Published 13 May 2020
 

Celebrate 40 years of Mad Max with the NFSA's Mad May!

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Mad Max’s US release and to celebrate, the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA) is publishing a series of online collections, featuring rare behind-the-scenes footage, interviews, and more.

In the four decades since its release, George Miller’s Mad Max has become one of the most successful Australian film franchises of all time.

Followed by Mad Max 2 (1981), Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), the films’ vision of post-apocalyptic battles between good and evil continue to strike a chord with audiences.

As Miller discusses in an exclusive interview filmed for the NFSA, which is included in the online collection, the universality of the lone hero archetype made Max Rockatansky a beloved character across the world.

In Japan Mad Max was viewed like a samurai film in the vein of Akira Kurosawa, France considered it a ‘Western on wheels’ and Scandinavian audiences saw a Viking.

Mad May will see the release of three online collections dedicated to the entries in the franchise: Mad Max, Mad Max 2 (available now) and Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road (available 20 May).

The NFSA’s extensive online collections feature a wide variety of digital media to explore, such as:

• Interviews from NFSA's oral history collection.
• Behind-the-scenes clips, such as the filming of action stunts.
• Artistic poster reinterpretations created for foreign-language releases.
• Images of the miniature set created for Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome of a ruined, wasteland Sydney.

To view the online collections, go to:

Mad Max: https://bit.ly/NFSAMadMax1

Mad Max 2: https://bit.ly/NFSAMadMax2

Beyond Thunderdome / Fury Road: available 20 May.

Curator Tara Marynowsky is available for interviews. Please contact Publicity Officer Katharine Nicholson on 0432 901 866 or katharine.nicholson@nfsa.gov.au