Max's "madness" addressed in the original trilogy

[Uncle Entity]

Well...

Mad Max (1979):

The only istance I can remember is when Max is talking to Fifi, and he confesses that he's afraid to become a "psycho".

Mad Max 2 (1981):

Unfortunately, I don't remember any istance? Can you help me?

Beyond Thunderdome (1985):

1- In the final credits, Max is referred as "Mad Max".
2- Master accuses him to be a "broken brain".
3- Dr. Dealgood announces that he is "crazy", during his "Man With No Name" speech.

[BRC1974]

In the first Mad Max, Johnny the Boy yells "You're mad!" after Max drops the hacksaw.

As for MM2
Maybe when the Gyro Captain says that Max is "stupid, maybe. But not a coward"?

[Taipan]

Max's madness is definitely addressed in all of the Mad Max movies except for Mad Max 2 as far as I know.

But to track it all down we'll have to dig a bit deeper than the final movies we got to see on screen and look into original scripts.

Mad Max 1:
The Nightrider specifically says the entire phrase when he's chased by Max:
"ASHES TO ASHES
DUST TO DUST
IF THE DEVIL DON'T GET YA
MAD MAX MUST"

Mad Max 2:
I cannot find any references to Max's madness.

Mad Max 3:
There is a scene that was cut from the movie that shows Max becoming delirious and having hallucinations when he's crossing the desert after being banished from Bartertown.
The visions he has very much resemble Max's nightmare he had when he was asleep in the War Rig. Very similar images of hands grabbing him through some membrane etc.
That scene was cut from the movie.
Another scene displaying Max's progressing insanity was Max's nightmare when he was asleep in that tall hut in The Crack In The Earth. It was supposed to show flashbacks from previous 2 movies of Max losing his wife and child and that's why Max wakes up so abruptly and scared in the movie. But the entire dream sequence was removed.

And then there's of course Dr Dealgood calling Max 'crazy', but that's about it.

Fury Road:
The Dag says to Max 'I thought you weren't mad anymore". Which is a very interesting line because the Dag is the most observant of the Five Wives. And Max's demons went away as he was helping the Wives along the way. The Dag noticed that. So when Max came back to turn around Furiosa and told her to go back to the Citadel she said "I thought you weren't mad anymore". It's a subtle thing but it makes sense.
Of course there's a ton of other things showing Max's heavily progressed madness in the movie but we've all seen them. In fact he was so far gone in Fury Road he was most likely suicidal.

[Uncle Entity]

Mad Max 3:
There is a scene that was cut from the movie that shows Max becoming delirious and having hallucinations when he's crossing the desert after being banished from Bartertown.
The visions he has very much resemble Max's nightmare he had when he was asleep in the War Rig. Very similar images of hands grabbing him through some membrane etc.
That scene was cut from the movie.
Another scene displaying Max's progressing insanity was Max's nightmare when he was asleep in that tall hut in The Crack In The Earth. It was supposed to show flashbacks from previous 2 movies of Max losing his wife and child and that's why Max wakes up so abruptly and scared in the movie. But the entire dream sequence was removed.

I would have loved to see the first sequence you describe finally reinserted within the movie! That would truly make Max 1 closer to Max 2.
The second sequence, well, I don't care too much about it. I don't like having flashback sequences culled from previous movies.

Oh, about FURY ROAD: I'm glad that they used the term "Mad".
In Italian language, PAZZO means "Crazy", MATTO means "Mad". In the Italian adaptation of FR, they used the term PAZZO.

Said that, it's really weird that there's no verbal reference in MM2.

[mahenoguy]

I recon there are some very subtle hints to Max's madness in Mas Max 2, even if not scripted or spoken....they were definitely addressed.
* The weird little twitch he does while turning the music box for the 1st time, whilst unmoved by the carnage of the opening scene.
*There is a real line between Papagallo's people and Max as far as they had hope.
* He Still has the siren (on the floor) and wearing his cop uniform suggests he has been (or at least had been) policing the wasteland, as we see at the end of Mad Max 1. So Killing people, then looting their fuel, whilst impersonating a cop, in a stolen cop car.........pretty nutty!!
All that said, it's all about perspective......Just about everyone else was as Mad, or even Madder than Max!
I have always said that Max seemed the sanest person in all the films except Fury Road.....but even then only because we see his visions.....Imagine Furiosa's nightmares, Or the voices in Rictus's head, or Nux's visions whilst chroming and petrol sniffing his way to glory.......bonkers!

[Turbofurball]

In MM2 I feel that the subject is broached when Papagallo tries to talk him into staying with them, and Max ends up punching Papagallo - it demonstrates that thinking about his past, and even just considering processing it, causes him pain so he lashes out ... to me it reads as though he uses "becoming one of the crazies" to hide from dealing with what happened to his family - it's not who he really is, but is instead a coping mechanism.

That's why we want to see his redemption, because we (and the people who get close to him in the stories) can see that he's not just wasteland scum

[Uncle Entity]

In MM2 I feel that the subject is broached when Papagallo tries to talk him into staying with them, and Max ends up punching Papagallo - it demonstrates that thinking about his past, and even just considering processing it, causes him pain so he lashes out ... to me it reads as though he uses "becoming one of the crazies" to hide from dealing with what happened to his family - it's not who he really is, but is instead a coping mechanism.

Agreed.

[Turbofurball]

I also just had a thought - the mechanic in MM1 says "the world's full of crazy people!" or something to that effect

[Uncle Entity]

I also just had a thought - the mechanic in MM1 says "the world's full of crazy people!" or something to that effect

LOL not the MFP mechanic... the other one.

[Turbofurball]

Yeah, the "How's the Donk?" mechanic ... I really liked that character