# I bought Mad Max on VHS for a dollar at a thrift store. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624 "2011-09-26T03:10:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/1 "2011-09-26T03:10:38Z")
I was so excited. I had gotten it from the library and liked it, now I had my very own copy! So I get home to watch it and then I realize the terrible truth - the Australian accents have been dubbed over in American. I am devastated. Who would desecrate a classic like this? ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/2 "2011-09-26T03:17:55Z")
You only now just realized that film distributors and producers are slime? Welcome to the real world. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/3 "2011-09-26T03:32:12Z")
It was dubbed in its theatrical release. I was unaware the original vocal track was ever available in the US. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/4 "2011-09-26T03:35:39Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Who would desecrate a classic like this? The original distributor of the film, which is my guess as to why it did poorly in its original North American run and kicked box office ass in the rest of the world. Also, every single damn DVD or VHS copy released in North America was the dubbed version until 2001! That’s 20 years after _The Road Warrior_! So, in short, it’s pretty hard to find a VHS copy of it that isn’t dubbed. You’ll need a foreign version for that. [cite](http://www.madmaxmovies.com/mad-max/index.html) for _Mad Max_ video release info. ---
**Author:** ![PSXer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/48db29/32.png) [@PSXer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PSXer)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/5 "2011-09-26T03:36:37Z")
The DVD I got from the library had the original vocal track ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/6 "2011-09-26T03:44:19Z")
The first time I watched _Mad Max_ was as a freshman in college in 2004. And I remember the voices were definitely the original Australian voices (one of my friends asked, “Why are they British?”) I can’t remember if this was a DVD or a VHS tape. But it was definitely “available in the US.” Mad Max, by the way, is a fantastic movie. The sequels are not very good, but unfortunately most people just associate all the movies as one big post-apocalyptic movie rather than distinguishing between the setting of _Mad Max_ and the setting of _Road Warrior._ This is a big mistake, because those two movies are NOT set in the same world. _Mad Max_ is set _before_ the nuclear war. The society of Mad Max’s rural Australia is not collapsed, it’s just violent and under-policed. There are no outrageous warlords like Humungus and no outlandish ‘post-apocalyptic’ costumes and weird tribes…it’s still more or less “the real world.” There’s a functioning, if shorthanded, police department, and there’s ostensibly a system of government and law in place (remember when Johnny the Boy is escorted out of the police station by his lawyer?) It’s basically a classic Western re-imagined in a not-too-distant Australia. _Road Warrior_ and subsequent movies _are_ post-apocalyptic movies in every sense - and they are not very good. ---
**Author:** ![Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Enter\_the\_Flagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enter_the_Flagon)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/7 "2011-09-26T03:57:17Z")
> [@Tengu](#): > > It was dubbed in its theatrical release. Yep, it was, and you can’t much blame the producers for doing it. A tiny release from Australia would need every advantage it could get, and since Americans in 1980 were hardly accustomed to the Australian accent, it was feared that they wouldn’t be able to understand the dialogue. I remember seeing Monty Python and the Holy Grail in the theater in 1970-something, and my friends and I had to watch it twice to figure out what was being said. ---
**Author:** ![anya\_marie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ebca7d/32.png) [@anya\_marie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anya_marie)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/8 "2011-09-26T18:45:41Z")
My library is unloading their VHS tapes for a quarter apiece, you might try your library for a bargain. ---
**Author:** ![GrandWino](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grandwino/32/67_2.png) [@GrandWino](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrandWino)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 7:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/9 "2011-09-26T19:20:12Z")
> [@PSXer](#): > > Who would desecrate a classic like this? When you find out, settle it in the Thunder Dome! ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/10 "2011-09-26T19:24:59Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > _Road Warrior_ and subsequent movies _are_ post-apocalyptic movies in every sense - and they are not very good. Mad Max II is _amazing_, although as you say, a very different film to its predecessor. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/11 "2011-09-26T19:49:34Z")
Mad Max II The Road Warrior? An absolutely terrific film - one of my all time favorites. The next one, though, Beyond Thunderdome, was a complete waste of time. I seem to remember seeing the original Mad Max many years ago, perhaps in the early to mid '80s when I was in college, and it had Australian vocals. Do people really have difficulty understanding Australian and British accents? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/12 "2011-09-26T20:44:32Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > _Mad Max_ is set _before_ the nuclear war. Never mind. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/13 "2011-09-26T20:59:43Z")
I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![bucketybuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/898d66/32.png) [@bucketybuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bucketybuck)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2011, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/14 "2011-09-26T21:16:54Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > _ **Road Warrior** _ and subsequent movies _are_ post-apocalyptic movies in every sense - and they are **not very good**. When you wrote this, did everybody in your country stop and stare for a minute? Its just that its so very very wrong, and people are bound to have noticed. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/15 "2011-09-27T03:20:20Z")
To be fair, I only saw _Road Warrior_ one time, about five years ago. I don’t remember it very well. I have seen the original Mad Max at least ten times over that same period. I’ll watch it again and re-evaluate my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![sco3tt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@sco3tt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sco3tt)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/16 "2011-09-27T04:07:31Z")
Just as a data point, Mad Max was the first movie I ever purchased on VHS, back when I was in high school in the mid 1980s. It seems unbelievable now, but at that time movies on VHS were prohibitively expensive (my dad paid around $80 for Blazing Saddles a year or so before, so that us kids could appreciate the campfire farting scene they always cut out on TV). I saw Mad Max on the shelf at a Venture department store in Topeka, KS for $20 and thought I had stumbled on the deal of the century. Shortly thereafter it seemed the bottom had fallen out of the market and all movies on VHS were suddenly going for about that same price. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/17 "2011-09-27T04:51:10Z")
Nitpick: _Road Warrior_ is set after societal collapse following a conventional war-related oil shortage, not nuclear war. It says so right in the [intro](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9n29c-q3_8Q). Nuclear war is only first mentioned in _Thunderdome_. It’s an interesting convergence of obsessions, with\* Road Warrior \*right on the seam. The 70’s were all about fear of crime and the breakdown of civilization from internal factors; the 80’s, with Reagan, SDI and so on were all about fear of nuclear war. MM2 may have come out in 1981, but it was very much a 1970’s film. ---
**Author:** ![Capitaine\_Zombie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@Capitaine\_Zombie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Capitaine_Zombie)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/18 "2011-09-27T12:54:04Z")
> [@Argent\_Towers](#): > > To be fair, I only saw _Road Warrior_ one time, about five years ago. I don’t remember it very well. I have seen the original Mad Max at least ten times over that same period. I’ll watch it again and re-evaluate my opinion. Very weird to see someone defending Mad Max 1 over the Road Warrior. Mad Max I is completely incoherent, on the road it’s Mad Max 2, elsewhere it’s “Neighbours”. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2011, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-bought-mad-max-on-vhs-for-a-dollar-at-a-thrift-store/597624/19 "2011-09-27T14:32:58Z")
I wouldn’t call _Mad Max_ ‘incoherent’. It just suffered from a low budget and over-acting. (Especially the ‘I am the Night Rider! Ahahahaha!’ guy.) I didn’t see _Mad Max_ until after we got a VCR – in 1984. So I saw the more crudely-made film years after seeing the sequel – and it was dubbed in American. It suffered by comparison. Had I seen the first one first, I would have liked it better; but I liked it well enough.