Film Review: Mad Max (1979)
A visionary filmmaker trying some stuff out.
A few years ago, we reviewed Mad Max: Fury Road on The Strategic Whimsy Experiment, and honestly, I still think about that movie from time to time. While I had issues with the last half of the film, the first car chase was simply perfect to me. I remember having to pause the film after that first chase because I had been holding my breath for so long. That film is so exquisitely made and the world was so immersive — it truly is a masterpiece.
So, I was prepared for Mad Max to be filled with sandy dunes, dry wastelands, and lots of car chases. I was prepared for some heart-pumping action and very little dialogue. While there is some of that, Mad Max wasn’t what I was expecting.
What I love most about this film is that you can see George Miller’s raw talent and creative ideas. He wanted to do so much with this film but he didn’t have the expertise or the budget to do all that he was trying to. Still, he and the team managed to make an incredibly entertaining though highly flawed film. To me, it felt like the vision he had in Mad Max finally was able to come to life in Fury Road.
We are dropped into post-apocalyptic Australia, but very little is done to actually build the world itself. Instead, they drop us into the action, following a couple of police officers on a high-speed…
