Mad Max (1980)

First ''post-apocalyptic'' movie I've ever seen. I wasn't interested in this genre so much but this movie is really cool. Movie presents a world in which oil resources have been nearly exhausted. This has resulted in constant energy shortages and a breakdown of law and order, society has crumbled & cops are struggling with violent motorcycle gangs. Our protagonist, Max, is a notorious police officer in taking care of road-bums. Later on, after some events, he claims he's slowly being dragged to the madness that he's been fighting against & if he keeps doing this job, he will be one of this maniacs.Movie has a really low budget ($350,000) but it holds up with it's original story (Yes, this was 1979 so it's pretty original) & nice cinematography. Acting? Ehh... I think Mel Gibson's acting was pretty good & if we consider that Max is the main focus of the movie, I wouldn't complain about the acting skills of the supporting actors.Quite good & enjoyable. Just don't expect this movie to give you a meaning for your life.9/10

Mad Max, is really a gearhead movie: sweet cars, sweet bikes, lots of chases. It was made on a small budget and surely shows it. I go back and forth with this one. I love it, then it's only ok, then I love it. This time it landed on the above average side of things mostly because I was using my critical, rating eye instead of just sitting back and enjoying the experience.

Set in a not too distant future where law and order is breaking down and murderous biker gangs roam the roads of rural Australia in the search for thrills and fuel. Standing against them are the men of the Main Patrol Force. After 'Mad' Max Rockansky chases a gang member until he has a fatal crash the MPF find themselves targeted by the gang; they leave his partner, and best friend, horrifically burned and Max decides he has had enough. He heads off with his wife and child but their troubles are far from over; they run into the gang again with tragic consequences. With nothing left to lose Max hunts down the gang.The fact that this was a low budget film is pretty obvious although it works well with what it has. The motorcycle gang is suitably unpleasant although at times they play up their 'madness' just a bit too much. Mel Gibson does a solid job in the role that launched him as a major Hollywood action star and the rest of the cast are decent enough. No one will be too surprised at the general ways it ends but Max's final confrontation with one of the gang is one of the most memorable in any film and has been copied more than once. There is a degree of nastiness of course; the gang are cruel and the way Max treats that gang member is fairly sadistic… even if few viewers will have any sympathy for him. Overall a solid revenge movie; just don't expect the large scale of the big budget sequels.

Having reviewed already the later installment of the Mad Max series it is high time to review the original trilogy of this cult series that has left such an impact to our global culture. The first of them was Mad Max of 1979 a film that also, was among many other of the late seventies that brought the Australian cinema to the spotlight.For starter the film had, for twenty years in the role ,the highest box office to budget ratio and was award multiple awards for its effects, directing and in general its style as a whole. Even nowadays people modify their cars in order to be like them ones of the film. What also is a fun fact about that film it that the majority of the stunt doubles and drivers of the vehicles ,they were paid for the labor with beer. No, for real I didn't make this up the pay many of them with some dollars and a six-pack! Granted it doesn't sound such a bad of an idea.All these fun facts end to one single fact about the directorial debut of George Miller and Mel Gibson. It was really low budget, to be precise the film cost 350 to 400 thousand Australian dollar which was roughly around 180000 to 200000 us dollars, so the crew was forced to be crafty. One of the methods they used to save on the budget was to call real motor gangs for the shooting for the criminals of the film (don't wary the real-life motorcyclist aren't psychos), directing everywhere they could without gaining first permission in order to not to pay for the needed permit, the so called guerrilla film-making . And the crazy part is that the Victoria Police actually found them out and intend of arresting them they help them by closing roads for them to do their work with out any third person been put in danger.But for me it isn't a perfect film for it is often corny and over the top. Some stunts are quit obviously faked, although the ones they real happen are quit cool. And my last negative is that the post-apocalypse part isn't so big in the film even though so many films of this genre have took inspiration of it.All in all if you like it, good for you ,if you didn't like then at least respect it for its legacy and as for the action and dystopia part, the next installment was way more in to that.