Mad Max
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| Poster Origin : | United Kingdom |
| Poster Size : | British Quad Crown / 40 x 30" |
| Poster Artist : | Tom Beauvais |
| Poster Year : | 1979 |
| Poster Version : | First Release |
| Poster Printer: | Lonsdale & Bartholomew, Notts, UK |
| Film Origin : | Australia |
| Film Director : | George Miller |
| Film Year : | 1979 |
Tom Beauvais’ artwork was used on several international versions with varying degrees of success. This landscape quad requires a lot of empty space to accommodate the painting, but it does open up the design.
The film’s high octane chase sequences are shot from a low angle to heighten the sense of speed as the camera blazes along the highways; this is nicely captured with the dramatic perspective of the title lettering overlaid onto the road, with the Interceptor heading straight at us and seeming to violate the picture plane. Also in our face is Max’s double-barrelled sawn-off, his weapon and hands foreshortened in an attempt to project them from the page.
The strapline presents Max as a righteous, heroic saviour (which he is) but it gives no hint at the devastating personal atrocities he suffers, or the madness and the rage that fuels his vengeance. Herb Lubalin’s distinctive typeface, Serif Gothic, which became very popular during the late 70s (eg. Halloween), pinpoints its era in retrospect but says nothing particular about the film. The flat silver background (which suffers badly on folded copies) is no doubt intended to denote the futuristic setting, though it is an ugly dystopia that Max patrols, not a shiny future as this colour might suggest.