Director: George Miller
Publishing Details: Australia Roadshow 1979
Series: Mad Max, 1st instalment
Annotation: Perhaps a quintessential representation of the Australian gothic genre, even if it may not seem like it. Mad Max imbues the Australian landscape with horror, dystopia, and the collapse of society as we know it.
A series of considerable renown, this first entry in the series sees Australian MFP officer Max Rockatansky in pursuit of murderous gang members in a degrading Australian landscape rife with shortages of all kinds. The beauty presented in the wide landscapes juxtaposed with rusted vehicles, fights to the death over fuel and water, an Australian dystopia which points to the necessities and scarcities of life in rural Australia that one can imagine is too close for comfort.
The highly graphic and action oriented nature of the film is at odds with your standard gothic work, but for the Australian Gothic genre integration of diesel punk aspects is core to the Australian experience with the significant importance of cars, farm equipment, and industrial remains such as corrugated iron to the modern and historical Australian landscape.
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