- First seen in Mad Max released April 12, 1979
The 70s and 80s were a great time in film. A Golden Age that produced numerous classics that still resonate. Among those great films born then was the legendary Mad Max which was unlike anything before and few since.
Mad Max set a standard for visualizing and expressing a post-apocalyptic world that produced thousands of copies. It has been so influential that its template still inspires to this day post-apocalyptic futures be they after a nuclear war or a disease or some vaguely defined event that causes civilization to fall apart. The dress and the people that you find all can be found in the world of Mad Max.
Post-apocalyptic worlds were nothing new to movies even when the first in the series came out. Damnation Alley or any number of low budget or mediocre productions had dipped into that type of world. But Mad Max gave viewers a world and story unlike any other. Part science fiction and part Western, it gave us a loner against a savage world who descended into the very savagery he stood against. The following films turned him into a mysterious apocalyptic folktale told by those claiming to have encountered him. He never saved the world but in the stories we see saved the world of the particular characters.
And that is important and still largely unique not only in this genre but in film in general. “Mad” Max Rockatansky may help a little bit, but his actions do not restore the world or at the minimum affect it in some way. In Mad Max 2 he saved the lives of those at that settlement. In Beyond Thunderdome he gave those children and everyone else that came along with him a chance at a better tomorrow.
What strikes me is that aside from the first they are often presented as dark folktales. Max is a mysterious stranger that breezes into a situation and then leaves once his work is done. He’s wandering the Wasteland and often find himself involved in the scenario. Sometimes the point of the folktale is he redeems himself. Sometimes it’s about how he lost a part of himself. There is room to think the recounted story is embellished if not completely fictitious.
The dress of the characters has been copied time and again. They often dress like punk rockers or BDSM fans in these movies and many of the films inspired by it have done just that. Resources are scarce but there’s plenty of black leather and gas guzzling cars to go around. Again hinting these recounted stories lack some truth.
They are visually stunning with a sense of decay. But then again the world is supposed of gone crazy. There are never unnaturally clean or safe areas in contrast to the rest. The world (or at the minimum Australia) is at the end of the road dying slowly.
Mad Max still stands tall as the greatest of the post-apocalyptic films series. While I still freely admit that the first one is not my favorite they are all worth your time and have set a standard that cannot be equaled.
Warren Watched A Movie 