Significance of the Music Box in Road Warrior?

[Kris]

Does someone here know what the significance is of the music box Max finds in the dead truckers hands at the beginning of Road Warrior?

Seems to me it must mean something.

I'd figure, if anyones going to be holding something in their hands just before they die, it would be a family picture or something of that nature.

Where on earth would Miller dig up the idea of putting a bashed up music box in a dead guys hands???????

[seriz]

There's one thing I really like with this scene, it's how Max plays the music. All the notes until the last one, and because there isn't this very last note, it creates a strange feeling of incompleteness... And that suits so good to Max.

[BlownV8]

Driver probably had it to remind him of his family.

To me, once Max recognises the tune he would instantly remember a pleasant past with family.

[roadwarriormfp]

It has meaning because its a link to the lost world... which now no longer exsists.
Birthdays were a time of celebration, good times, his son sprog, his wife...

Also highly unlikely that he has a heard ANY music or tunes etc for a very long time.
Personally if i found any form of music having been out in the wasteland i would be playing it over and over, country and western, rap, metal, wouldnt really care much!

[Kris]

Thanks for your answers guys.

One more question.............

Does anyone know what the assumed real-time span is between Mad Max and the Road Warrior?

Are we talking a couple of years or even more???????????????

[roadwarriormfp]

There was a thread on timelines many years ago now, plus i think Miller himself had set a rough time line?
I think MM1 was sposed to be mid 1980s? MM2 early 1990s some 4 or 5yrs later.

[MWFV8]

As roadwarriormfp says the music box is mostly likely just a poignant plot setting device. It's a pretty neat bit of writing as by using that it causes the viewer to create their own mental picture of how dire the Mad Max universe has become. This has more impact than characters referencing it, for example the GyroCaptain referencing lingerie is seen as more comical and seedy. It's kind of a "don't show the monster" principle of story writing that makes you imagine you own personal best parts of life rather than the authors.

Also by manifesting that past into the music box it makes the scene were Max hands it to the Ferrel Child far more significant, as he's metaphorically handing over the better past to a generation that needs to be saved.

Road Warrior is full of what appear to be neat touches like this, the way Max has gained animal like colouring to his hair, eating dog food, partnering with a animal, the faceless dehumanisation of the marauder gangs, the angel like appearance of the compound dwellers, the journey of the door with Earth written on it etc. It's these touches, conscious or not, that make it feel deeper than the movies that tried to imitate it.

[roadwarriormfp]

If you look at MM1 there are plenty of small hidden messages (literal type), kinda like "cookies" on a DVD these days.
I dunno if you can define it as quirkyness? or brilliance?

Its these little attension to details which always impressed me in the series.

Look at the gyros copter, plenty of nude females can be seen stuck to the rudder, a small and often missed reference to the past.
The police light on the floor of the interceptor.
The way the feral kid walks in Maxs footsteps when he first enters the camp (a reference to max when he was talking to jess about his dad im thinking)
The 7 sisters symbol on the tanker, the cause of the worlds woes!

[Mud Guts]

MM2 was set 2 to 3 years after MM1. I remember this being quoted by Mel Gibson in an magazine interview just before MMTD was released.
MMTD was set about 15 years after MM2.

[seriz]

Yes, 3 years between MM1 and MM2, it's what we usualy read.
About MM1, I interviewed last month Bertrand Cadart (Clunk) and he told me that G. Miller said (during the shooting) that MM1 was 30/35 years from 1977. (That means... around now).
I never heard about this elsewhere, but M. Cadart seems to be sure about this.