The Weekly Planet - Mad Max - Caravan Of Garbage

Episode Date: April 4, 2024

Before there was Max Fury Road there was two other Mad Max movies and then the original Mad Max movie from 1979. The directorial debut of George Miller and the first feature film from Melvin Gibson it gave the Australian film industry the kick in the arse it needed with it's influence the world over still being felt today. Crazy stunts, insane (or mad) performances and more Victorian Country Roads than you can possible imagine there's a reason it's legacy still endures. Thanks for watchingSUBSCRIBE HERE ►► http://goo.gl/pQ39jNHelp support the show and get early episodes ► https://bigsandwich.co/Patreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesJames' Twitter ► http://twitter.com/mrsundaymoviesMaso's Twitter ► http://twitter.com/wikipediabrownPatreon ► https://patreon.com/mrsundaymoviesT-Shirts/Merch ► https://www.teepublic.com/stores/mr-sunday-movies The Weekly Planet iTunes ► https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-weekly-planet/id718158767?mt=2&ign-mpt=uo%3D4 The Weekly Planet Direct Download ► https://play.acast.com/s/theweeklyplanetAmazon Affiliate Link ► https://amzn.to/2nc12P4 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

From the world of Sonic the Hedgehog, a new hero arrives. I am ready. Is there anyone stronger? No. Tougher? No. Funnier? I do not make jokes, I make warriors.

Knuckles, now streaming only on Paramount+. Yes! Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Center for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care. Welcome back, everybody, for. Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca. Welcome back everybody to another episode of Caravan of Garbage where guess what? What?

We're going to be looking at the four currently released Mad Max movies. Ah! Starting in 1979 all the way up to 2015's Mad Max Fury Roads. Great, good start. But is there only one road? No, there's two roads. Because at the start of that movie, they're like, she's going on the wrong road. So there's at least two roads.

Oh, yes. That we know of. I feel in this movie, there's just one road. Yes. There's one road and one main street and one bridge and one pub. Now, listen, this is the time to leave a like on the video. Well, certainly that is, yes. Now, this is the first in the Mad Max series, and, folks, you might be out there thinking,

you guys are Australian. This movie is Australian. It's a legendary movie. People love it. It made a lot of money. It launched the careers of George Miller and Mel Gibson. Are you guys even allowed to criticize it? And I would say, yeah.

Not only are we allowed to, it's mandatory. It's called tall poppy syndrome. Look it up. These guys are rich and successful. They've had it too good for too long. We're going to kick them. Fucking kite and arse looking film, Country Victoria. That's a very specific local reference.

Or go out and make a movie in Melton. Oh, man, I recognise so many of these roads. Not even these roads specifically, but just areas that look exactly like this a certain type of road like this movie is obviously like it's it's born out of like revenge movies of the 70s you know like grindhouse grindhouse the outlaw josie wales uh death wish all this sort of stuff i'm gonna say the wikipedia page for this movie it starts with the plot summary starts with a near future dystopian australia is facing a breakdown of civil order you could afford me that this is a dystopian near future he lives near the beach yeah right he's got

so many clean pale blue t-shirts this is just australia in the 70s honestly this is about what it was like it doesn't if they made this movie the post apocalyptic thing is very much an afterthought yeah if they made this movie

in the 90s most of the scenes wouldn't be set like outside a country pub they'd be set in a muffin break or a Gloria Jeans coffee Tokada would be

talking to his boys while picking like a raspberry and white chalk muffin out the front of a Jeans West you better believe it yeah god damn also this movie we've talked about this before it should be called talking to his boys while picking at a raspberry and white chalk muffin. At the front of a Jean's West. You better believe it.

God damn. Also, this movie, we've talked about this before, it should be called Mad Goose. Furious Goose. It should be called Furious Goose and Measured Max. Yeah, Max is in this sometimes. Because even when he's mad, he's mostly under control. And also, it's Goose on the poster. He's wearing the gear.

Yeah. Mad Max. Or as his full gear. Yeah. Mad Max. Well, his full name is Matthew Max. He doesn't wear that outfit. Outrageous. Anyway, so there is a story about how apparently Mel Gibson turned up for the audition and he was in a bar fight and he was all beat up and they were like, look at this rough and tumble dude. And he was going for the role of like one of the goons, I guess? None of that is true.

Oh, right. Him and Steve Bisley, who plays Mad Goose in this, Furious Goose, they were roommates, they were in acting schools together, and they both auditioned, and this is just how it kind of came together. Steve Bisley, people might know from later Australian series, such as Water Rats. Love Water Rats. Love Water Rats.

Now that's a post-apocalyptic future. Sydney in the 90s. Yuck. So the vibe of this year, as you mentioned, it's more 70s grindhouse. Probably I would say also there are elements of horror to this. A lot of it is more implied. You don't get direct bloody gore violence in this movie.

That's true. You'll often cut away before that kind of happens. Toe cutter away. Very good. No, not good. Very good. I put this in the same category as there's like a series of Australian 1970s and 80s TV shows and movies. A country practice.

A country practice. That's a perfect example. Wake in Fright. Alvin Purple. The Adventures of Barry McKenzie. Those Energizer commercials with Mark Jacko Jackson. Hey, Hey, It's Saturday. These are all terrifyingly energetic things

that we experienced in the 70s and 80s. I feel like this movie does a really good job. Again, it's set in the future, sort of. It's actually set in 1997. Apparently that's the official year. If it were actually set in 1997, let's look up some cultural touchstones. Water rats.

Oh, water rats, of course. So they'd be watching water rats on TV. This bloody good bloke looks exactly like me. Oh, water rats, of course. So they'd be watching water rats on TV. This bloody bloke looks exactly like me. Oh, John Howard. Yeah, typical of him. He's one of our many Australian Prime Ministers who sucks. He's probably not the worst, but he's up there.

He's up there. Anyway, this movie, very strong start, I think. Yeah, the opening action sequence is like a closing action sequence. Yeah, spectacular. Did they have Yeah. You know? Yeah. Spectacular. Did they have permits to make this? No. I didn't think so. Look at all of that.

It is astounding nobody died in the making of this movie. Just want to clarify, people might not have seen this because often when people think about the original Mad Max movies, they think of the Road Warrior, which we'll talk about next week, and Beyond Thunderdome. A lot of the imagery is from that. Oh, if you're confused, if you're thinking of like a really big man with a leather mask with a really little man and you're like, that's what Australia was like in the 70s, you're thinking of Mad Max 2. We're referring to Mad Max 1. That's right. Yeah. Which you may not have seen. Yeah. Oh, walled cities? Australia? Yeah, kind of. Kind of,

yeah. Caroline Springs. So it started as the core idea from George Miller was a journalist who would visit car accidents in Victoria. And as a result of visiting all these horrific scenes, he became desensitized to it until it affected him specifically, like something happened to his family. I see. Which sounds a lot like Nightcrawler, by the way. Does, doesn't it? Yeah. But then George Miller had the idea because he's actually a doctor, legally. I don't know if he's still practicing.

And he saw so many patients come in with horrific motorcycle and automobile accidents. And he went, wait a minute, I think there's $100 million in this, Mason. And boy, was there. But yeah, real low budget. They raised the money by not only working as an emergency room doctor, but going out to other doctor friends and medical practitioners that he knew. So they raised the 350 000 ish dollars oh yeah to make this movie and they also wanted it to appeal to an

american market so they had to do all of these things to kind of elevate the material so it looks grander than it actually is sure sure sure did he did he pull some actors aside and go give us kind of an american accent give it a go in some scenes. If it doesn't work, we'll just revert back to your Australian accent. There's a dub. Most people in the 70s and 80s and 90s would have seen the American dub of this,

where literally everybody, including Mel Gibson, who is American. Yeah, he's America's own. Yeah. He's yours, America. You know that. They're all dubbed. I mean, Mel Gibson is also doing an Australian accent in this

because he'd lived in Australia for like 10 or so years. But a lot of the extras were paid in beer. A lot of the stunts are illegal or they just illegally close a road. They just grab a stop sign and be like, okay, we're on the Geelong freeway. Let's just stop 1,000 cars. And those cars were like, well, we didn't actually want to go to Geelong, honestly. What if you were coming out of Geelong, Dave? Oh, my God.

Damn. Well, you'd be part of the stunt, wouldn't you? I'll do anything to get out of Geelong right now. I'll ramp this car. I'll ramp this car into a lake. I don't care. I think one of the things that this does really, really well, one thing, it's got some of the worst cops on the planet.

I appreciate that. Just people who have given up because it's the 70s. Yeah, sure. That's great. But it's just maniacs running about. Yeah. Like Hugh Keyes Byrne as Toe Cutter. By the way, people might not know this, or maybe you do.

He's also a Morton Joe in Fury Road. That is true. And I think a lot of people, the fan canon, what do you call it? In the universe? The head canon for a lot of people was that Toe Cutter and a Morton Joe are the same guy. Absolutely not. Yeah, yeah. There's a comic book.

There's a Fury Road comic book where Immortan Joe, I think he's a military general. Right, okay. Maybe. Not true, but I mean, it's a bit of fun, isn't it? He's got that white in his hair at the front. That's true. But he also got mashed by that truck pretty severely, didn't he? That's true, yes.

Pretty severely. This does something that Robocop does really well. It's interesting, wacky gang members. Yes. Unique. Horrible. Also, in real life,

these guys had to ride the bikes down from Sydney to Melbourne for filming because it was cheaper than getting them shipped down. So they all kind of

bonded over that and then they kind of took on the characters in their own way and they started threatening Mel Gibson and Steve Bisley. At one point they left like a note that we're going to get you in blood on a wall for them.

Oh, yeah. They were doing. This is the blueprint for Jared Leto. It's Jared Leto's Joker, but it's just Aussie blokes running amok. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Being larrikins. Yeah. I'm going to murder you.

Nah, mate, I'm just mucking about. Just mucking about. I said I was going to murder you. And when you say they've developed their own personalities, do you mean they all think they're in a different film? I'm going to murder you. Nah, mate, I'm just mucking about. Just mucking about. I said I was going to murder you. And when you say they've developed their own personalities, do you mean they all think they're in a different film? Yeah, absolutely. Well, nobody knew what this was.

Yeah, well, I mean, some people think, I mean, Hugh Keyes Burns was a Shakespearean actor, and I think they've gone, just do what you know. Just whatever accent you can do on the day. Yeah, and a lot of people are like, you know, it feels kind of student film. Like everyone's like, I'm going to build my own backstory and I'm going to be. Well, they were all doing that in real life

because all the bikey gang were like living together in the same room, just sharing mattresses, like sprawled across the. FX is the veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret.

The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost. FX's The Veil, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+. Will you rise with the sun to help change mental health care forever? Join the Sunrise Challenge to raise funds for CAMH, the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, to support life-saving progress in mental health care. From May 27th to 31st, people across Canada will rise together and show those living with mental illness and addiction that they're not alone.

Help CAMH build a future where no one is left behind so who will you rise for register today at sunrisechallenge.ca that's sunrisechallenge.ca floor like living in dirt punching darts all of that so yeah a lot of that is yeah a lot of this movie is like work with what you have like if you say, an actor who can play the saxophone for a bit, you just have a serenade Mel Gibson with a saxophone for a bit. Oh, my God. Love all of that, yeah.

There's a great – Anyway. That's a great – that's the one saxophone song. Yeah, I think so. There's a great documentary. It is on YouTube, but I recommend you renting it. It's called The Madness of Max. It's like two and a half hours long an hour longer than this movie and i reckon an hour of it at least

is dedicated to just cutting between all the gang members and they're just like i don't know man i just kind of lost it we're all threatening mel gibson and running about then it cuts to mel gibson he's like yeah i didn't really like that that was that was scary for me i was scared i was in the outer suburbs of Melbourne in the 70s. I'd rather be in prison, quite frankly. Oh, my goodness. That's all fun. I'll tell you what, though.

The stunt work in this, it's very impressive and very upsetting. Isn't it, though? Yeah. So Brian Kennedy, who put this together with George Miller until he passed away in 83. We'll talk about him more when we talk about the other movies. George Miller until he passed away in 83. We'll talk about him more when we talk about the other movies. His dream car as a teenager was the V8 Interceptor Pursuit Special, which is of course Mad Max's car. Sorry, Mad Few Max's car. And all of the stunt work in this, a lot of the time, you know, they would get in professional stunt drivers and even then they were just like, oh no, I can, I'm a pretty good driver. I could probably pull this off. Or they'd just get the

gang members to just do the stuff themselves. There's a moment where one of them pole vaults onto a petrol tanker. That's just a guy doing that. There's a moment where a guy comes off a motorbike and then he gets hit in the head by a motorbike. Like that's just, that's real. They also asked the Department of Defense for a rocket. You know, there's a moment where there's a rocket on the back of the car. Boy, do I.

That's a real rocket. And the Department of Defense in the 70s was just like, yeah, fuck it. You can have a rocket, whatever know there's a moment where there's a rocket on the back of the car. Boy do I. That's a real rocket and the Department of Defence in the 70s was just like yeah fuck it you can have a rocket whatever. That's right. They just put a rocket in it. We're all stealing stuff. Quite frankly. It's just wild man. It's incredible. There's also I love all the

there's just weird little cuts in this the moment where we see Charred Goose. Sure. The punch in on Mad Max's face and it kind of does this warbly cut. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then he like freaks out. That's kind of a George Miller signature. Oh, yeah.

You definitely see a lot of that in Fury Road. And also we get a couple of really googly eyes before somebody's in a horrific accident. Yeah, yeah. It's just a real close-up of just hyper-ex googly eyes which i enjoy thoroughly yeah i think yeah if you haven't seen this this is not what you think if you're going and thinking again it's the desert it's mad max and he's a lone warrior this is more like a prequel to the mad max you probably are familiar with yeah this i mean if you're going into this expecting kind of you know a 90 minute action sequence a la Fury Road.

No. There's a lot of contemplative moments. There's a lot of tender moments in the woods. Yeah. You know? At one point, Mad Max goes on a holiday with his family. That's right. Probably to Phillip Island.

Oh, he might be in Phillip Island. He might have gone to, what's the place with the mineral springs? Where's that? Not Kyneton? Not Kyneton. He would have gone to... I'm going to look it up. Blackwood?

No, not Blackwood. Bacchus Marsh? No. Ararat? Not Ararat. Ballarat? Not Ballarat. There is a mineral springs in Blackwood.

I know that for a fact. Well, la-di-da. La-di-da. Trentham? Not Trentham. Daylesford. Daylesford. Daylesford. Daylesford's lovely.

I know. It's a beautiful place. That's where you'd go if your best friend Goose had been blown up in a car and you've got your wife and your sprog and you go and have a fun time, you know? Relax for a bit. You'd go to a B&B. Okay, just a quick word on Daylesford.

It's really come up because it's a mix of like cosmopolitan, modern, progressive and just seedy old pubs. It's this beautiful blend, but it's a real harmony. It's not a clash. It's true. You can go get like an ornate croissant with a very specific type of coffee or whatever. You can get a wonderful antique.

Yeah, and then you can go to a pub and someone can hit you with a glass. Yep. You can do it all. You can do it all. You can do it all in Daylesford. This video is sponsored by Daylesford. All right. You know what it's time for? What's it time for?

It's time for Max Trivia. I love that. Yeah. So, Tim Burns, Johnny the Boy. Apparently he was so into his character that he annoyed everybody on set and was abandoned one day during lunch while handcuffed to a wreck. Just boys being larrikins. Just boys being larrikins. Just boys being larrikins.

Just mates being blokes. George Miller paid a truck driver $50 to run over a motorbike in the final scene. However, the truck driver didn't want to damage his rig, as in his truck. Thus, the crew had to install a shield painted to look like the front of the truck on the front. And boy, can you see that?

You really can. It looks very just hand-painted, slapped on. Love it. Got to tell you, great branding for the main force patrol or whatever. Oh my God. All their colours and their logos. Well, that's another reason they wanted to set it slightly in the future because they looked at the cars, like the police cars from this era,

and went, no, not cool at all. The Victoria Police uniforms of that era would have been like the short-sleeved baby blue shirt. Absolutely, yeah. The little jaunty little hat. Oh, yeah. Mel Gibson got paid $10,000 for the film in his first major role. And James Cameron credits this series along with Star Wars

for having a major influence on him. And you'll probably notice there's a shot that James Cameron credits this series along with Star Wars for having a major influence on him. And you'll probably notice there's a shot that James Cameron probably copies directly where Max gets his limp in this movie. It's a real Han Solo gets his gun and his name and all of that kind of moment where he gets his knee shot out. So that's why he has the brace in the next movies. And there's a moment where you see him dragging his foot as he's walking down the road after an accident. And it's pretty much the same shot seen in the original Terminator where the Terminator's injured and it's like dragging his foot along. Good stuff, mate.

Those are the only two movies with injuries. Correct, yeah. This movie also inspired the entire Saw franchise. Did it? And you'll probably understand the moment. Oh, the sawing him? Yeah, saw your own leg off, mate. That's right, yeah.

So Lee Winnell and James Wan, they admitted it. They admitted it. We got them, folks. We got them, and we're going to drag them next. A couple of Australian boys, we're going to drag them down. It's our job. That's right. Too good for too long.

Yeah, yeah. Dogs. So I just think that's pretty hilarious that how many movies are we in 10 at least into the Saw franchise? So Lee Whannell and James Wan watched this movie, tuned out for all of it. Yeah. Right at the end, they're like, that bit.

That bit's 10 movies right there. Oh, yeah. Well, they weren't wrong. Now, as mentioned, in terms of budget, this cost $350,000. And in return, it made $100 million. It was a slow rollout around the world. It had a really good team behind it in terms of promoting it overseas yes a lot of people saw the american dub version here's some footage of it if you'd like to hear it it's beautiful isn't it oh yuck

yeah oh yuck mate that's what i think but it did become the most profitable film ever made with the highest box office to budget ratio of any motion picture until the Blair Witch Project. Cool. I mean, $350,000 to $100 million. Not bad. That is insane. Much like this movie. But I enjoy it.

Look, also, it is what it is. Sure, absolutely. It sounds like an insult, but I really recommend that documentary. Just people going, we don't know. We don't know why nobody died also. Yeah, we don't. It's a mystery to us. And good for us.

And good for us, yeah. We wouldn't be here talking to you if someone died. Well, maybe. They probably still would be, but for different reasons. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anyways, come back next week because we're going to be talking about Mad Max 2, The Road to Warrior.

Not what it's called. It might be. We'll find out next week. We will find out next week. And if you do want to see that early, which of course you do, you can actually head over to bigsandwich.co. I say of course you do. It's very presumptuous, isn't it?

Yes, but it's true. But at bigsandwich.co, not only do these videos go up early, there's also movie commentaries. We do video game Let's Plays. There's bonus podcasts. Our podcast, The Weekly Planet, where we talk movies and comics and TV shows, that comes out there early on Sunday as opposed to Monday. It's all ad-free if you do want to sign up.

It also keeps these ad-free. We don't put any Squarespace sponsorships on this. Though I will. We would if they gave us enough money. Give me enough money, I'll do it. But, I mean, so much content, so much bonus stuff, so many Australian references. Oh, my God.

If you were intrigued when we said, hey, hey, it's Saturday in this video and you want to know more, it's pretty much all we talk about on the podcast. It's true. Yeah. Dickie Nee. Dickie Nee. John Blackman.

Pluck a duck. Red Simons. Olivia Nixon. Daryl Summers. Daryl Summers. And Daryl Summers again. Also Summers and Daryl Summers again also our podcast you can just listen to it

it's on its own YouTube channel Spotify etc if you're interested alright thanks everyone grab that jam you guys we'll see you next week Mad Max

Mad Max FX's The Veil explores the surprising and fraught relationship between two women who play a deadly game of truth and lies on the road from Istanbul to Paris and London. One woman has a secret. The other, a mission to reveal it before thousands of lives are lost.

FX's The Vale, starring Elizabeth Moss, is now streaming on Disney+.