Gibson, who had only been in one other film prior to Mad Max, was 21, and when the Australian film was made international, the world got to see his acting prowess. While Gibson's career has take quite a nosedive lately, due mostly to his off-screen antics rather than his on-screen capabilities, he has still been a major Holywood player since Mad Max's debut over 30 years ago.
The film takes place in the not-too-distant future where society has broken down and what's left of the law, the Main Force Patrol, is doing all it can to keep the civilians safe. Mad Max starts off immediately with an action-filled chase scene where the MFP is trying to stop a lunatic cop-killer, Nightrider, the man behind the wheel of the stolen police car and a self-proclaimed suicide-machine, and one who is willing to go through anyone and everyone before he is ultimately taken down.
While several other MFP officers attempt to end the crazed driver's rampage, it all comes down to the department's best man, Max Rockatansky. What no one can know is that this event will kick off a revenge-begets-revenge story that not only has Nightrider's gang coming after the MFP, but eventually has Max himself going after the chaotic group when they first take out his best friend, Goose (Steve Bisley) and then later his wife (Joanne Samuel) and child.
What is particularly impressive about the film is the sheer number of stunts. In fact, one of the release's special features claims it to have had more stunts than any movie before it, and after re-watching the film for the first time in quite a few years, it's obvious that could very well be the case. Between people flying off of high-speed bikes, people driving cars that get trashed and people playing chicken on narrow roads, it is stunning the amount of stunts the film put out.
As a nice contrast to the stunts is the amount of suggested violence in the film. While Mad Max has tons of crashes and explosions, you never really see anyone die. In fact, even some of the film's most important deaths happen just out of frame, the most famous, of course, being Max's family run over by the biker-gang. All you really see is the kid's shoe and a ball go rolling down the street. Mad Max really does a great job of letting your mind fill in the blanks.
Having only owned the film in VHS format previously, I can say that the Blu-ray version looks much better and a lot crisper, but when I compared it to the DVD copy packaged in this release, I didn't really see much improvement, and what I did notice could very well be from standard Blu-ray upscaling. That fact, coupled with the realization that this DVD/Blu-ray combo seems to be nothing more than a repackaging of the DVD Special Edition plus the added high-definition disc makes Mad Max's combo pack seem less desirable for those who already own the 2002 DVD.
It would be different if there were additional special features. As it is, Mad Max contains the same few, but interesting, featurettes and movie trailers. One featurette focuses on how Mad Max affected the American movie industry and helped bring in the newest wave of action films as well as the different aspects of the film. The other featurette talks about Gibson and what his career was leading up to with Mad Max and where he went from there.
I enjoyed the DVD/Blu-ray release of Mad Max, but then again, I never bought the DVD version, so the remastering done in 2002 was new for me. Quite frankly, Mad Max isn't for everyone, and those seeing it for the first time will have to keep in mind what kind of films were around in 1979 in order to enjoy the film. Plus, it makes a great precursor to watching Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome.
