That the midnight crowd, that nocturnal barometer for cult cinema, embraced Mad Max in the late-'70s is completely and utterly confounding. There can be no doubt as to the film's visceral charge (which was accomplished on a miniscule budget, always seen as a virtue by the rebel spirit), but when you look at who's chasing whom in Mad Max, you realize that it's an even more severe anti-punk movie than Death Wish: it condemns the ethos of not only its (intended or otherwise) champions, but also that in which the film was made.

For Mad Max, his directorial debut, George Miller led a band of outlaw filmmakers around the Outback, defying industry standards and practices at every turn. One of those blokes was young unknown Mel Gibson, and the camera loved him from the beginning. It is a future world evidently trying to reconstruct itself after events apocalyptic in nature; Gibson's Max Rockatansky (if you've ever wondered why his last name is so under-publicized...) is trooping Australia's wastelands with his fellow officers in an attempt to destabilize a motorcycle gang that tends to leave destruction in its wake. The hooligans, piloted by the flamboyant and irredeemable "Toecutter" (Hugh Keays-Byrne), respond in kind with ever more vicious manoeuvres, eventually torching Max's good friend and colleague The Goose (Steve Bisley, Gibson's real life best mate)--in all likelihood Mad Max inspired the makers of Top Gun--after his car overturns.

But it's the endangerment of his wife (Joanne Samuel) and child that earns Max the title "mad," fuelling his homicidal impulses as well as the audience's vengeful desires--Miller has us begging for Max to turn the gangland into a police state. Riveting car chases bookend the film, scenes that take place at police headquarters are repeatedly established with a shot that favours the word "justice" and is underscored by the kind of triumphant horn licks reserved for Saturday-morning superhero cartoons, and Spielbergian signposts crop up throughout the (often dull) moments depicting Max's family life; this is drive-in fascism at its most self-consciously cinematic. Note that while the blind admiration of Mad Max's awesome spectacle scares me more than any conservative bent to its concept, I worry that the filmmakers themselves may have mistaken subtext for pretext.

On DVD, we discover that Mad Max has added nuance in its native tongue. MGM's new Special Edition claims to offer the film for the first time in North America with its Aussie-inflected dialogue track intact. I can't vouch for this, but I do know that up until now I've only had access to the American dub. A DVD-14, the dual-layered side presents Mad Max in age-belying 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and pan-and-scan options: the source print is pristine and the digital transfer well balanced in terms of colour and contrast. The Dolby Digital 5.1 remix of the Australian sound stems, on the other hand, is undistinguished, if pitched at a nice, clear volume. Avoid the American mono version (included for posterity) like the plague.

During Mad Max, you can choose to view an addictive and not-stodgy fact track (pop-up trivia) or listen to a group screen-specific commentary by production designer Jon Dowding, cinematographer David Eggby, special effects co-ordinator Chris Murray, and self-proclaimed Mad Max historian Tim Ridge, together almost compensating for the total absence of both George Miller and Mel Gibson within the supplementals. You'll learn in great detail how so much was accomplished for $200,000 without a single casualty, a fact that astonishes Dowding and co. as they review their handiwork. Flipping the disc, you'll find two documentaries narrated with canned enthusiasm by George Del Hoyo, whose voice will ring familiar to movie buffs.

"Mel Gibson: The High Octane Birth of a Superstar" (15 mins.) is a retrospective on Gibson's early days and features interviews with such peripheral players in the actor's career as Piper Laurie, his Tim co-star. Of interest is a glimpse at a photo collage from Gibson's drama school days wherein you'll notice his similarly famous classmates Judy Davis and Hugo Weaving. "Mad Max: Film Phenomenon" (25 mins.) summarizes the viewpoints of the commentary participants and collects soundbites from critics regarding the film's global and historic impact. Rounding out side B are four weathered TV spots, the American theatrical trailer (mislabelled "Australian"), and a page-turning international poster gallery (in many countries, the film was called Interceptor).-Bill Chambers

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DVD VITALS:
Running Time
94 minutes
MPAA
R
Aspect Ratio(s)
2.35:1, 16x9-enhanced/
Standard 1.33:1
Languages
English (Aus.) DD 5.1,
English (Aus.) Mono,
English (Amer.) Mono
CC
Yes
Subtitles
English, French, Spanish
DVD-14
Region One
MGM

the critic

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Published: January 8, 2002