Contrary to the Hollywood hero, the Australian hero is a pawn in the game of others, which explains why Max can never quite 'win' in absolute terms. External forces beyond his control stop him from 'winning' completely. Max possesses some highly valued 'Australian' traits in particular, those of the underdog, the battler, the hero. Good versus evil is a dominant discourse in many film genres and one which embraces the Australian ethos. In this fear provoking post apocalyptic future the few survivors of the nuclear holocaust are in warfare with one another, the rebel bikers and the police. Just as the physical setting is stark and desolate, the time setting and its associated events create an atmosphere of fear and foreboding which plays on the minds and emotions of contemporary viewers.

It is a relentless, unforgiving environment which demands defeat or survival and marks the characters which play upon its stage. Long deserted roads feature significantly in the film and the cinematographic device of taking long distant shots of Max demonstrates how small he is in the scale of the environment that he is living. The film set is more identifiable as Australia as it was filmed around the city of Melbourne.

Australia's barren deserts presented the ideal setting for a post-apocalyptic environment. The cinematographic impact is powerful the human and emotional appeal is timeless. The films explores themes such as 'man and the environment', 'fear provoking post-apocalyptic future, family', 'masculinity in crisis', 'good versus evil (Max as an iconic hero), Australian ethos and car culture themes often featured within Australian films yet presented in a stark and dramatic way. George Miller's low budget Mad Max franchise impacted on Australian culture and altered the perception of Australia and Australians overseas in a way that no other Australian film had done. The same reason was given for passing it at 18 uncut back in 1992.ĭr. In April 2015, the film was passed with a 15 rating uncut, because of '(the scene's) implied nature and lack of visual detail of the acts themselves'. Though the original uncertified 1982 video release of the American dub from Warner Home Video was released uncut, the cut was re-instated on the 1986 18-rated VHS, but was restored in 1992 when the Australian dialogue version was finally released in the UK and to all later releases with the same rating (although Warner's budget labels SCREEN CLASSICS still put out the American dub with the cut scene well into the 90s). Instead, the scene cut to black as the bikers smashed the first window and resumed on the bird hovering overhead. They edited the scene where the bikers tear up the hot-rod with the terrified couple inside. The original UK cinema and certified video releases (American dub) were cut by 48 seconds by the BBFC to keep an X (18) rating and to prevent the film from being banned, as X was the highest rating.

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