Cinematizing Dystopia: Mad Max I

This paper is an attempt to analyze the theme of "dystopia" in Mad Max I (1979), a movie from the Australian cinema, which uses American leitmotifs in new disguises.1 While, on the one hand, the paper will focus on the cinematic representation of the theme of dystopia in the specified movie; on the other, it will have occasional references to other literary and cinematic works that are related to or center on the theme. Before embarking on a discussion of the semiotic and structural workings of cinematic dystopia, I consider it inevitable to give a definition and origin of literary dystopia, in reference to which I will argue about the subject matter. Therefore, in the first part of the paper, there will be a laconic survey of literary dystopia and its fundamental characteristics. Then, a thematic and technical analysis of the individual films in dystopian paradigm will follow up.