From 1979 to 1984, in New York, “the Citizen Kane of cheap, post-apocalyptic biker movies,” as the East Village Eye’s Sebastian Dangerfield called it, could only be seen at one theater, a tawdry little 24-hour movie house on 42nd Street. Not until 1995, when 'Mad Max' and 'Mad Max II' (or 'The Road Warrior,' as American filmgoers knew it) were shown at the Museum of Modern Art did we get to hear Mel Gibson’s real voice in the role that made him an international star as Max Rockatanski (his last name is spoken just once in three films - at the beginning of 'Mad Max' over a police radio.)įor the first few years after the release of 'Mad Max' the overwhelming number of statesiders never had a chance to see it at all.

in 1979, American voices were dubbed over those of Aussie actors with the intent that viewers would think it set in the Western U.S. In the kind of nonsensical move common to Hollywood studios, when the film was released in the U.S. All we’re told is that what we’re about to see happens “A few years from now.”Īmerican audiences must have been puzzled as to what country George Miller’s first feature film, 'Mad Max,' was taking place in.

It all began with a shot of a vulture perched on a highway sign that read “Anarchy Road,” apparently the main highway by which Australia’s rapidly diminishing oil supply is transported.

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