Mad Max Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Mad Max Blu-ray Movie Review

Max-imum Overdrive.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 1, 2015

One way or the other, it’s evident the Apocalypse is coming to Australia. The reaction may be surprisingly calm, even sanguine (On the Beach), or something perhaps a bit testier, even slightly feral (The Rover), or maybe things will just completely tip over the edge into near surreality (Tank Girl), but come hell or high water or radioactive cloud, Down Under seems to be the place to be when nuclear holocaust finally decimates our apparently not so friendly little planet. Interestingly, one of the more famous films set in a dystopian Australian future actual foregoes the whole tradition of emphasizing some sort of global war that has brought society to its knees. Mad Max actually shows a society trying to come to grips with a massive energy crisis (which later installments in the franchise clarified was due to a global conflict), with urban areas trundling along as best they can, but some of the outlying rural areas descending into near chaos. The film therefore ostensibly might be thought of as something of a middle ground between the “polite” 1959 Stanley Kramer opus which saw a gaggle of fairly well to do characters simply sitting around chatting until the inevitable happened, and the more recent Guy Pearce vehicle (no pun intended, given The Rover’s emphasis on cars), where a seemingly crazed individual goes on a rampage for some initially unclear reason. In practice, however, Mad Max is decidedly toward The Rover end of the spectrum, filled with outstanding chase (and crash) sequences as it depicts the trials of one Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson, in the role which would help launch him into international superstardom), a policeman charged with keeping order in the Outback, where gangs of marauding bikers terrorize the countryside (think The Wild One transported down south and forward in time a century or so).

When many people hear the name Mad Max, they instantly think of arid wastelands populated by almost atavistic people, but those elements actually are more in line with the first film’s follow-ups, The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. Folks who haven’t seen Mad Max before or at least in a little while, may well be surprised at what a bright, colorful and at least relatively “civilized” film it is.

Mad Max has been around for so long and is by now so iconic that most people are probably at least passingly familiar with its plot, but for those wanting a good refresher course, my colleague Casey Broadwater’s Mad Max Blu-ray review of the previously released MGM Blu-ray provides an excellent overview. What struck me on this latest viewing is how amazingly in control director George Miller is of the proceedings.

As many fans will already know, Miller burst into films with Mad Max from an unlikely background—he was a successful doctor, and in fact as the commentary on this Blu-ray relates, his experiences in emergency rooms dealing with trauma from car accidents may have at least helped sparked certain sequences in Mad Max. But for a “newcomer” (Miller had been toying around with short subjects and experimental features for some time before Mad Max came along), Miller seemingly effortlessly helms several white knuckle action sequences, including the viscerally intense chase sequence that starts the film, and which introduces both Max as well as the concept of a nefarious biker gang running amok in the outlands. The staging of this opening sequence is almost slapstick in its piling on of elements, with everything from a stalled trailer to (heaven forfend) a toddler becoming obstacles for bad guy Nightrider (Vincent Gil) and a bunch of cops giving chase. Miller, working with DP David Eggby (who’s featured on the commentary) may not “play by the rules” in terms of traditional editing techniques or even at times basic continuity flow, but the camera cartwheels, cranes, and dollies almost choreographically throughout the opening, lending an unusually kinetic ambience to an already inherently exciting segment.

Gibson, almost impossibly young and fresh faced looking, doesn’t quite have the gravitas he would assume in the (admittedly somewhat darker) Mad Max sequels, and he’s also not especially well supported by a too discursive screenplay which wends rather circuitously to finally make the character a ruthless vigilante. The “color” here tends to come more from the almost cartoonish assortment of supporting characters, many of whom seem to have wandered in from some nearby leather S&M establishment (the film’s production and costume design, while perhaps hobbled by a pretty paltry budget, are two of its most memorable achievements). The wonderfully named Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) is the ostensible lead villain, but the film is stuffed with at times outré bits by a variety of quite frequently patently bizarre Australian character actors.

A fairly rote revenge scenario informs most of the plot, as Toecutter and his acolytes (in actuality, a gang called Acolytes) attempt to pay back the cops for Nightrider’s ignominious demise in the film’s opening. What’s interesting is how slowly (perhaps a bit too slowly), the film twists things so that it’s Max who’s out for vengeance. Almost relentlessly breathless in presentation, despite a few pauses for domestic scenes between Max and his wife Jessie (Joanne Samuel), Mad Max proves that the Apocalypse, whether centered in Australia or elsewhere, needn’t be a depressive idyll as the inevitable approaches.

Mad Max Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Note: I've tried to come close to duplicating at least some of the screencaptures my colleague Casey Broadwater included in his Mad Max Blu-ray review of the 2010 MGM release. That way, those curious can open full resolution windows to do side by side comparisons. I've also included a number of screencaptures from other moments in the film to provide a broader range of examples for interested fans.

Mad Max is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Scream Factory, an imprint of Shout! Factory, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.34:1. As fans of the film are well aware, MGM released a basically fine Blu- ray in 2010, a release which also ended up on the Warner Brothers' Blu-ray release of the Mad Max Trilogy. Those hoping for a whole scale upgrade in this new Shout! offering are probably in for a letdown, but similarly those who are decrying this new release as the Blu-ray equivalent of the Apocalypse may be exaggerating things slightly. A cursory comparison of the two releases shows that things like color timing and general clarity are virtually identical, though grain on the Shout! release is relatively less well defined (it's still there, it's just not quite as "gritty" as on the MGM release, at least most of the time). There are variances in grain structure on this new release which may point to Shout!'s continuing issues with compression (look, for example, at screenshot 15, where the grain clumps and assumes that ugly yellow color that seems to afflict many of Shout!'s releases). It does appear that Shout! has made an effort to clean things, as some of the staining and damage in previous releases as mentioned by Casey in his review is mitigated if not outright eliminated. Whether these efforts also included some high frequency filtering is unknown, but the variable grain field will probably be the biggest "hang up" for videophiles considering a double dip.

There's such a rabid fan base for this film that reactions to this new release were probably bound to be "enthusiastic," if not outright hyperbolic. My general reaction is that there are trade offs no matter which version any individual consumer chooses to prefer, and that a "picture perfect" release of this film has yet to be seen, and may in fact never be seen due to the apparent disappearance of original elements somewhere along the way. My hunch is those who have the MGM release probably don't need to rush out and double dip, unless they're interested in the new interviews included on this release (or perhaps "swag" like the cover art or slipcover). On the other hand, those who don't yet own the film are certainly not going to be taken for a ride (so to speak) by this new Shout! offering. It's not perfect, but it's also not an abomination and is in fact relatively comparable to the MGM release. Because of the variable grain and compression issues, I'm slightly downgrading the video score here from Casey's 3.5 assessment of the MGM release, but I'd really argue that for all intents and purposes, the differences here are largely negligible to all but the most demanding eyes.

Mad Max Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Mad Max comes replete with three audio options, the original Australian version in DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0 mono, as well as the completely lamentable (American) English dub, now offered in lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono (the previous MGM release provided only a lossy version of this track, not that a lossless presentation "helps" it in any way). The film's original theatrical presentation is handled quite effectively on the 2.0 track, and in fact the 5.1 track has a slightly echo-ey, overly reverbed, ambience which at times can affect prioritization. That said, the 5.1 mix is absolutely bombastic in some of the action sequences, offering a thrilling amount of low end and excellent panning effects during chases. Fidelity is excellent throughout, and dynamic range appealing wide. There are no issues with regard to damage to report in this review.

Mad Max Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Interviews with Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel and DP David Eggby (1080p; 26:27) is a fun retrospective that offers some interesting perspective on the project.


• Mel Gibson: The Birth of a Superstar (1080i; 16:43) is the first of two vintage featurettes which come "equipped" with major stuttering issues on the film clips.


• Mad Max: The Film Phenomenon (1080i; 25:35) offers some really good interviews but is plagued by the same stuttering video issues on the film clips.


• Theatrical Trailers (1080p; 4:02)


• TV Spots (1080i; 1:26)


• Photo Gallery (1080i; 8:47)


• Audio Commentary is the previously available, very enjoyable, dialogue featuring Art Director Jon Dowding, Director of Photography David Eggby, and Special Effects Artist Chris Murray and David Ridge.

Mad Max Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Mad Max's appeal has, perhaps like a cockroach surviving nuclear armageddon, shown no signs of a shelf life, and in fact is reaching fever pitch once again with the imminent Mad Max: Fury Road. This new Blu-ray release has both pluses and minuses, but the bottom line is those with the MGM release probably need not consider a double dip unless some of the extras on this version appeal to them, while those who haven't yet added the film to their collections will not be "cheated" in any serious way by this version. Perhaps some intrepid archivist can find Mad Max's original elements languishing on a studio vault shelf somewhere, at which point a truly definitive release of this now iconic film can be achieved. Recommended.