Mad Max

Australia, 1979

Courtesy Roadshow Films Pty Ltd

Film On display

Source: Some information on this page may have been sourced as part of the 2023 Wikimedia Australia Partnership Projects grant, with the purpose of improving and expanding the use of Wikidata on our website. Wikidata is a free and open knowledge base that can be read and edited by both humans and machines. Read more about this project here.

Starring the then little known Mel Gibson, this low-budget box-office smash also launched the career of director George Miller and would be followed up by three more sequels. Set in a post-apocalyptic lawless world, Mad Max can be credited for inventing a genre and opening up the global market for Australian films.

The seeds were planted for Miller’s thrilling post-apocalyptic Oscar winning opus, Mad Max Fury Road with his debut film which set the bar for breathtaking car stunts and brutal violence. Using to great effect iconic Melbourne locations such as the Melbourne University car park and Victoria’s expansive country roads, it’s a wonder that this now classic and highly influential film didn’t spearhead an Australian film industry made up of post-apocalyptic road movies.

“Stunts themselves would be nothing without a filmmaker behind the camera and George Miller, a doctor and film buff making his first feature, shows he knows what cinema is all about” - Variety

How are these works connected?

Explore this constellation

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

Stream, rent or buy via Just Watch Logo

Collection

In ACMI's collection

On display until

16 February 2031

ACMI: Gallery 1

Credits

director

George Miller

Production places
Australia
Production dates
1979

Appears in

Group of items

The Mad Max film series

Explore

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

183634

Curatorial section

The Story of the Moving Image → Moving Australia → MA-03. Car Culture → MA-03-C01

Object Types

Moving image file/Digital

Wikidata

Q248775

Collected

141 times

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/113980--mad-max/ |title=Mad Max |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=15 November 2024 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}