Director: George Miller
Written by: James McCausland, George Miller, Byron Kennedy
Cast: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne

Year / Country: 1979, Australia
Running Time: 88 mins.

With the newest entry Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga approaching fast in 2024, it was time to revisit the old trilogy.

In the first Mad Max from 1979, we find ourselves in the early stage of an apocalypse. Australia (never mentioned as such) is suffering from ecocide, lawlessness and scarcity of fuel. The poorly funded Main Force Patrol is still active and tries to bring down the bikers that terrorize the highways.

The movie starts with a bunch of patrolmen who are chasing down a couple of psychotics and we immediately get a good sense of what we’re in for: very fast cars, dangerous stunts and major car crashes. We get introduced to the cool, leather outfit and shades wearing cop Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson). Where others fail, he gets the job done. But after he dispatches the psychotic cop killer Nightrider, a gang of biker outlaws come after him and kill his wife and child. Now Max goes out for revenge and turns into a lone warrior who scavenges the barren waste land.

Prior to his film career, director George Miller served as a medical doctor in Sydney, stationed in a hospital emergency room where he encountered numerous horror-like injuries and fatalities similar to those portrayed in the film. Additionally, his upbringing in rural Queensland exposed him to numerous car accidents, and he tragically lost at least three friends to such incidents during his teenage years. So that’s clearly where his inspiration came from.

Miller is still developing his trademark style in this movie. The high speed chases, crashes and stunts are looking great considering the low budget. He employs innovative camera techniques to achieve the distinctive Mad Max look that he would refine in the sequels. It’s a highly original movie and within the carsploitation genre an absolute classic.

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Biography: George Miller (1945) is an Australian filmmaker, best known for his Mad Max franchise. In 1971, George attended a film workshop at Melbourne University where he met Byron Kennedy, with whom he formed a friendship and production partnership, until Kennedy’s death in 1983 (Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is dedicated to him). Together they made the first Mad Max movie in 1979 for a budget of 400.000 Australian dollars. It earned 100 million dollars at the box office worldwide and became the most profitable film of all time (the record was not broken until The Blair Witch Project 20 years later). Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) earned Oscar nominations for best film and director. The latest entry in the series – Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga – will be released in May 2024.

Filmography (a selection): Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022), Mad Max: Fury Road (12015), Happy Feet 2 (2011), Happy Feet (2006), Babe: Pig in the City (1998), Lorenzo’s Oil (1992), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983, segment), The Dismissal (1993, TV episode), Mad Max 2 (1983), Mad Max (1979), The Devil in Evening Dress (1975, short)