04/06/2024
"I see film making as a strange journey. In mythology, the trickster leads you into the forest. Film is, to me, the trickster. I think I can be around a thousand years and never understand the process."
George Miller raised the money for "Mad Max" (1979) by working as an emergency room doctor.
For the lead role, Miller had considered an American actor to "get the film seen as widely as possible" and even traveled to Los Angeles, but eventually opted to not do so as "the whole budget would be taken up by a so-called American name." So instead the cast would deliberately feature lesser known actors, so they did not carry past associations with them.
Mel Gibson didn't go to the audition for this film to read for a part, he actually went along with his sister, who was auditioning. But because he had been in a bar fight the night before, and his head looked like "a black and blue pumpkin" (his words), he was told he could come back and audition in three week's time because, "we need freaks!" He did return in three weeks' time, wasn't recognized (because his injuries had healed well), and was asked to read for a part.
The "get-out-of-jail-free card" that Goose gives the triker was an on-set joke. Because of the limited budget, the biker gang was an actual biker gang (the Vigilantes), and they had to ride to the set each day in-costume; often with their prop weapons displayed. Since the production company expected them to be pulled over by the local police, each was given a letter explaining the film's peculiar requirements, and asking for law-enforcement's understanding and cooperation.
Miller on the character Max Rockatansky: "He's all of us, amplified. Each of us in our own way is looking for meaning in a chaotic world. He's got that one instinct-to survive. After the first 'Mad Max', we went to Japan and they said, 'We know this character, he's a ronin, like a samurai.' In Scandinavia, they called him a lone, wandering Viking. To others he's a classic American Western figure." (IMDb)
Happy Birthday, George Miller!
Mad Max Mel Gibson - American
