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Finally… Ian Goddard was tasked with on-set safety during production and did a sterling job. Despite the carnage and complete destruction of 14 vehicles, no accidents took place during filming.
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Despite its meagre $350,000 budget, Mad Max grossed $100 million worldwide. It set a record for most profitable independent film of all time. It held that record until it was out-grossed by The Blair Witch Project in 1999.
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There was some controversy when the film was banned in New Zealand for the scene when Goose is burned alive inside his vehicle. This was due to its similarities with a real-life incident with a gang shortly before the film came out.
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Before the film was released in the U.S, distributor American International dubbed the casts’ voices as they were worried audiences wouldn’t be able to understand the Aussie accents. Robina Chaffey, the singer of the Sugartown Night Club, was the only voice left.
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Tony Paterson spent 4 months editing the film, then had to leave as he was scheduled on comedy/drama Dimboola. Miller finished it at Kennedy’s house on a home-built editor. Miller said "he would cut sound in the lounge room, and I'd cut picture in the kitchen."
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Filming the final scene, Miller paid a truck driver $50 to run over the bike. The truck driver didn't want to damage his rig so the film crew installed a shield painted to look like the front of the truck.
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Because of the budget, decommissioned police cars were used and the motorbikes were demos donated by Kawasaki. In the cast, only Steve Bisley was wearing real leathers - other police officers were wearing vinyl.
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Running out of money quickly, Miller offered to pay ambulance drivers, a tractor driver, and some of the bikers on set with slabs of 24 cans of beer to appear in the film as extras. Many of them agreed.
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Co-writer James McCausland has a cameo. We see him with a beard wearing an apron in front of Fat Nancy’s roadside diner – he watches the police cyclists and tow trucks drive away.
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The Nightrider car had a booster rocket being installed in the back to create the huge crash. It went out of control, missed the fuel tanker, and veered into a field where it chased the crew for a quarter of a mile. The explosion was re-created using a towed car.
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The house used for filming May's farmhouse was abandoned in real life. It was completely empty had to be filled with furniture from Miller and crew member’s own houses.
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The biker gang was a real-life gang called the Vigilantes. They rode to the set each day in-costume, often with their prop weapons on display. As such, each was given a letter explaining they were making a film and on their way to the set.
33/44
The first scene shot was that of Johnny breaking the chain on the overpass phone. He seems to be in a big rush, not just because of the plot, but also because they didn’t have permission to shoot on that overpass and were filming illegally.
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The van in the opening chase was from a scrapyard. It had the engine removed, and was pushed into the path of oncoming cars by crew members. The lack of the engine's weight led to the spectacular, spinning crash. And the buckets on the roof were filled with milk.
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To save on money, Miller used old, decrepit buildings as locations. The Force Patrol headquarters was a water tower facility and its interior was shot at the Port Melbourne gasworks. The garage – was (and still is) the University of Melbourne’s underground car park.
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During production, Gibson and Bisley were pulled over by a highway patrolman while driving to the location in the Interceptor and dressed in character. Other cast members reported being stopped from entering bars due to their attire.
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After filming ended, the car toured malls and car shows around Victoria as part of the film’s marketing. It was put up for sale but nobody bought it, meaning miller could bring it back in for Mad Max 2 a few years later.
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Max’s famous V8 Interceptor car was modified by production designer Murray Smith, following Miller’s brief for an “evil-looking, Australian car.” It cost over $35,000 to create – more than three times Mel Gibson’s salary for the film.
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Working with a tiny budget, Miller described the production as "guerrilla filmmaking." The crew would illegally close down roads to shoot action sequences and had to stop communicating via walkie-talkie as police cars were able to tap into the frequency.
26/44
Looking for a gothic sounding score, Miller hired Brian May to compose the music, having liked his work on science fiction-horror film, Patrick. (Not the same Brian May that played guitar in Queen!)
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Ned Dawson was head of Sound Effects and mixed the sound of crows into the soundtrack to make the film sound more ominous. And Special effects supervisor Chris Murray soaked the vehicle tyres in oil to make them smoke.
24/44
The Director of Photography was David Eggby, who later said it was a very dangerous shoot. Some sequences were shot by Eggby as a passenger on a motorbike going 110 mph. He said, "I knew we were risking our lives out there."
23/44
Some of the things Nightrider yells over the radio are lyrics from Rocker and Live Wire, songs by Aussie rockers AC/DC. And at one point we see graffiti on a boulder saying "f**k you" in Greek (a nod to Miller's Greek heritage).
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Miller’s medical background turns up in the film. Max’s surname comes from acclaimed pathologist Carl von Rokitansky, who developed a procedure for removing organs during an autopsy.
21/44
Miller was interested in making a very visual “silent film with sound.” The script included detailed instructions, and as such ended up being 214 pages long. And in that first script, Max had a driving partner, called the Dark One.
20/44
In writing the script, McCausland drew from the 1973 oil crisis in Australia, where fights broke out at gas pumps after oil strikes. McCausland said “George and I wrote the script based on the thesis that people would do almost anything to keep vehicles moving.”
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Miller’s first ideas for the film did not involve a post-world war future. He had the idea when trying to come up with a concept that would not require a large budget, and saw a black comedy science fiction film A Boy And His Dog.
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Other prominent cast members were Tim Burns as Johnny The Boy and Sheila Florance as May. Burns proved unpopular on the set when he wouldn’t come out of character, and Florance broke her knee during production when she tripped running with the shotgun.
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