Mad Max (1979)
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Mad Max Movie Review
Mad Max is a 1979 science fiction action film directed by George Miller and starring Mel Gibson. It’s a solid, but far from great first chapter of this franchise.
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“Jimmy the Goose,
larger than life and twice as ugly!“
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It follows an unhinged policeman who is up against an extremely violent motorcycle gang in the dystopian future. My main problem with this film is that it’s not dystopian and post-apocalyptic enough. I get it, it was a cheap film in terms of the budget, but still they could have included more sci-fi elements. This way, it basically felt like an action film in the present more than in the future.
But the crazy villain personalities sold the future setting the best. They are so violent and so dangerous that you feel that intensity and peril throughout the film. The protagonist is seriously jeopardized in almost every single scene, and that level of suspense is the film’s main selling point.
I loved the villains, I found them brutal and memorable, but also genuinely fun and campy at times. Everything with them worked, and they were superbly countered by our protagonist who was played so phenomenally by Mel Gibson. It’s interesting seeing him so young and so early in his career, and seeing how badass he was. He has a lot of charisma here, he is quite sensual, and he looks iconic with that black leather suit. He exudes genuine movie star quality here.
Mad Max has solid action scenes, but the first act is not all that engaging, and it took me quite a while to get into the movie. The third act is the best one. The second one has its slow stretches, but it genuinely develops the protagonist, which was necessary for the emotional engagement, though the girlfriend character is utterly underutilized.
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But the third act is terrific, featuring quite a lot of scene-stealers, and in particular the scenarios are fantastic. I loved the ending as well. The direction from George Miller is pretty good, the costume design is splendid and the score and sound are both pretty good. The same goes for the cinematography. I just wish it was more epic and ambitious in terms of world building.
The first Mad Max movie is certainly very small in scale and ambition. It lacks in terms of science fiction and dystopian elements, and it has its slower stretches. But it is pretty good in its action scenes, the ending is excellent, the villains are terrific and Mel Gibson is badass here in such an iconic early role for him.
