You have to keep in mind what Mad Max was. It’s a micro budget indy movie. Movies like Max make into the same theaters Max made it to 30 years ago: arthouse. It got sequels because it made a stunning amount of money for an indie flick that mostly hit arthouses and somebody wonder what that team could do if they had a budget and stuff. That’s why Mad Max 2 was called Road Warrior here, since nobody saw Mad Max here they didn’t want to announce it as a sequel so they gave it a stand alone title. Sadly half the script team, IMHO the important half, died inbetween Road Warrior and Thunderdome, which lead to way too much talking and not nearly enough action.
I was in France and wandered into a movie theatre that was showing something called Mad Max II. It was in French and I had no idea what they were saying but the characters and action totally blew me away. Road Warrior was a great movie so I’m glad the people had faith and saw the potential in Mad Max.
Is it just me, or does Mel's voice sound like it was dubbed in Mad Max?