budget) as renegade law enforcer Max avenges his wife and child's murder by such a gang.

Followed by two sequels (Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome), this film spawned countless imitators - amongst them the enormously expensive Waterworld. Rumour also has it that a new movie followed by a television series (none of them starring Mel Gibson) featuring a "more sensitive 1990s Max" is in the works. A shame actually since this original film perhaps features the best anti-hero cinema has given us in the past few decades . . .
 

• Read an extended review of Mad Max.
• See also: Cold Fusion Video Reviews.

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