Welcome back to another edition of Adam's Reviews!! **queue intro music**
Tonight's movie flick is the dystopian gas fuelled world meets grindhouse, Mad Max (1979) directed by the crafty George Miller and starring masterful Mel Gibson who plays Max Rockatansky, a member of the Main Force Patrol, the last police force, highway men who are trying to uphold whatever crumbs of law and order remain. The movie is literally Fast and Furious meets tragedy that results into vigilantism, which is fuelled with high methane, high adrenaline and where nearly every character wears leather-heavy clothing.
The background of this world is oil aka fuels are now scarce, there is a crisis and the world has started to break down with poverty rising which means one thing; chaos and crime.
The start kicks off with a screaming psycho named Nightrider played by Vincent Gil who has escaped police custody and is throttling down the highway, providing his very own colourful commentary of the car he is driving "a fuel-injected suicide machine!!"
The first 10 minutes starts off with the Nightrider chase, where we see action sequences and car stunts that establishes a world where there are no rules of intense pursuits down highways. This can be demonstrated with a MFP interceptor crashing through a van, and a dangerously close game of chicken between Max and the Nightrider that illustrates Max's devotion to the force and the stunt team's devotion to Miller's direction. While the Nightrider successfully evades the force, the filmmaker slowly gives us glimpses of Max who puts on his gloves, jacket and sunnies. I guess this was to allure us filmgoers into how important the character is, similar to how a superhero is first seen in a film.
The Nightrider keeps preaching and yelling until Max takes on the job of pursuing him and the joyride ends in a fiery crash via playing chicken. And once the pursuit ends, we receive the formal introduction of Max.
The word "hero" is used often in the film, where the MAF chief Fifi tells Max that people "say people (they) don't believe in heroes anymore. You and me Max, we're gonna give them back their heroes." Here Max laughs it off and says he doesn't buy that crap from his chief who responds to Max "you got to admit, I sounded good there for a minute" Miller uses this scene as a demonstration that there are no real heroes in the world, the theme of this world is ravaged, anarchic and nihilistic.
The villains who form the group Acolytes, the biker gang that Nightrider was a member of, are none too pleased about Max's keeping of order. The gang itself are super crazy who do not like the MFP and refer them to bronze. Their leader, Toecutter himself is sadistic, taking his time to monologue to his followers about how they should take pride in their behaviour, which can be illustrated with the character's hair colour, eyeliner and making hissing noises. The gang have no respect or love to women and children which can be illustrated with the gang stringing up and dry-humping a mannequin, who is told by their leader Toecutter, that the lifeless mannequin is "not what she seems" and "full of treachery." The villains have no real logic other than create chaos.
Gibson portrays Max as a family man, who is not traditional but wants to build a traditional life for his family. He is a man who is a car enthusiast, a loyal friend and has the ability to juggle while always having a no-nonsense demeanour. The relationship between him and his saxophone playing wife, Jessie grounds the world in realistic problems that have yet to fade into memories, like the cost of living. She makes for a strong companion to a stronger protagonist. When Toecutter and his gang make contact with the Rockatansky family who are on vacation, this leads to tragedy, which creates a collision course and a final confrontation between the gang and Max. This is where we see Gibson's take on Max switching gear into violence and vengeance is perfect where we see Gibson's tone and demeanour from a lawful family change into a revengeful man who has nothing to lose. This can be demonstrated where Max handcuff a biker to a car and gives him the option to cut through his ankle to try to go on living or die burning. Brutally cold vengeance
Now I am certain that Mad Max isn't for everybody and I myself have a few issues including what happened to parental priorities? Max and his wife have a child and boy did this child get stranded at times. Another issue I had was not seeing the fate of Fred "Fifi" Macaffee, Max's police chief and commanding officer who is played by Roger Ward who played his character in an intense manner so much especially after his hero speech, I wish there was more of him in this film. The filmmaker should of killed off the character which would have completely broke down the spiritual level of authority in Max's world.
Overall 6.5/10.
Tonight's movie flick is the dystopian gas fuelled world meets grindhouse, Mad Max (1979) directed by the crafty George Miller and starring masterful Mel Gibson who plays Max Rockatansky, a member of the Main Force Patrol, the last police force, highway men who are trying to uphold whatever crumbs of law and order remain. The movie is literally Fast and Furious meets tragedy that results into vigilantism, which is fuelled with high methane, high adrenaline and where nearly every character wears leather-heavy clothing.
The background of this world is oil aka fuels are now scarce, there is a crisis and the world has started to break down with poverty rising which means one thing; chaos and crime.
The start kicks off with a screaming psycho named Nightrider played by Vincent Gil who has escaped police custody and is throttling down the highway, providing his very own colourful commentary of the car he is driving "a fuel-injected suicide machine!!"
The first 10 minutes starts off with the Nightrider chase, where we see action sequences and car stunts that establishes a world where there are no rules of intense pursuits down highways. This can be demonstrated with a MFP interceptor crashing through a van, and a dangerously close game of chicken between Max and the Nightrider that illustrates Max's devotion to the force and the stunt team's devotion to Miller's direction. While the Nightrider successfully evades the force, the filmmaker slowly gives us glimpses of Max who puts on his gloves, jacket and sunnies. I guess this was to allure us filmgoers into how important the character is, similar to how a superhero is first seen in a film.
The Nightrider keeps preaching and yelling until Max takes on the job of pursuing him and the joyride ends in a fiery crash via playing chicken. And once the pursuit ends, we receive the formal introduction of Max.
The word "hero" is used often in the film, where the MAF chief Fifi tells Max that people "say people (they) don't believe in heroes anymore. You and me Max, we're gonna give them back their heroes." Here Max laughs it off and says he doesn't buy that crap from his chief who responds to Max "you got to admit, I sounded good there for a minute" Miller uses this scene as a demonstration that there are no real heroes in the world, the theme of this world is ravaged, anarchic and nihilistic.
The villains who form the group Acolytes, the biker gang that Nightrider was a member of, are none too pleased about Max's keeping of order. The gang itself are super crazy who do not like the MFP and refer them to bronze. Their leader, Toecutter himself is sadistic, taking his time to monologue to his followers about how they should take pride in their behaviour, which can be illustrated with the character's hair colour, eyeliner and making hissing noises. The gang have no respect or love to women and children which can be illustrated with the gang stringing up and dry-humping a mannequin, who is told by their leader Toecutter, that the lifeless mannequin is "not what she seems" and "full of treachery." The villains have no real logic other than create chaos.
Gibson portrays Max as a family man, who is not traditional but wants to build a traditional life for his family. He is a man who is a car enthusiast, a loyal friend and has the ability to juggle while always having a no-nonsense demeanour. The relationship between him and his saxophone playing wife, Jessie grounds the world in realistic problems that have yet to fade into memories, like the cost of living. She makes for a strong companion to a stronger protagonist. When Toecutter and his gang make contact with the Rockatansky family who are on vacation, this leads to tragedy, which creates a collision course and a final confrontation between the gang and Max. This is where we see Gibson's take on Max switching gear into violence and vengeance is perfect where we see Gibson's tone and demeanour from a lawful family change into a revengeful man who has nothing to lose. This can be demonstrated where Max handcuff a biker to a car and gives him the option to cut through his ankle to try to go on living or die burning. Brutally cold vengeance
Now I am certain that Mad Max isn't for everybody and I myself have a few issues including what happened to parental priorities? Max and his wife have a child and boy did this child get stranded at times. Another issue I had was not seeing the fate of Fred "Fifi" Macaffee, Max's police chief and commanding officer who is played by Roger Ward who played his character in an intense manner so much especially after his hero speech, I wish there was more of him in this film. The filmmaker should of killed off the character which would have completely broke down the spiritual level of authority in Max's world.
Overall 6.5/10.