June Recommendation: Mad Max

 

                

           With May we covered deep into the summer movie season with the Western Genre. Now in the month of June I have decided to dive deep into the Post Apocalyptic genre but with fast moving cars. Long before Fast and Furious films were slowly destroying the race car trend or Tom Cruise trying to bring the need for speed in NASCAR in Road of Thunder. One Australian filmmaker broke all the rules and created a shocking and nerve wrecking action movie for the ages but, more importantly launched the career of Mel Gibson who would later in life have a tremendous film career with the big ups and massive lows in life that would later prove that Mel is always unbreakable with the grace of God. 

           In a not-too-distant dystopian future, when man's most precious resource -- oil -- has been depleted and the world plunged into war, famine and financial chaos, the last vestiges of the law in Australia attempt to retrain a vicious biker gang. Max (Mel Gibson), an officer with the Main Force Patrol, launches a personal vendetta against the gang when his wife and child are hunted down and murdered, leaving him with nothing but instincts for survival and retribution.

           To really give a good history and the story behind the world of Mad Max you really must go back to the beginning between two up and coming filmmakers that would change the game for the post-Apocalyptic genre, both Byron Kennedy and George Miller. George Miller attended a film workshop at Melbourne University around 1971 where he met fellow students and future partner and crime, Byron Kennedy. During 1972, Miller completed his residency at Sydney's St. Vincent's Hospital and became a surgeon to pay the bills, and during his off time would do a ton of experimental films with Kennedy and would later form their own movie corporation. During Miller's time as a medical doctor, working in the hospital’s emergency room, he saw a lot of injuries and deaths depicted in what you see in the movie. Moreover, witnessed many car accidents growing up in rural Queensland and some of those accidents happened to three of his friends as teenagers. During the process of movie forward with the idea of making Mad Max happened, a side from the fact that each man had very limited experience in script writing, they knew they had to bring another writer into the process of making the story a reality, and James McCausland came in to flesh out the story a bit more. McCausland brought a lot more to the small budget action film and inspired us to use elements of a recent oil crisis in 1973. McCausland in an article circa 2006 from the Courier-Mail states in his own words "A couple of oil strikes that hit many pumps revealed the ferocity with which Australians would defend their right to fill their tank. Long queues formed at the stations with petrol -- and anyone who tried to sneak ahead in the queue met raw violence ... George and I wrote [Mad Max] script based on the thesis that people would do almost anything to keep vehicles moving and the assumption that nations would not consider the huge costs of providing infrastructure for alternative energy until it was too late", furthermore it shows that finding some events that occurred in your own country will help you come with a script that will be promising with up and coming director. The film was shot in twelve weeks with the budget of 350,000 upon with both Byron and George financed with their jobs, but George Miller described the movie as "guerrilla filmmaking" (which a ton of filmmakers use for low budget B-movies) and majority of the action sequences, all of the crew would close the roads without permits, not even use any walkie-talkies for many reasons they had to avoid a ton of the Police hearing in on their conversations so, a ton of those sequences you see on screen, they had to plan all of this without distant conversations and yet they created something magical when you watch the movie. Furthermore, what makes Australia great to film though I'm not sure now, but majority of the extras used in the movie were all paid in beer. Which reminds me of a fantastic joke on the Simpsons where the family is in Australia and Marge is ordering a coffee and the natives only have beer because that's what they all drink so, if you ever filming in Australia and trying to find a cheap way to pay extras, paying them in beer would probably be your best bet. I've seen the original Mad Max almost ten years ago prior to just watching the fourth Mad Max film, and even still to this day this movie is still shocking to watch with some of the scenes that would put you on the edge of your seat, but still for a movie that's budget is 350,000 dollars to make is still incredible and it goes a lot from such great films like George Romero's original Night of the Living Dead which was around 125,000 dollars to make, to even Robert Rodriguez and Christopher Nolan's first films that both were made around 6,000 and 7,000 dollars, and hearing stuff like this just brings out inspiration as well as giving these up and coming directors to get up from your couch and really make something out of it. Even to do action movies now it's almost impossible to do with this economy, but George Miller and his crew were able to pull off some of the most incredible action sequences and were able to make something unique and great to watch at the same time and sometimes Guerrilla filmmaking is always your best choice to make something special but it has to be in the hands of someone whose smart and talented and no dummy and George Miller was no dummy. Mel Gibson was a drama student when he got the part of Max Rockatansky and was only paid for 10,000 dollars and he show how great and promising actor he could be even when he lost his mind with a crazy lady, but it's not just how he was able to acted in an action movie it was more of his emotions and eyes that did a ton of the acting for him because even in scenes when you see him get drained our from his job, as well as reaching his breaking point it's his eyes that tell the story on how he's feeling on screen and Gibson does a fantastic job at that. Now I haven't seen Mad Max 2 yet and the same goes with Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome but I can honestly say that those movies are a billion no, a trillion times better than any of the Fast & Furious films as well as the later Mission Impossible films for obvious reasons, Miller of all people would say that this is how you do an action film the right way possible and never overdo it with ridicules and over the top action scenes that makes you feel like you’re in a cringe worthy family reunion. Of course I would recommend watching the original Mad Max film it's great and shocking and the action sequences are still fresh to watch from beginning to the final frame but more importantly, as shocking of a movie it was the film still follows the one rule that every director should follow in life and that's "show don't tell" and Mad Max is a great example of that one rule. So, if the movies out now are making you feel depressed, Mad Max is a great film to rejuvenate your love of film.