Mad max

Mad max is a series of three Road movie S of Australian Science-fiction carried out by George Miller. The universe of films is a country having a declining organized company and the deserted big spaces occupied by hordes without faith nor law. Mad max is representative of certain running of the Australian cinema.

A fourth film (Mad max IV: Fury Road) is in preparation; it was planned for 2006, but the project seems abandoned (its card was withdrawn from IMDb).

Mad max, 1979

Synopsis

A near future, the great nations entered in war for the Pétrole; exasperated by the crisis situation, the populations revolted, the nations try to maintain a pretense of order while bands of delinquents furrow the roads ( note: these elements are known only in Mad max II).

Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is a Policier of the road, a “bronze” (in reference to the color of its plate of service). On board sound Interceptor (a Ford Falcon XB sedan Australian, propelled by one 351 Cleveland, 5,8 liters of cubic capacity), it is charged to make reign safety and to fight the bands of pirates of the road; it makes team with the motorcyclist Jim “Mother Goose” (“Mère the Goose”, nickname translated by “French the Gorille”, incarnated by Steve Bisley). Its best weapon is its coolness, which enables him to make “crack” its adversaries at the time of impressive face to face truck drivers.

During a confrontation seen at the beginning of film, it kills a member of the Nightriders (Eagles of the Road, in French), insane dangerous of the wheel and learns later that the remainder of the band is with its research. When its associate Jim the Gorilla seriously finds flaring by the Eagles of the road, it takes fear and decides to leave its post of police officer interceptor. It leaves then towards North with his wife and her baby, far from road violence. But the Eagles of the road manage to find it and tries to kill his wife and her baby who finish at the hospital in an extremely critical state. Max, insane rage, réandosse its uniform and leaves to the continuation the motorcyclists with an only aim of killing them…

Comment

The country is unspecified: it is known just that they speak English and roll on the left, and that the police force bears the name of MFP, Main Forces Patrol , not more explicit. George Miller thus chose to place the action anywhere, i.e. here and tomorrow; the general framework is not known, it will be presented only in Mad max II and the country identified at the end of Mad max III , the film appears in fact like an evolution of the current location of the developed countries.

The first image is that of the Halls off justice , which introduces the topic of justice and an organized company. But as of the first scene, one understands that all is dilapidated: the buildings are in ruin, the radio of the police force is permanently occupied by an operator giving of the naive recommendations and the instructions shifted compared to reality, while the principal occupation of the police officers consists in rinsing the eye with the glasses of their weapon of service.

In fact, the violence of the company reflects the violence of the State, the representatives of the State are as insane as the criminals, the only difference is that they have a bronze plate to the reverse of the wind-breaker.

Although the history is very violent, George Miller with the intelligence to show almost anything (the two only really violent images last only a few seconds) and to let the spectator of it guess what occurs, all is suggested. One is well far from esthetized and obliging violence (violence is not beautiful thus it is not shown, but it thus exists is not ignored), and of asepticized conventions (not of nice nor of malicious, not of hero but insane, “Mad” max).

The film is inspired on several aspects by the film Boundary point zero ( Vanishing Point , 1971) by Richard Sarafian. It is also not without resemblances to the book Route 666 ( Damnation Alley , 1966, also translated under the title the Tumblers of the Hell ) of Roger Zelazny, pioneer of post-apocalyptic, by the Post-apocalyptic environment itself and by the personality of the hero.

George Miller have much problem with its film, considered to be too violent and influential for the young people. Wanting to avoid classification X, the censure agreed to project film in exchange of some cuts but George issued that, put aside of the explicit plans of a few seconds, that it is not the film which is violent but the general climate, ambient brutality. In spite of that, the film was prohibited a few years in France.

Data sheet

Distribution

  • Mel Gibson: “Mad” max Rockatansky
  • Joanne Samuel: Jessie Rockatansky, its wife
  • Brendan Heath: Sprog Rockatansky, their son
  • Hugh Keays-Byrne: Toecutter (the gang leader of motorcyclists)
  • Steve Bisley: Jim “mother” Goose (“the Gorilla”), motorcyclist of the MFP
  • Tim Burns: Johnny the Servant boy
  • Roger Ward: Fifi McAffee, the captain of the MFP
  • LISA Aldenhoven: nurse
  • David Bracks: Mudguts
  • Bertrand Cadart: Clunk
  • David Cameron: Barry, the mechanic of the MFP
  • Robina Chaffey: singer of the club Sugartown
  • Stephen Clark: Sarse
  • Mathew Constantine : Toddler
  • Jerry Day : Ziggy
  • reg. Evans: station master
  • Vincent Gil: Crawford “Nightrider” Montizano (the Eagle of the Road)
  • Excentric Pinkus: the girlfriend of Nightrider

Mad max 2,1981

Mad max 2: The Road Warrior

Synopsis

Max does not have any more a family, more friends, more fastener. He is now a recluse who furrows the roads of this country delivered to violence. The bands are made the war for the most invaluable good and rarest: oil. Its road crosses a community which manages a refinery and which is attacked by a band, carried out by the Humungus lord. The fuel is stored in a cistern but it cannot be moved without the assistance of a truck. With fuel court, max decides to help them in exchange of a few liters.

Comment

Contrary to the preceding film which had rather political contents, one is here in a more traditional film of the post-apocalyptic type, where violence is a little more explicit. More trace of an organized State, one is within the framework of a war of clans, a kind of mechanized Western.

Data sheet

  • Title: Mad max 2 (Mad max 2: The Road Warrior)
  • Realization: George Miller
  • Scenario: George Miller, Terry Beam and Brian Hannant
  • Music: Brian May
  • Country of origin: Australia
  • Coming out date:
  • Format: color, mono, 35 mm, format?
  • Kind: Post-apocalyptic Western
  • Lasted: 91 minutes

Distribution

  • Mel Gibson: “Mad” max Rockatansky

  • Bruce Spence: the pilot of the helicopter (Captain Gyro)
  • Michael Preston: Pappagallo
  • max Phipps: Toadie
  • Vernon Wells: Wez
  • Kjell Nilsson : the lord Humungus
  • Emil Minty: the wild child
  • Virginia Hey: the warlike woman
  • William Zappa: Zetta
  • Arkie Whiteley : the girlfriend of the pilot
  • Steve J. Spears: the mechanic
  • Syd Heylen: Curmudgeon
  • Moired Claux: Big Rebecca
  • David Downer: Nathan
  • David Slingsby: the quiet man
  • Harold Baigent: voice of the narrator

Mad max 3: Beyond the dome of the thunder, 1985

Mad max Beyond Thunderdome

Synopsis

A nuclear war completed the dying company, the men are organized in the shape of tribes which fight for their survival. Whereas it furrows the desert in its carriage tractor drawn by camels, max is made attack and steal its goods. While continuing its robbers, it arrives in a city, Bartertown, literally “the city of barter” (Trocpolis) . This city, dedicated to the trade, is governed by Aunty Entity ( Entité , Tina Turner), which organizes a beginning of civilization by replacing the flight by barter. In this city, the interpersonal conflicts and quarrels are regulated by a duel with died in an arena, the Dome of the Thunder ( Thunderdome ), in order to avoid revenges, fights of clans and vendetta which would lead to the collapse of this embryo of company. The company is subject to simple rules written by Aunty Entity in the form of slogans: “ two men enter, one man leave ” (“two men enter, a man leaves”, for the duels with died in the Dome of the thunder) or “ bash the deal, face the wheel ” (“viol the agreement, faces the wheel”, the judgment being randomly selected by a parody of lottery).

The city is fed by Méthane created starting from the liquid manure of pigs, raised under the city. The methane breeding and factory are directed by Master Blaster (“Main Bends”), a couple formed by a weak colossus (Blaster) and an intelligent dwarf (Master) perched on its shoulders. When it has a conflict with Aunty Entity, Master issues an embargo and cuts the energy supply of Bartertown.

Max discovers, while arriving in this city, that the rebirth of civilization is accompanied by that of the political intrigues. Is there a future beyond the Dome of the Thunder, i.e. beyond Bartertown? But also, does one have to recreate a company similar to that which failed?

Comment

After having explored the western, George Miller revisits the Péplum. The film appears rather asepticized compared to the two first opus , but that also corresponds to the rebirth of a civilized world. Beyond the Dome of the Thunder, one finds a community isolated children, who could be inspired by His Majesty of the flies of William Golding, and which incarnates a hope to found a new world without the liability which would have been transmitted by the adults.

The film comprises several references to the first of the series, as the player of saxophone (the woman of max played of the saxophone), or the evocation of the trade of max before the nuclear war; he concludes himself by the song from Tina Turner, We Don' T Need Another Hero (“we do not need a new hero”), who echoes the sentence of the captain of the police force “Fif” McAfee in first film: We' Re gonna giv' EM back to their heroes (“one will return their heroes to them”).

The film comprises some references to the French culture:

  • one of the guards of Bartertown sings the air of the torréador Carmen of Bizet;
  • the disc listened by the children during the escape of Bartertown is a French course.

George Miller locates for the first time the place of the action, the Australia, since one sees the ruins of the Opéra of Sydney.

At the end of film one sees max moving away in “large nothing”. But what does it become then?

  • 2Pac took as a starting point the film for its clip California Love .

Data sheet

Distribution

  • Mel Gibson: “Mad” max Rockatansky

  • Tina Turner: Entity (Aunty Entity)
  • Bruce Spence: Jedediah, the pilot
  • Adam Cockburn: Jedediah Jr.
  • Frank Thring : the collector
  • Angelo Rossitto: Master (the dwarf)
  • Paul Larsson: Blaster (the colossus)
  • Angry Anderson: Ironbar
  • Robert Grubb: the killer of pigs
  • George Spartels: Blackfinger
  • Edwin Hodgeman : Dr. Dealgood
  • Bob Hornery: the water merchant
  • Andrew Oh: Your Tone Tattoo
  • Helen Buday: Savannah Nix
  • Mark Spain: Mr. Skyfish

See too

External bonds

  • MAD MAX of George Miller on Cinetudes

  • Mad max on Mad Movies
  • Erwelyn.com Site of bibliographies and themathic catalogs of films on the science fiction like the '' Dystopies: our future companies '' topic to which Mad max
belongs

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