Incanus
Posts: 15973
Joined: 23/7/2008
From: Winterfell
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Timon
The enigma of the Mad Max films was that they all took place after the apocalypse that had led the remnants of mankind to its penchant for wearing leather and tooling around the Wasteland looking for "gazzoline." Certainly, a "begins" prequel could show us the world-ending event itself, even if only in a prologue, and then perhaps detail Max and his family's tragic origins more directly against the backdrop of the immediate post-apocalypse — something that budget just didn't allow on the original film or something like that.
To my mind, one of the many features that made Mad Max such a unique film, was its fragmentary nature.
The viewer is bereft of any detail about what had brought on and how the end of civilization as we know it, though therein is to be found a purposeful discrepancy: the fact that in this post-apocalyptic world there still existed some sort of law and order institution, the patrolling officers, of which Max was a member, a remnant of the old world, or a new-born team, the result perhaps of some attempt to reboot and start all over again.
In this world, the extent of which eludes us, as does the number of the population living in what cities God only knows, there lived a family, Mad Max's family. Their story was a part of this indefinite, undefined, infinite world, and this is to be a small-scale story.
This small-scale episode, the high-speed car-chases, etc., was the story of the birth of Mad Max, which in turn gave rise to Mad Max 2 and later on to 3 (which had some merits nonetheless), sequels that expanded the myth and moved toward a more post-apocalyptic universe, in that they had erased any and all reference to that first society depicted in the original Mad Max, namely one that still possessed some law and order practices.
This time the world was organized in an even more primal manner, smaller communities formed around a gas reserve, or around the Thunderdome. Mad Max had no place in this world, he was no longer a part of the patrol teams, he was a loner. Still the apocalypse that had sealed the fate of this world eluded us, not only for the obvious reason of the budget dictating that the movies be limited to the bare essentials, but also because the apocalypse itself was more of an iconic reference, a myth in itself, an agreed-upon innuendo: those of us who are somewhat older, we remember that back then the peril of a nuclear Doomsday was a clear menace, with missiles and stuff lying around in Europe, polaris-armed nuclear submarines roaming the oceans and strategic weapons flying in orbit overhead. So, there wasn't much need for an extensive account on how the end was brought on. We got the picture.
So, apocalypse wasn't really an issue. Other movies of the time had engaged themselves with the question, but Max's story was all about the day after that and the struggle of one man vs. the small scale events, vs. that is small groups of thugs and bandits who scraped a living off rocks and the desert. Considering this original context, I'd say that a turn in the storyline towards the large sale, i.e. the apocalyptic episode, would be a betrayal of the myth. And besides, what need is there today for any of us to view Mr Miller's take on Doomsday? It's not like we haven't seen enough movies taking up the subject.
< Message edited by Incanus -- 3/8/2008 1:03:31 AM >
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MAD MAX 4? - 
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RE: MAD MAX 4? - 
Lets hope he dos'nt fuck it up like Alien V Predator one waste of a movie!
Well at least George Miller has not ruled it out even though Mel has.Be interesting too see who they pick for the role of Max!?
Slightly. But still about George Miller. JLA? 
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