Mad Max (1979, Australia)

In director George Miller's low-budget, post-nuclear, action-adventure and independent original film (and cult favorite), the vigilante character of Max (Mel Gibson) was introduced as a lone rogue cop or 'road warrior' - a member of the protective Australian highway patrol (the Main Force Patrol (MFP), an under-funded police unit). He was standing as a lone figure amidst visions of a post-apocalyptic violent and lawless world. The dystopian, barren outback country of Australia, facing a major energy crisis, was beset by gangs of marauding motorcycle gang punks.

When the original film Mad Max (1979) was released in Australia in April of 1979, it was extremely popular and successful, but it suffered a problematic distribution and release in the US by American International Pictures (AIP) - due to AIP's transition to Filmways at the time, and AIP's fears that US audiences wouldn't understand Aussie accents. Therefore in the US version released in the spring of 1980, Mad Max (1979) was dubbed over using American voices and Aussie slang was removed - thereby causing it to fail to receive the audience it deserved.

The action-packed, thrilling sequel The Road Warrior (1981) (aka Mad Max 2), (also illustrated), a similar survival story, provided a more thorough backstory for the first film. It again starred Mel Gibson, who was propelled into stardom, as a vengeful vigilante ex-cop (Max Rockatansky) defending himself and a colony of pioneers beset by roving gangs of Mohawked outlaws. The sequel opened with narration to provide a bridge between the first and second film. Mostly black-and-white 20th century documentary footage from the original film replayed the brutal murder of his wife and child by a biker gang.

The Sequel's B/W Re-Cap of The Original 1979 Film -- Mad Max Witnessing the Murder of His Wife During an Opening Voice-Over Narration

The environment was described and applicable to both films. There were oblique references to a Cold War between "two mighty warrior tribes" (the US and USSR ?) that led to a grim world of nuclear holocaust survivors:

"My life fades, the vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos, ruined dreams, this wasted land. But most of all, I remember the Road Warrior, the man we called Max. To understand who he was, you have to go back to another time when the world was powered by the black fuel and the deserts sprouted great cities of pipe and steel. Gone now, swept away. For reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all. Without fuel they were nothing. They'd built a house of straw. The thundering machines sputtered and stopped. Their leaders talked and talked and talked, but nothing could stem the avalanche. Their world crumbled, the cities exploded. A whirlwind of looting, a firestorm of fear. Men began to feed on men. On the roads, it was a white-line nightmare. Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage, would survive. The gangs took over the highways, ready to wage war for a tank of juice. And in this maelstrom of decay, ordinary men were battered and smashed. Men like Max, the warrior Max. In the roar of an engine, he lost everything, and became a shell of a man, a burnt out, desolate man, a man haunted by the demons of his past. A man who wandered out into the wasteland. And it was here in this blighted place that he learned to live again."