Review of Mad Max (1979) by Connor G — 05 Feb 2011

In his first lead role, it's quite hard to get accustomed to a young Mel Gibson. Way before he was known as the coolest guy in Hollywood, the backbones of any action flick, and the dude that could charm the pants off any female, he starred in this tough sometimes brutal cop film where criminals rage and literally get away with murder. The story consists mainly of the police attempting to erradicate the bikers off the street, but with little results. When a member of the roughest biker gang is killed, the remaining members will stop at nothing to claim vengeance. Cops are brutalised, youngsters killed and women are raped in this gritty movie, and justice rarely prevails. It's a dark watch, but a very interesting one at that.

The first half an hour felt like your traditional buddy cop film. It's not until the film takes a complete 180 for the last hour where it truly gets brilliant. It feels like a completely different story (and a better one at that) when THAT moment hits. We finally see MAD Max live up to his name. It's a shame this final act lasts only half an hour, it could have been so much better had they decided to focus on this plotline.

Mad Max has one of the most influential death scenes of all time, where a guy has life or death choice to make, so much so a certain film made an entire franchise of it (*cough* Saw *cough*). The scriptwriting is pretty damn good considering the campy 70's atmosphere, with many thought provoking analogies and no too cheesy name calling. It's a shame its slightly wooden and often cringeworthy acting doesn't do it any justice. The effects and stunts are superb for their time. The costume design however feel completely dated, which takes away slightly from it's stunning visuals in the effect and cinematography department.

My main beef with Mad Max is that it doesn't use its incredible last act to its advantage. An ENTIRE full lentgh film could have been from this. Instead we get the majority of the running time a cliche ridden cop flick. For entertainment factor, it recieves an 85%, but its one major flaw drag it to a 60.