Unmodified Max

Mel Gibson's post-apoctalyptic Western gets its voice back.

Until today, if you wanted to see Mad Max the way director George Miller originally made it, your only option was to get a copy of the Japanese DVD. In 1979, American International Pictures test-screened the film for an audience that couldn't understand the Australian accents of star Mel Gibson and the rest of the cast -- Aussie films having been a rarity back then. Thus, all the dialogue in the U.S. version was dubbed by American actors. As dubbed movies go, Mad Max was fairly well-done and probably wouldn't seem jarring in the slightest had not Gibson gone on to become extremely recognizable, voice and all.

Those who want to see the face finally matched up with the voice should be sure to check out the newly restored Dolby Digital print of Mad Max, now with the original dialogue, playing at the Nuart for one week starting Wednesday, December 22. Under the supervision of MGM Studios' John Kirk, the music and effects tracks from the U.S. edition have been remixed with the Australian-accented original dialogue in surround sound.

Although its sequel, The Road Warrior, is better known and considered more groundbreaking, Mad Max is a surprisingly well-put-together nouveau Western. It features a good deal of genuine humor, a Dirty Harry-esque law-and-order sensibility that's deftly undercut by the theme of violence as soul destroyer, an ambiguous ending that leaves justice served but plenty of other matters unresolved, and, of course, plenty of good old-fashioned car wrecks and explosions, all on a budget of $400,000 Australian.

That Max holds up so well today is primarily a testament to Gibson and Miller, both of whom justly went on to greater things. Gibson's Max here is less the Clint Eastwood man-with-no-name icon that he later became, but rather a prototype for Gibson's other notable action hero, Lethal Weapon's Martin Riggs. A young cop with a loving family and a daredevil streak, he is eventually pushed over the edge by the murder of his child and severe injury of his wife, only to end up driving out into the middle of nowhere with a crazed glint in his eyes as the film ends. Director Miller manages a deft blend of tone throughout: Inept bureaucrats are satirized (unlike in the sequels, civilization still exists, albeit under siege), the very notion of a real-life hero is mocked, yet the effects of violence on the characters are not treated lightly, even if the property damage occasionally is.