THE NAKED CITY: DYSTOPIA ON THE CHEAP

When the original Mad Max movie was released in 1979 it became an instant sensation, not only in Australia but throughout the world. Made on a shoestring budget of around $350,000 it was then the most profitable film ever produced in this country and established a franchise that saw three highly successful sequels.

In April of 2021 the then Liberal Party announced that a new Mad Max movie, the biggest ever made in NSW, would be filmed in Sydney and in locations around Broken Hill. Starring Chris Hemsworth, it was scheduled to hit cinemas screens in 2023, financed partly by grants from the Federal and State Government. The treasurer at the time, Dom Perrottet told media that the new movie would be supported from a Made In NSW fund, contributing about $175 million per film over five years.

Titled Furiosa, the new Mad Max movie is now scheduled for release in mid 2024, with the totally cost remaining to be seen. In the meantime we now learn the Minns government is slashing the Made in NSW fund, with the local film and TV industry up in arms, forecasting an exodus of thousands of jobs to production, effects and animations houses in other states. The Sydney Morning Herald recently reported that DNEG, the global visuals effects company involved with Furiosa is considering shutting its Sydney studio if current subsidies are withdrawn.

In this sophisticated ultra high-tech world, it’s clear cinema audiences have high expectations when it comes to special effects. The apocalyptic vision, Mad Max style, does not come cheap or does it? It certainly did in 1979 when director George Miller and crew used all their old school ingenuity to produce what is now regarded as a low budget classic. And that begs the question – could a successful dystopian-style movie be made in Sydney in 2023, for less than a million dollars without a government grant.

Damm right it could and there are many Sydneysiders who would vouch we are already living in just such a post-apocalyptic cacotopia. With a working title of ‘MAD AS F&%#ING HELL’, the movie I’d suggest is one that explores the growing chasm between the rich and the poor.

Forget about trekking out to the wilds of Broken Hill, we have prime readymade locations scattered all around the Sydney CBD – the graffiti daubed wasteland adjacent to Redfern Station, the squalor of Tom Uren Place in Woolloomooloo, the Goulburn Street Parking Station and the UTS Tower. The story begins in some futuristic time when a number of squatters living in a railway signal box in Ashfield decide to hijack a suburban train. Other homeless people follow suit, the entire network is disrupted and eventually the city grinds to a catastrophic halt. The roads are soon gridlocked, the police lose control and armies of the disgruntled converge on foot towards the more well to do suburbs.

As a mass chorus of Motorhead’s “Eat The Rich” rings out, the furious throng reaches Point Piper and Vaucluse, overrunning million dollar mansions and drowning their fat cat inhabitants in their Jacuzzis and swimming pools. The few surviving millionaires flee to Rooty Hill and signal boxes in Ashfield as burnt-out Lamborghinis dot the once exclusive streets.

Within a few weeks the tables have been completely turned – the poor and formerly dispossessed are now calling the shots and the upper and middle classes have all fled to refugee camps in Broken Hill. However the utopia of the impoverished is shortlived as climate change rears its ugly head and temperatures soar to an unbearable 52 degrees celsius.

People drop dead in their thousands and only a lucky few survive, holed up in a giant air conditioned bunker in the Masonic Centre in Goulburn Street. Every movie needs a messiah or action hero but MAFH can’t afford a Hollywood superstar. The solution is offering the role to a well known celebrity, politician or media hack, prepared to play the part for free, purely for the kudos alone. You could end up with Alan Joyce, Clive Palmer or even Andrew Bolt in the Chris Hemsworth style role but it would not cost a cent.

So how does our super cheapy dystopian saga, shot entirely free of special effects, finally end up? It doesn’t and as the movie ends abruptly, with Alan Joyce on the phone looking to unload $17 million dollars worth of  QANTAS shares, a message on the big screen reads:

“THIS IS THE END – THE APOCALYPSE ENDS HERE – BUT SYDNEY YOU ARE STILL LIVING IN IT!”. Freaky stuff indeed.