2/27/2023 0 Comments Original mad max![]() ![]() Most people have not abandoned their jobs for pillaging and plundering (yet), but things are getting worse, day by day. There are still cities, governments, laws, and police. Taking place at a time when there has been a massive energy crisis, Mad Max shows a world where institutions are only starting to break down. ![]() Wait- Max’s wife and kid were keeping him SANE? They cannot see that in order to live in the wilderness, one must become wild. Mad Max presents a new version of this old idea, with a new frontier emerging out of societal failure, and those yet clinging to their urbanity struggle to come to grips with the fall. The world has been vastly explored, vastly populated, and vastly industrialized. Classic westerns (like The Searchers) have explored the effects of the untamed frontier on civilized man, his inability to cope with a lack of structure and rules he can’t understand, but the wild west doesn’t exist anymore. We all live and die under order and authority, blankets that keep us sane and safe. What makes the first so special is its glimpse into the final days of a society, the dissolution of the sociological glue that holds people together, which is something more haunting than the disastrous end results later shown. What? You mean it’s not all about the speed of the car chases (exhilarating), the epic crashes (fantastic stunt work), or the badass hero (Max is as cool as ever)? Yes, those elements are all still great reasons to watch Mad Max, but in truth, they can also be found in the other entries in the series. The Road Warrior especially has defined the look and feel of these types of films since its release, with scores of wannabes and copycats, but what these uncivilized films lack is what I find most fascinating about the original Mad Max: civilization. It’s easy to see why, with their imaginative, visually stunning takes on what life without society looks like. Taken as a whole, these movies form a franchise of dystopia that is unrivaled, but it’s the sequels that seem to get most of the play time – not the one that started it all. Before any of those classics, however, there was the low-budget story of why an otherwise perfectly sane Australian Main Force Patrolman named Max Rockatansky eventually became Mad Max. ![]() Yes, The Road Warrior may be the best and most iconic, and yes, Beyond Thunderdome may be the weirdest, and yes, Fury Road may be the most intense. Or better yet, get mad.Ī guy named Rockatansky can’t walk the straight and narrow forever No, the only way to survive a situation like this is to become angry. So how are you going to handle your entire family being killed and everything you cared about turning to dust? Be sad? Try to retain some small part of your former civilized self? Are you going to cry? If you said yes to any of those things, cinema history of the future tells me you’re already dead. ![]() How did it come to this? It all seems to happen so quickly in the movies, the fall of mankind, but those people who have to make the actual transition from bad to hell-on-earth worse are rarely portrayed – what of them? The ones who, while clutching the last scraps of their moral codes, must somehow psychologically come to terms with the changes brought on by the end of everything they thought to be right and just? The process must be painful, filled with messy conflict both outside and in. Regardless, it’s going to be rough out there. Is there any way to avoid the maniacal violence and swine labor? Sure, maybe the polar ice caps will melt and people be mutated into fish-men instead, or destiny will doom you to walking down an interminable road with some kid, not talking and being excited by any food that isn’t human, but I doubt it. If grim stories of the apocalypse have taught us anything, living through nuclear winter and/or the energy crisis only to be faced with underground pig farming or caged death matches seems to be fairly inevitable. It’s hard not to look at the future and see only arid, lifeless deserts and murderous biker gangs. Mad Max Stands Out in the Genre, an Outstanding Take on the Dystopian Future ![]()
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