What is Max 'Mad' About ?
Forgive me, I've never seen a Mad Max movie, so why is Max 'mad?'
Is it the hot weather ?
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In the first movie, Max is a highway patrolman with a reputation for being so aggressive in pursuit of suspects that it borders on being unhinged. His willingness to play chicken with a suspect in an oncoming car in the opening chase shows this. However, he still has a job and family to keep him from going off the deep end. In the second film, after losing his wife and son to a gang at the end of part one, he quits the police force and heads out into the outback in his V8 police cruiser. The car is the only thing still tying his former life. When we see him again in part two he is living a feral, nomadic existence as a scavenger. Now that he has nothing to lose he is even more unhinged than before. His gradual return to being a hero again is what makes the second Max film (The Road Warrior) the best in the series.
shareIs this for real?
Mad Max is a 'highway patrolman' - seriously ?
I thought the movies were some post-apocalyptic tales about Max having to survive a savage wasteland of mutants, but he was just essentially writing tickets?
Surely you jest ?
I honestly haven't seen them, so you could be telling me the truth, are they worth watching ?
Thanks for your reply :)
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Watch the first film. When you get the end scene, you'll realize why he's called MAD (as in insane, crazy) Max.
shareHe begins to become as feral as the prey he hunts, but part two shows there are lines he won't cross, and he often takes a good beating for his troubles. He's an antihero. I mean sure, he is ruthless in his pursuit of revenge for the deaths of his friend "the Goose" and his family, but he's doing it for understandable reasons against the ones that did him harm and has a certain code he still lives by.
shareShort answer: yes, you should a watch at least watch part two, one of the best genre films of the 80s.
Long answer: I mean, you could read the plot synopsis, but about being a highway patrolman - Max is a highway patrolman living in a post-apocalyptic Australia, so he and his fellow officers are tasked with doing battle- often to the death - with marauding road gangs which are becoming more and prevalent and out of control with each passing day as society gradually collapses. In part one, we see Max and his other coworkers responding to violent road accidents and assaults caused by these gangs. We don't see them writing out any tickets because things are so bad they have little time for minor offenses. By part two, society has already collapsed, so all Max has connecting him to his past life is V8 and some dim memories of his family and occupation.
For some reason you seem determined to dislike these films without having seen them..But you're missing out. The Road Warrior at the very least you should give a shot. Mad Max you can then watch to get the back story if you're so inclined.
'you seem determined to dislike these films without having seen them'
...not at all, I was just surprised to find Max was a highway patrolman, as it seems almost inconsequential to enforce traffic laws in a world that has gone to hell, but I'm guessing there's more to it than that, the roads being the arteries for survival perhaps?
I shall definitely watch them, and thanks again for your replies :)
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Oh, I apologize. I misread your intent. You could either watch them in release order or not. If you watch them out of order start with Part Two, watch Part One as a prologue. Thrre and for are non-essential, in my view. The fourth one was better than three...but no Mel Gibson.
You have to remember the first Mad Max was a very low budget film with strong exploitation roots (the biker film, post-apocalyptic schlock, etc), so they started off small. The world of Mad Max wasn't fully fornmed yet. In fact, it originally wasn't supposed to be a sci-fi film at all. The original idea was that it would be "a documentary. One day George Miller had been hearing about a radio journalist that would follow around into places of car accidents to interview people about them." That's why the first one has a relatively realistic feel, and highway patrol officers are part of it.
Thanks christomacin, much appreciated! :)
shareThis is the REAL Mad Max. Accept no substitutes played by Tom Hardy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMG7j3zReJQ