MAD MAX 2
Australia, 1981, 92 minutes, Colour.
Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Vernon Wells, Emil Minty, Preston, Kjell Nilsson, Virginia Hey, Syd Heylen, Steve J. Spears, Max Phipps.
Directed by George Miller.
Mad Max 2 received as much popular and critical acclaim as the original suggesting the enormous profits gained from the first film, the producers have spent much of the money on location photography, spectacular stunts and futuristic sets special effect. While Mad Max was a futuristic vigilante film about ugly society, this is making Max a mythical hero for Australian audiences of the 80s.
The prologue distances, while connecting, Max from his early life. He is being haunted by the demons of his past. The Feral Kid tells from a distant future the memory of the Road Warrior, the saviour hero. Max around Broken Hill, the film has the atmosphere of the future and of t with a group of survivors, a chosen race with the much needed fuel wan to Paradise (ironically Surfer's Paradise!). Max is a parallel to the strip super-heroes from America – however, he does only what is possible level – without any outside help. Audiences can thus identify with the than-life hero. Mel Gibson is again Max and adds to the mythic prop. the character. In between the two Max films he won AFI awards for Gallipoli. There is a very good supporting cast.
Mad Max appeals directly to gut and emotional response from its audience while suggesting mythical elements for further reflection. It relies on the exaggerations of the action genre and is emphatic in its violence. The stunt work and special effects are quite spectacular. It was acclaimed critically overseas as well as in Australia.
1. The impact of the original? Expectations of the sequel? Favourable reviews, awards? Judgment that the sequel was better than the original?
2. The quality of the Panavision photography? The Broken Hill locations? The creation of a futuristic atmosphere? The set of the colony and the oil rig? The imaginative futuristic costumes – echoes of mythology and legends of the past? Action photography, stunts, special effects, aerial photography? The directness of the action, B-budget on a spectacular scale? The contrast of the wilderness with the coast? The editing and pace? The atmospheric musical score?
3. The film as an example of Australian cinema myth-making? An admirable hero? Super-hero? The prologue of the film linking him with his past and making the link with the original? The Feral Kid and his future, growing up and remembering a legendary time with and creating a saviour-figure myth? The role of Mad Max for audiences of the late 70s and early 80s? The film taking the perennial plot of the loner hero, the besieged group, the need for salvation, leading the people to salvation, the avenger of evil? The parallels with stories of heroes throughout history? How particularly Australian are the myths of Max? Max being seen in the light of the comic strip heroes of the 70s and 80s e.g. Superman, Flash Gordon?
4. The state of the world at the opening of the film: the recapitulation of the first film and its seeming normality, relationship with the audience? The commentary on nuclear war, social clashes, memories of nations, the loss of fuel? The use of the Cinesound newsreel collage? An atmosphere of human evil, riots and destruction? pessimism about the end of our recognisable world? Yet the optimism at the ending as the Feral Kid remembers the past and looks forward to a safe future? The ultimate hope of the film? Audiences appreciating the hardships as well as the indications of hope?
5.The importance of the tone of voice of the adult reminiscing? Reverence for Max? Entitling him the Road Warrior? Talking about his being haunted by the demons of the past? Establishing him as the enigmatic saviour-figure?
6.The initial image of Max? The Road Warrior – presented as statuesque, an icon? The recapitulation of his memories? The summary of the first film? The hero in a scavenger world? The initial chase and his need for fuel? The enemy warriors pursuing him? The dead truck drivers and the shock impact of death, blood and gore? His provoking the revenge of the scavengers? The encounter with the gyro pilot? His capture? His trying to bluff him? The reversal of roles and the way that he dealt with the captain?
7.The information about the refinery and the community? Its appearance in the middle of the desert? Seen from the top of the mountain? Its lights at night? The details of the processing of the oil in a desolate future world? The suggestions in the musical score of Star Wars and other epics? The people in the community? Their being besieged by the scavengers? The group's trying to escape? The pursuit? Cruelty and torture, rape? The effect on Max and the gyro captain as they watched? The interplay with the binoculars and telescope? Horror?
8.Max moved to rescue the pinioned man? His motive for getting fuel? The encounter with the community and their suspicion of him? The confrontation with Pappagallo? Max tied up and the siege? The introduction of the Feral Kid and his lethal boomerang? Wes and his vengeance for Max? The killing of the blonde companion? The humongous and his appearance, voice? His deal? The atmosphere of mediaeval siege in the future? The ugliness of the fighting? The warriors' battle dress? The weapons? The means that the community used to ward off enemies – walls, the bus for the gate, flame-throwers etc.?
9.Max and his authority, ability to defend the group? The deal to get the truck? The people in the community opposed to him? Pappagallo's plan? The gyro captain arriving and participating? The membership of the group? Pappagallo and his leadership? Wisdom? Manner of speaking, dress? The other members of the community, the warrior woman, her suspicion, her later apology to Max? Old Curmudgeon and his genial comments? Big Rebecca and her influence in the community? Her grief at the dead man brought back by Max? The quiet man in the community and his ugly death? The blonde girl and her work in the hospital? Attraction to the gyro captain and intending to leave with him but changing her mind? The mechanic and his ingenuity? His assistant?
10.The action adventure with Max getting the rig? The dangers of pursuit? His ingenuity in returning? Wes and his violence? The intruders and their deaths? Max demanding the fulfilment of his deal? His car being returned to him? The pursuit? His crash? The explosion? The taunts by Toadie (and his being the mouthpiece for the humongous in confronting the community)? The explosion and Toadie's death? The gyro captain to the rescue and bringing Max back? The camera devices used to show Max's lack of focus, his being taken through the air and returned to the community?
11. The preparations for the exodus? The rig to be fixed in twelve hours and the mechanic's work? Pappagallo and his plan? The build-up to the leaving? Max and his injuries but determination to drive the rig? The leaving? The decoy of the rig? The cars and the buses leaving in the opposite direction? The action and stunt work sustained during the pursuit? The characters' involvement? The deaths of the warrior woman and the mechanic on the rig? Wes and his clambering over the rig? The humongous? Their violent deaths by collision? The Feral Kid with Max? Trying to get the bullet from the top of the truck? The build-up to the grand finale and the overturn of the rig? Max's achievement? PappaGallo's death? The irony of the dust in the rig and the oil in the bus? Escape through the desert to Paradise (and the ironic postcards of Surfer's Paradise!)
12.Symbolic images of a world in chaos, in the wilderness? The landscape and roads about Broken Hill and their use? The refinery as the remnant of 20th century civilisation? The machines and their power, means of freedom, symbols of freedom? Clothes and their echoes of the past. of the future? The point of fuel and scavengers hunting for fuel? The scavengers labeled as vermin? The threat to Max by saying that he was as bad as the vermin?
13. Themes of the future with community, hopes, self-defence, escape, deaths for others, enterprise?
14. The presentation of Max as more than hero? A loner, fair deals, the challenge to his stances, the underlying sentiment even though firm on the surface, his exertion and endurance, experience of violence and suffering, achievement? His leaving the group and wandering alone? The final icon image and the commentary by the Feral Kid of what happened to the community, their re-establishing themselves, the leadership of the gyro captain? The memories and influence of Max?
15. The possibilities of cinema myth-making – using the past and a future to interpret the present? The choice of heroes and causes? The blunt confrontation of good and evil, black and white? Technology and instincts? The attempt to reconcile opposites – even in the one hero? Audiences identifying with Max and the popularity of him with Australians in the early 80s?
