Souped-up bikes and hot-rods in post-World War 111 wasteland

Press, 9 November 1984, Page 11

Souped-up bikes and hot-rods in post-World War 111 wasteland

“Mad Max” (Roadshow) “Mad Max II” (Warner).

“Mad Max” is an Australian film with a reputation as a “cult movie.” Made in 1979, it was banned in New Zealand until fairly recently. I had been intending to view it for some time, but I did not find the movie deserving of its reputation. The plot is disjointed, the acting often hammy, and the film seemed little more than an exercise in gratuitous violence — a sort of Aussie version of the “Dukes of Hazzard.”

“Mad Max II” is a different story — much more deserving of becoming a cult movie. Loosely connected to “Mad Max” (1), in that the same stars feature

— namely souped up bikes and hot-rods and again Mel Gibson as Mad Max himself.

“Mad Max II” is set in a post-World War 111 wasteland where the acquisition of petrol is life’s only purpose. Max is now a cynical loner drifting aimlessly from one fill-up to the next.

He joins forces with another eccentric (splendidly

played by Bruce Spence), who pilots a gyrocopter when there is gas to get it

off the ground). They find what must be one of the last producing

oil-wells barricaded up by one of the last remaining bands of civilised people. They have a supply of oil in a brimming tanker and plan to head for the greener pastures of Surfer’s Paradise. However, to do so, they must outwit the band of outlandish marauders laying siege to their camp and the precious oil it concerns.

A punk version of the Hells Angels, riding iron-age choppers and hot-rods, this tribe of the damned provide some memorable images.

In “Mad Max II,” the director, George Miller, makes excellent use of the Australian outback — a landscape so harsh that the film characters and plot seem a natural part of it. A wild Aboriginal boy joins up with Max, skilfully decapitating a bikie with his boomerang.

Very good action photography and hard work for the stunt-men. Recommended viewing for those with a taste for the bizarre.

(Tapes supplied by K.G.B. Video Library and Robin Moore Video Centre.)