Filmed in various locations across Victoria on a shoestring budget of about $350,000-$400,000, George Miller and Byron Kennedy’s post-apocalyptic blockbuster Mad Max took Australia, and the world, by storm back in 1979.
Since then, the film franchise has spawned Mad Max 2 (1981), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), with Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in cinemas now.
To commemorate 45 years of the Mad Max franchise and the arrival of Supa-Star Steve Bisley, aka Goose, at Supanova in Sydney (22-23 June) and Perth (29-30 June) – joined by Tim Burns (Johnny the Boy, Hungry Eyes), Roger Ward (Captain ‘Fifi’), Vernon Wells (Wez) and Bren Foster (the voice of Max from 2015’s Mad Max video game) at Sydnova – we take a closer look at the iconic franchise.
ORIGINS OF THE ROAD WARRIOR
Mel Gibson stars as Max Rockatansky, Supa-Star Steve Bisley as his buddy Jim “Goose” Rains, Tim Burns as Johnny The Boy and the late Hugh Keays-Byrne as Toecutter. Set “in the not-too-distant future”, Mad Max starts with a high-octane car chase with an escaped convict dubbed “The Nightrider”, who is fleeing in a stolen Main Force Patrol (MFP) vehicle. The MFP are the police force responsible for protecting the roads and streets from vicious motorcycle gangs known as “The Bronze”.
Several MFP officers are injured in the pursuit, including Goose, who suffers a broken leg. Officer Max Rockatansky is called in and the resulting pursuit sees The Nightrider crash and meet a fiery end. The film then follows the consequences of that death. One such consequence is felt by Johnny the Boy, a member of Toecutter’s gang, who begins his ascension as Toecutter’s prodigy.
It takes the deaths of Goose, his son, and his wife suffering critical injuries caused by Toecutter and his horde for Max to become “Mad”. The last 20 minutes of the film is where Max takes up arms in the Pursuit Special, a 1973 Black Ford Falcon XB GT V8 Interceptor, against Toecutter once and for all. Toecutter meets his end, reminiscent of The Nightrider’s death, however much more severe, as he crashes into and is flattened by a semi-truck.
His fate seems merciful in comparison to Johnny’s. Johnny is left handcuffed by the ankle to an overturned car leaking fuel by Max. Max leaves Johnny a delayed fuse, a hacksaw, and a choice of how to escape a fiery fate. After Max leaves in his Interceptor, the vehicle Johnny is cuffed to explodes, and we never see him again. Johnny’s punishment for his part in Goose’s death.
Hugh Keays-Byrne would later return to the Mad Max universe as Immortan Joe. A different but ever-ferocious villain, who faces off with Tom Hardy’s Max in Mad Max: Fury Road.
BEHIND THE SCENES (AND ROADS)
The madmen behind Mad Max are the aforementioned George Miller and Bryon Kennedy. Mad Max would be the duo’s first feature film, however, not their first film – Violence in the Cinema, Part 1 was their short film that debuted in 1971 at the Sydney Film Festival. It later won a silver medal in the fiction category at the 1972 Australian Film Institute Awards. The duo had met at a film workshop in Melbourne prior.
Miller dabbled in filmmaking on the side (he had a career as an emergency room doctor), while Kennedy was an educated filmmaker. A recipient of a travel grant from the Australian Film and Television School, Kennedy travelled to 30 countries and sharpened his film skills internationally. They scraped together as much as they could to create Mad Max.
Both Steve Bisley and Mel Gibson were students at the National Institute of Dramatic Arts (NIDA). According to a Vanity Fair article, Gibson went to drop off his roommate at the time, Bisley, at the Mad Max auditions. Gibson was allegedly roughed up in a bar fight the night before, and the casting agents saw him and asked him to audition to be a post-apocalyptic biker, which eventually led to him scoring the leading role.
For those interested in exactly where Mad Max was filmed, Toecutter and his gang ran amuck in the town and the railway station of Clunes. Mad Max’s house can be found in Fairhaven, on the Great Ocean Road. The University of Melbourne’s south lawn car park is where Mad Max picked up his shiny new V8 Interceptor, and Emu Creek Bridge is where the final shots of the movie were filmed.
BEYOND FURY ROAD
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior would continue the partnership between Miller and Kennedy. Max’s journey would take him to battle with the forces of Lord Humungus and his marauders. This is where Supa-Star Vernon Wells donned the iconic red mohawk and black leather as Humungus’ lieutenant, Wez. Wez is intimidating and ferocious, and these qualities deemed him appropriate to be the second in command of the marauders.
Lord Humungus sets his eyes on a local settlement and their fuel supply. Doubting the promise of Humunngus that he would spare their lives for a tanker full of fuel, the settlers make a deal with Max. After a series of conflicts and a hot pursuit of one semi-truck driven by Max, Humungus collides his vehicle with Max’s. Sealing the fates of Humungus and poor Wez, who was just hanging on the front of the truck for dear life.
The Road Warrior continued Max’s domination of the box office, reaching new heights for the franchise. Road Warrior would be the introduction to Max’s world for many audiences around the world. Unfortunately, Road Warrior was the final outing for Miller and Kennedy together as a duo. Kennedy was tragically killed in a helicopter crash at age 33 at Warragamba Dam, NSW in 1983.
In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment in 2016, Miller spoke about the incident: “Byron was like my filmmaking brother. We’d already committed to do the third Mad Max and all of that. I thought, ‘Oh, I don’t think I can do the third Mad Max. But luckily, we got through it… Every film is tough, but I remember doing that, it was very, very hard.”
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is dedicated to the memory of Byron Kennedy.
Miller has been attached to every Mad Max movie thus far, including the recently-released Furiosa movie, starring Supa-Star Alumni Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, Nathan Jones reprising his role of Rictus Erectus from Fury Road and Tim Burns rejoins the series as Hungry Eyes. Miller retains his directorial chair for Furiosa, and while Max Rockatansky isn’t in the film, it still has all the high-octane action, brilliant set-pieces, and breathtaking scenery that the Mad Max series (and Miller) is known for.
Max’s journey would take him across different mediums such as comic books, novels, and video games. 2015’s Mad Max video game stands out as a cult classic among gamers and Max enthusiasts. As a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, experience a high-octane adventure and battle it out on the wasteland in a variety of vehicles and on foot. Voiced by Bren Foster, you play as Max as he liberates settlements from the stranglehold of Scabrous Scrotus, warlord and son of Immortan Joe.
Whether it be Max himself or the crew of now-legendary filmmakers and stars, Mad Max is a story of triumph over adversity in the harshest of environments.
