George Miller Thought The First MAD MAX Film Was a "Complete Disaster" and That He Wasn't Cut Out To Be a Filmmaker

I was just starting high school when I was first introduced to George Miller’s 1979 film Mad Max, and it’s one of those films that sparked my interest in seeking out and watching older films. That movie blew me away along with the rest of the films in the franchise, and it’s so crazy to think that Miller thought the film was a total disaster and that he had failed as a filmmaker!

When talking about getting the project up and running, he told The Guardian in a past interview: "My partner, Byron Kennedy, and I had raised a pretty meager budget from our closest friends from school. So there was an obligation to get them back their money. It was a terrible thing if we didn't do it."

That first film was made on a budget of under $400k, and when he went out to start making the film, he had no idea it was going to be as hard as he thought it was. Miller had never directed a movie before, making Mad Max was the first time that he’d ever stepped onto a movie set, and the process was overwhelming.

Miller recalled in an interview with USA Today: "The first one wasn't fun at all to be honest. I just thought if you had a film all mapped out and worked out in your head, you could just go out and it was just a matter of executing it. I didn't realize you'd get all sorts of weird landmines in the way, like the weather is not how you expected on that day."

One of the other problems he faced with having such a small budget is that he couldn’t afford to hire an editor. So, he edited the movie himself! That turned into a year-long process and in that time he was constantly reminded of all of the mistakes that he made as a director.

Miller said: "I was faced with the evidence of what I hadn't done, what I'd failed to do. Why did I put the camera there? Why didn't I ask the actors to go faster? Every day facing this film, this wreck."

As you can imagine, that wore him down, it wore down his confidence and the director thought that it was "a complete disaster,” and he didn’t think he was cut out to be a filmmaker. He said: “In terms of what I wanted to do. I really thought I wasn't cut out to make films."

But, the movie ended up being a huge success! It made over $100 million at the box office and for a time, it actually held a Guinness World Record for the highest box office return to budget ratio!

That unexpected success inspired Miller to keep going and despite the hard time he had making the first movie, he was ready to throw himself back into the pit and do it all over again with the sequel, The Road Warrior. There was a lot of pressure to make that sequel, but he felt he could "do a better job with a second movie." It also didn’t hurt to have a bigger budget to play with.

He definitely did do a better job the second time around because The Road Warrior is still considered to be one of the greatest action films of all time.

Miller is keeping the franchise alive and is currently working on the next film set in that wasteland world, Mad Max: Furiosa, which I can’t wait to see!