Mad Max (1979)
Mad Max (1979)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Staging the improbable car stunts and crashes to perfection, director George Miller succeeds completely in bringing the violent, post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max to visceral life.
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Movie Info
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Cast
as Mad Max Rockatansky
as Johnny the Boy
as Jessie
as Toecutter
as Jim Goose
as Fifi Macaffee
as Nightrider
as Nightrider
as Bubba Zanetti
as Cundalini
as Charlie
as Labatoche
as May Swaisey
as May Swaisey
as Station Master
as Sarse
as Diabando
as Grinner
as Benno
as Ziggy
as Senior Doctor
as Junior Doctor
as Toddler
as TV Newsreader
as Starbuck
as Liar
as Underground Mechanic
as Singer
as Clunk
as Mudguts
as Sprog
as Roop
as Nightrider's Girl
as Scuttle
as Grease Rat
as Nurse
as Silvertongue
as TV Newsreader
as People's Overseer
as Midge
as Girl in Chevy
News & Interviews for Mad Max
Critic Reviews for Mad Max
All Critics (59) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (53) | Rotten (6) | DVD (16)
[The] film has been consigned to the grind houses, where audiences are responding as Miller wants them to. From there Mad Max will find its way to the film schools and revival houses, where its tough-gutted intelligence may be appreciated.
Overnight, Mad Max went from being a U.S. cult hero to a mainstream figure, and Mel Gibson's place in the firmament was secured.
Stunts themselves would be nothing without a filmmaker behind the camera and George Miller, a doctor and film buff making his first feature, shows he knows what cinema is all about.
Some of the most determinedly formalist filmmaking this side of Michael Snow.
The tone sometimes wavers into self-parody, and there are occasional crude patches, but overall this edge-of-seat revenge movie marks the most exciting debut from an Australian director since Peter Weir.
Mad Max is ugly and incoherent, and aimed, probably accurately, at the most uncritical of moviegoers.
Audience Reviews for Mad Max
A decent cult action movie full of great stunts and car crashes that make the best of a very low budget, even though the story takes a bit too long to speed up, making the entire beginning a little dragged and reaching its narrative core with only fifteen minutes left to end.
Super Reviewer
While not the greatest film, Mad Max deserves recognition for its excellently staged car chases, star making turn from Mel Gibson, and willingness to push the envelope in a time when many would not. It's violent, unrestrained, and pretty entertaining despite a minimal plot. Max's character is really the only one that gets a story arc and it makes you feel for him when all hell breaks loose. Toe Cutter is also a memorable villain thanks to a creepy performance by Hugh Keays-Byrne. This is basically just wall to wall action except for a middle section to build up Max's character to what he eventually becomes. This is a worthwhile watch for action fans.
Super Reviewer
Whole lotta dirt and rubber and bikes and bad accents and sawn-off shotguns and boy i bet the odor this movie made is unmatched.
Super Reviewer
Mad Max Quotes
| Mad Max: | The chain in those handcuffs is high-tensile steel. It'd take you ten minutes to hack through it with this. Now, if you're lucky, you can hack through your ankle in five minutes. Go! |
| Mad Max: | I'm scared, Fif. It's that rat circus out there, I'm beginning to enjoy it. Look, any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic, except that I've got this bronze badge that says that I'm one of the good guys. |
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