Who'd have thought we'd still be talking about a $350,000 film, 40 years after it was made? And who'd have thought it would be in a positive way.
_Mad Max_ was one of the most formative films ever released, and not only is **one of** my favourite films, but is chief inspiration to my **actual** favourite film of all time, Neil Marshall's _Doomsday_.

_Final rating:★★★★½ - Ridiculously strong appeal. I can’t stop thinking about it._

The original _Mad Max_ is pretty easy to boil down to an essence: fast motorcycles, rusty weapons, loud cars and bald revenge. For most of the story, we see Max as the cool, composed vendor of justice; a man who hasn't yet learned to discard the establishment in an increasingly turbulent world. He patrols a gang-plagued war zone, essentially a sleepwalking child, thoroughly unprepared for the foundational shock he's about to endure. Most of that pathos is left to the audience's subconscious, since so much of the running time is devoted to hostile moments of anarchy and long, noisy highway scenes with violent ends.

First-time writer/director George Miller hasn't entirely fleshed out Max's world - this landscape is more rural homestead and less dystopian hellscape - and his skills as a filmmaker are still nascent. In fact, this installment frequently reminds me of the first _Evil Dead_, in that it's more of a unique, genre-driven learning experience than an objectively good, well-realized standalone film. Pacing is a major problem. Despite all the roaring engines and ballooning fireballs, it's downright boring at points, struggling to tie the crazy action to the more grounded, human transformation of its troubled lead. Frequent continuity errors are distracting, too, like how Max's young family completely forgets they have a child when it's not convenient. And, for all the build to their inevitable collision, the climactic conflict between anti-hero and big bad is basically just treated like a footnote. Max doesn't even flinch, he just moves on to the next guy. Just like I think I should do with this franchise.

It's not often that these dystopian scenarios ever leave the USA, so it's interesting that this one introduces us to the massive expanse of the Australian desert and to the young policeman "Max" (Mel Gibson). His job is pretty thankless - and perilous. He must patrol the remote countryside trying to protect what is left of civilisation from marauding motor cycle gangs who are constantly on the search for fuel - for themselves and for their machines. Things start to boil over when ruthless biker "Toe-cutter" (Hugh Keays-Byrne) avenges the death of his leader by killing just about everyone he can find - including the wife and child of the now incandescent "Max". What now ensues is a grittily told, quickly paced, tale of violence and vengeance with the erstwhile law officer abandoning any sense of decency he had clung onto and going all out to destroy his enemy. This film ought to be remembered for what it spawned, rather than what it offers by itself. Most of the acting is mediocre, as is the dialogue and after a while the brutality started, for me anyway, to lose potency and become almost comedic. This is certainly ninety minutes of cinema history, but it's really not very good.

For whatever reason, never had seen the original and doesn't disappoint, some good action and gut wrenching scenes defying the rules of killing pets and kids, Mel Gibson is quite good in the role and look forward to checking out the sequels. **3.75/5**

Low budget classic that is now a genre landmark.

Set somewhere in the future we are privy to a world where the roads are ruled by maniac gangs with souped up cars, and bikers that literally could come from hell. Trying to stop these marauding loons are the overstretched police force who themselves ride in exceptionally fast cars. At the front of this story is Max Rockatansky, a good honest cop trying to hold his own against the chaotic world that is forming around him. After his best friend is burned and left for dead he decides enough is enough and thinks about retiring from the service, but whilst on a vacation with his wife and child things go decidedly bad and Max becomes an avenging force of fury with devastating affect.

When evaluating this film I feel it really needs to be put into perspective just how brilliant a job director George Miller did with next to no cash to work with, in fact Miller edited the film in his own bedroom just to emphasise the low-fi nature of the beast. The costumes are excellent, the cast are terrific, with Mel Gibson as Max particularly impressive, and here we have villains to truly fit the word villainous, but it's the stunts and chase sequences that makes this film a rich rewarding experience. The opening ten minutes alone are pure adrenalin pumping genius, but the film as a whole delivers a crash bang wallop punch that has often been imitated since its release, but rarely bettered, and although the heart of the film is a simple revenge story, it grabs your attention and delivers right to the corking finale, 8/10.

Footnote: Region 2 Users should note that the bargain bucket Mad Max Trilogy flip pack set still contains the foolishly dubbed version of this film, incredibly stupid move from the American distributors.