image and sound archive

I saw the US theatrical release of Mad Max at the Nile Theatre on infamous 19th Street in Bakersfield, California, on Friday, December 12, 1980. It changed my life. :) Including my two buddies and me, there were exactly 4 people in the audience. We had used complimentary passes to get in; before the screening, the manager came down and told us that since he had only one paid admission, he wouldn't be showing the second feature. Not that it mattered.

I wrote to Filmways, the company that took over American International Pictures (part of the reason for the hurried US dub and release of MM), at least twice, begging for anything they could give me that was Max-related. (Knowing nothing about film distribution, I even wrote to the costume and prop departments asking for badges and vehicle plans! Hey, I was 15.) Mr. Robert Rembert, the publicity executive, finally responded to my entreaties with a large envelope which included the US one-sheet poster, an advance press proof, and black and white lobby cards. I will be forever grateful to Mr. Rembert. You should be, too.

Click on a thumbnail for a larger image. Some are pretty sizeable, so be forewarned. I don't know about copyrights, since AIP is no more. But if you "borrow" any for your own use, be nice and give credit to AIP (and me too, for doing all the work). Enjoy.

Curtis Gropp, An Original Fan

Scans of press kit photos from American International's "chilling action drama," Mad Max

(actual size 8" x 10")

Advance Press Proof

Front             Back

(Yes, PDF is a valid suggestion...)

Enlargements from Advance Press Proof

I wish I had all these full-size photos, but what can you do?

Video Covers

US VHS box (Vestron Video)

US VHS box showing flaps

Bad color copy of UK VHS cover 

Posters

Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior

Picture from Movie Still Archive
(Video Digest - November 1987)
 
(actual size)

Strip clipped from Playboy. You can see the whole page here.

(Atari ad on the back!)

Mad Max Audio Trax

Now that the Special Edition DVD is out, American fans can hear the original Australian dialogue, the way God and George Miller intended. But some fans (like Damon Bailey of New Zealand) have still never heard the US-dubbed version of Mad Max. You have no idea how fortunate you really are. In the interest of sharing the worldwide Max experience, here are some .wav files of the original Australian dialog and the dubbed American dialog. Your reactions may vary, but I expect that you'll feel no small amount of pity for us poor Yanks. If there's one advantage to the US remix, it's this: The vehicle sounds were punched up quite a bit, mostly to good effect—you can hear it in the first clip with Roop and Charlie. Other than that, though...

The identities of the voice talent on the American dub are a big mystery (no credits were added to the US release). However, the guy who dubbed Goose is the same guy who dubbed Jack in the Japanese Star Wars rip-off Message from Space (in case that bit of trivia helps). Additionally, some dubbers do multiple voices.

I was once about 99% sure that Max was dubbed by Peter Thomas, Sr., a ubiquitous vocal presence on US educational TV. He's done numerous commercials as well, including one for "Blue Stratos" cologne—the one that made me say, "Hey, that's Max's voice!" (Click for demo.) But although there are some similarities, I don't think Thomas is the one.

After Peter Barton said that Mike McGee suggested on alt.cult-movies that David Hedison did Max, I leaned strongly in that direction until my question was answered on Hedison's site. Or was it?

Did David Hedison dub the voice of Mel Gibson in the English version of the Australian film Mad Max?

No.  David Hedison reports that he DID NOT do any dubbing for George Miller's 1979 film.

At this point, the only thing certain is that Mel Gibson did NOT re-loop his own dialog. He still had his halfway accent in Lethal Weapon, and that was 7 years after Max. There are a bazillion voice demos online, but I just don't have the time to listen to them all. Who's to say the original voiceover talent is even still alive? Someone out there must know.

Clips were taken from the Japanese box set (region 2) re-release. Read more about it here. You can listen to the original track, the dubbed track, or both—Oz first, 'Murrican next. You oughtta know the drill: left-click to play or save, right-click and "Save target as..." to download. File sizes? Heck, I don't know. I've spent enough time on this already!

***Update: Due to bandwidth (and time) restrictions, the sound files are no longer available online. I haven't heard any complaints, so I'm in no rush to put them back up. If you're really, really desperate to have them, email me and I'll send you a CD.***

More on the Japanese Region 2 Trilogy Box Set

I ordered the Region 2 Mad Max trilogy box set at CD Japan (hit Ctrl+F and search for "mad max") after Peter Barton gave me the heads-up. I ordered online using my Visa, and I had it about a week later (I live in Southern California). The total cost was about $69. The only difficulty anyone might face is that the DVDs are region 2, and won’t play on the majority of players unless the player has been chipped or modded. I have a Philips 825 standalone player (region 1) which I remote-hacked using instructions from another Web site so I could watch my region 3 Crouching Tiger DVD; now my player is region-free and I can play discs from any region.

I understand there are region hacks or software patches available for DVD-ROM drives, so either way you go there might be a solution. Plus I hear rumors of a US disc coming out with AU audio eventually, but I’m not holding my breath for that. —You can tell I wrote this a while ago, eh?

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