Rent Mad Max (1979)

Small Budget - Great Film - Mad Max review by GI

What with the success of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and the critical acclaim of Mad Max 2 (1981) it's easy to forget the brilliance of the low budget first film. It's the ultimate in action car chase movies, now rightly a cult film, it sets up a deliriously simple yet effective world where law and order has broken down and society is on the brink of collapse (it's never stated why but the next film references a nuclear world war), nomad bikers roam the Australian outback terrorising local folk while a few tough cops in high speed pursuit cars chase them down. The film boasts the start of Mel Gibson's career, has a great villain in Hugh Keays-Byrne as The Toecutter and has that gritty realism that makes Aussie cinema so unique. When cop Max chases down and kills an escaped prisoner known as the Nightrider he becomes a target for his gang led by the psychopathic Toecutter. With the stylish and unique cars, loads of gritty chases and its comic book stylings this is a marvellous little dystopian set film.