The Untold Truth Of Mad Max

What really happened behind the scenes during the making of this gonzo action spectacle? It's time to start your engines, because we're taking a look at what you don't know about 1979's Mad Max.

George Miller was the man in the director's chair on the original Mad Max movie, but any and all success that the Mad Max series has enjoyed over the years must be shared by his co-producer Byron Kennedy. The late, great co-producer of both Mad Max and Mad Max 2, Kennedy served as the second set of brains behind this series of action-packed masterpieces.

After meeting at a film workshop at Melbourne University, Miller and Kennedy first collaborated on a short film called "Violence in the Cinema, Part 1", which was both a parody and dissection of the world of movie violence. The short garnered acclaim across the country, and gave Kennedy and Miller the confidence they needed to start their own production company, which they aptly named Kennedy Miller.

Although Kennedy tragically passed away in a helicopter crash in 1983, George Miller has kept on producing movies under the Kennedy Miller production banner, keeping the spirit of his collaborator alive. Kennedy's legacy also lives on in the form of an award for excellence in movies and television in Australia, aptly called the Byron Kennedy Award.

While the later Mad Max films would delve into the fantasies of a post-apocalyptic society run amok, this wasn't exactly where the ideas started out for this unique end-of-the-world story. When George Miller and former journalist James McCausland set out to create this world of roving bikers and cops out for revenge, there was actually some helpful real-world inspiration to get their wheels turning.

Arguably the greatest influence for Miller and McCausland was ripped straight from the headlines, that being the real-world global oil crisis of the 1970s. When shutoffs to international oil exports led to vast oil shortages, Miller and McCausland noted long lines of motorists lining up for gas, and started to extrapolate what might happen if this desire for fossil fuel was taken to a disturbingly dangerous degree. Keep watching the video to see the untold truth of Mad Max.

#MadMax

Prepping for a feature | 0:10
Real-world inspiration | 1:03
Becoming Mad Max | 1:52
An unexpected recast | 2:53
Guerilla filmmaking | 3:32
A biker gang that played itself | 4:21
Banned in New Zealand and Sweden | 5:04
A critical flop | 5:50
The American dub | 6:28
Awards season | 7:11
The winding road to Mad Max 2 | 8:04
A familiar face…sort of | 8:55

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