p e n g u i n d e v i l

Ah yes, Mad Max. One of those “who’s the best James Bond?” moments for me that sum up a key difference between youth and adulthood. When I was a teenager (at which point I saw each Bond movie generally once or twice a year) Roger Moore was my favorite Bond. With The Spy Who Loved Me being my favorite movie (and the one I saw the most at, I believe, 13 times in the theater)! Alas, as I grew up, I realized that Sean Connery had been the true master of the role and it was only my youthful foolishness that led me to think otherwise… And that Moore wasn’t even competition. I suppose that I was too young to understand at subtlety and was quite unfamiliar with real class.

Also around that same period Road Warrior came out. Now, while I was never fool enough to consider Beyond Thunderdome to be even passably watchable, when I was a teenager I did prefer the silly characters and the cartoonish and rambunctious action of Road Warrior over the subtlety, characters and dramatic story contained within Mad Max. Oh, boy… Was I foolish!

Mad Max is one of the great films of our time. A no-holds barred action flick, which, while cheaply made, also turned out very cool and with a deep emotional story. Mad Max is the story of a good man who does his job well and what happens to him and his ethics when tragedy is intentionally delivered unto him. Mel Gibson is Max Rockatansky, an Interceptor with the Main Force Patrol, the police department that is attempting to keep the peace (or at least, clean up the mess) in this vaguely post-apocalyptic remains of Australian civilization. While there is still some semblance of civilization around, the fringes of it are populated with roving gangs of ruthless criminals who make foul merry with any civilians that they encounter.

When the movie starts, a villain named Nightrider is tearing across the countryside, quoting AC/DC and goading on the Bronze (what the baddies call the MFP) who are pursuing him. That is, at least, until the baddest Bronze of all, Max, comes after him in his Interceptor. Keep in mind that this is filmdom’s coolest policeman ever, driving down the bad guys in the coolest car to ever grace the big screen.

While the MFP are pretty tough fellows, Max, Goose, Fifi and the rest seem to be losing the battle for stability against Toecutter, The Nightrider and their brazen band of losers. After The Nightrider’s crazed chase is finally ended, his pals come seeking vengeance against the Bronze. Max starts to come apart while society is coming apart around him and after trying experiences with a corrupt and troublesome legal system, Max begins his blind drive towards complete vengeance against those who have wronged him and is driven to vigilantism, as he is not a guy to lie down when people come after him and his! So vengeance begets vengeance and a film legend is born.