Chiasmus cult cinema trailers - "Mad Max 2" (1981). *These will be ongoing posts, courtesy of the A.Glass DVD collection. As I offer via Chiasmus Cult trailers, my summarized overviews*

 

"Mad Max 2" (1981) very much sums up the risque of Australian cinema at the time, and of course, the overall of importance that the 1970s were to action movies, also showing up how the 'exploitation grindhouse' drive-in movies were a major influence on the bigger productions pre the up-and-coming VHS video market, which was revving up in tandem with those massive, clunky, but so nostalgic video players (do you remember?), and thus, the beginning of the end of the drive-in cinema had begun.   And the 1970s and 1980s were churning out dystopian styled productions at a rapid rate, timed obviously with the threat of thermonuclear annihilation, oil shocks, inflation and turmoil.  Yes, and too think we're all now living in a state of global calm (I being very sarcastic here!).  Actually, if you think about, the writers, novelists and directors of the era were quite prophetic in their fictional predictions.  Dystopia is probably already here, so they may have actually got it right.

Australian director George Miller, who directed and wrote "Mad Max" (1979), which was a box office success as per its ratio of budget to the box office, when it was made for $400,000, on release it drew in globally $100 million.  And you can see why 45 years later, by maintaining its distinctly Australian urban and country aesthetic, while showcasing some of the best car chase scenes in movie history.  The original held a gritty and raw demeanor, that the 1981 sequel surpassed, via Miller ramping up the car chases, violence and mayhem to extreme degrees.  And we all get to see the outcome of a society that was in decline, from Mad Max, to Mad Max 2's wasteland scenario, borrowing from the late French philosopher Jean Baudrillard quote, "Welcome to the Desert of the Real", as the future has become a desolate, hyperreal landscape.  In this case the Australian outback, more so Box Hill in South Australia as the staging ground for our wandering Road Warrior "Max Rockatansky", played by a young Mel Gibson in an effort of redeeming himself. 

"Mad Max 2" works on so levels, from its hyperreal desolation, to the merging of retrofitted machinery and automobile 'violence', the aesthetics of the villains, who are intricately stylized despite have brief moments on screen, hence they are memorable, to the holed up compound people, able to pump oil out of the Australian desert, and under constant siege by maundering biker gangs.  With Max essentially scavenging to survive, ends up being a saviour to what could be the last remaining survivors within this barren, and uniquely Australian setting.

"Mad Max 2" turns 44 in 2025, even with Miller trying to conclude the series with his more tame and commercially appealing "Mad Max 3" (1985), which could be argued was an attempt at rebooting Mad Max 2 to a wider American audience (and kinda failed), you would be forgiven by not adding it to the Mad Max cult movie night,  also bypassing the theatrically tinged, over-the-top and very Hollywood 2015 and 2025 "reboots".  Settle for the 1979 original, and its 1981 sequel and maybe, someone out there, will create a movie between the events of Mad Max and Max Max 2.

But, make it gritty, raw and very Australian, with a soundtrack akin to the late Australian composer Brian May's iconic Mad Max score. 

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(A.Glass 2025)

All CHIAMUS Cult Cinema trailers/commentary to date: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/search/label/Chiasmus%20cult%20cinema