An Apocalyptic Landscape : The Mad Max Films single work   criticism  
Issue Details: First known date: 2011... 2011 An Apocalyptic Landscape : The Mad Max Films
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

In this chapter Roslyn Weaver explores 'the three Mad Max films to consider their contribution to the apocalyptic tradition. In these texts, the outback is 'the nothing,' a threatening place that is hostile to humans. The trilogy reveals future disaster and appears to envisage a better new world, but then subverts apocalyptic hope by suggesting the new world is a false ideal because it only exists far from the Australian landscape and even then only exists far from the Australian landscape and even then only in ruined, decayed form. The repeated dismissals of hope and the negative image of the Australian landscape undercut any security of feeling at home, presenting instead a picture of exile and punishment in the desert.' (83)

Notes

  • Epigraph: This Pox-Elipse happened and that's - it's all finished, just isn't there anymore...[The desert is] worse than nothing. the first place you'll find is a sleaze pit called Bartertown. Now if the earth doesn't swallow you up first, that place sure as hell will. - Max (Mel Gibson), from Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

  • Appears in:
    y separately published work icon Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study Roslyn Weaver , Jefferson : McFarland and Company , 2011 Z1820733 2011 single work criticism 'Australia has been a frequent choice of location for narratives about the end of the world in science fiction and speculative works, ranging from pre-colonial apocalyptic maps to key literary works from the last fifty years. This critical work explores the role of Australia in both apocalyptic literature and film. Works and genres covered include Nevil Shute's popular novel On the Beach, Mad Max, children's literature, Indigenous writing, and cyberpunk. The text examines ways in which apocalypse is used to undermine complacency, foretell environmental disasters, critique colonization, and to serve as a means of protest for minority groups. Australian apocalypse imagines Australia at the ends of the world, geographically and psychologically, but also proposes spaces of hope for the future.' (From the publisher's website.) Jefferson : McFarland and Company , 2011 pg. 83-107
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Last amended 14 Jun 2012 12:10:19
83-107 An Apocalyptic Landscape : The Mad Max Filmssmall AustLit logo
Subjects:
  • Australian Outback, Central Australia,
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