24/06/2012: Mad Max [1979]

Mad Max: The Road Warrior. The beginning of the rise to fame of Mel Gibson, like many an actor he got his start in a cult classic. However, I'm going to honestly say I just don't "get it." That's not to say I didn't like it per say, but I have a strong feeling it is not Mad Max that everyone is a fan of, but its sequel, The Road Warrior.

Over the last year now, I have tried to watch Mad Max 3 times. The first time was on The Movie Network when I was trying to find something on T.V. that day. It being a lazy Saturday afternoon I'm pretty sure I fell asleep. However, knowing somewhat indirectly of the movies reputation, (I've never met anyone who actually discussed it with me) I figured it was worth a watch. So, a few months back I made my second attempt to watch Mad Max and once again, I fell asleep. Maybe it was the boredom of watching it again, or perhaps I was tired, but I mean the opening scene is a freak'n car chase! You think it would prove exciting enough.

Then, today online, I once again came upon a bit of news regarding the upcoming remake. Still not having scene the original, I gave it little attention, although I think it had to do with casting. Anyway, it is Sunday night and I finally decided to give Mad Max it's third try. I gotta say, if you want me to watch something, just announce it's remake. So, luckily this time I made it through the entire movie and well, I'm not really sure what the hell just happened. While I'm not completely put off, and I still entirely plan on watching The Road Warrior, I'm not sure were the popularity comes from. I guess The Road Warrior must be one hell of an improvement.

And there it sits, awaiting the arrival of The Justice League.

When I say I don't get Mad Max, I'm not talking everything. I understood the plot in the most broadest of strokes. Apparently, the movie is set in some kind of post-apocalypse Australia, and judging by the lack of radiation, destruction and zombies, I'm guessing some kind of natural disaster or famine that did not involve nuclear weapons or the dead coming back to life. Or maybe they are just saving the zombies for the next movie. I mean zombies improve any movie right? Either way I got that Max was part of some Main Force Patrol, which seemed to be some extreme form of highway patrol officers. Then there are the roving gangs, who just happen to cross the wrong man, and when they [SPOILERS] kill his wife and son, he just goes on a rampage and kills everyone. But that really isn't the standard level of complicated post-apocalyptic science fiction, you could really adapt that plot to any time or setting.

So let me throw you a completely random theory I had. I'm not often one for theories, and tend to take movie at pretty much face value. You'll notice that even when I watch movies as strange as a David Lynch movie can be, I don't really throw in my own theory. One could also except that Mad Max really doesn't need a theory anyway, but here it is. Maybe, just maybe, Max was just some highway patrolman, who lost his wife to some drunk drivers, and then snaps, imagining an slightly alternate reality in which he is the bad-ass that apparently The Road Warrior is. Anyway, that is just my random theory, don't kill me for it, I haven't seen the second one yet.

These are the nonsensical scenes I am referring to.

Anyway, aside from that, I felt that this movie (I honestly just spelled that movy... wow) reminded me a lot of The (or is it A?) Clockwork Orange. Yes they are not really close in terms of themes and meaning, but hear me out. Both of them feature a dystopian/apocalyptic world, populated by gangs of wackos and police who uphold a strange form of justice. On top of that, you have a lot of mindless violence, and dialogue that honestly, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I don't know, but I really got the same vibe from Mad Max as A Clockwork Orange. While I got the plot from Mad Max a little less, there was also a lot less depth and meaning in it. I'm not saying that Mad Max is necessarily shallow, but I mean the world it crafts is a couple miles wide, and it only dug a couple inches deep in explanation.

Let's start with "The Hall of Justice", I mean aside from that sounding like the headquarters of a team superheroes, it goes really unexplained. When the MFP arrest crazy Johny, or whatever his name was, they apparently held a trial, and due to a lack of witnesses coming forward, Johny was released. So, in this apocalypse we are lucky enough to have some pretty stand up cops. But is there a government? How does one become a member of the MFP, and what are their codes? As of the first movie, not much is explained. Most of the rest of the world goes unexplained as well. Sure we get to see a lot of things, but without dialogue to explain it, we don't learn anything. People were either spouting nonsense, talking about cars, or stating retarded things like " I was hungry, it is bread and peanut butter" (or was it honey). Either way, when you give us an on the beach scene, you at least give us something out of it. Not just Mel Gibson's favourite sandwich.

After the world ends Sherlock Holmes will sell dogs in the middle of nowhere.

Okay aside from some serious problems, Mad Max still throws at us so many interesting ideas that you can't help but be interested. While the movie then goes on to just assault us with car chases, gang violence, and insanity, we somehow don't dig very deep into why any of it is happening. However, on the action and entertainment side of things Mad Max is pretty exciting, although it goes about it rather strange. I mean, almost all the deaths are caused by bad driving and traffic collisions. Even when Max sets out for vengeance, he really only shoots one guy, the others just kinda run into a truck or something.

In the end, I'm not really sure Mad Max gave me anything. It felt a lot more like a prequel than anything, and even if that, the job of a prequel is really to set up the world, which Mad Max just kinda skipped doing. Strangely, just throwing a bunch of action and cool concepts at me was enough to wet my appetite and I'm actually looking forward to seeing Mad Max: The Road Warrior, which if I understand correctly, is really the one everyone likes. As for the remake, maybe they will beef up the dialogue and explanations a bit, as the run time of Mad Max was really rather short for everything this movie wanted to do. I'll probably go online and learn about how much the studio or someone fucked with the movie and cut it to barely understandable pieces. Yet, as confused as I seem to be, I want you to know I am not unhappy with it. The movie by no means earned the garbage label, and I'm okay with what it was, although, I'm expecting a lot from it's sequel.

Link:
Mad Max IMDb