Those new to the wonderful world of Australian cinema may be initially confused by the fact that two of our most prolific directors share the same name - George Miller. One of them is known for directing the immensely popular
The Man From Snowy River, while the other, Dr. George Miller, has made a name for himself through his directorial credits on the
Mad Max trilogy and
Lorenzo's Oil. Now, while
Snowy River's George Miller has firmly established himself in Hollywood, the love that Dr George holds for Australia has kept him here, where he remains one of the nation's undisputable national treasures.
That aside, George Miller came close to never entering the filmmaking field. After finishing high school, Mr Miller's impressive results earned him a position studying medicine at the University of NSW. While he practiced as a physician for a number of years, he felt, as revealed in his autobiographical feature documentary
A Century of Cinema: 40,000 Years of Dreaming (1995), that he could do more good for people as a filmmaker - one who acts as a catalyst for "public dreaming". George Miller's fascination in the cinematic art-form and its capacity to affect people dramatically led to his direction of the satirical short film
Violence in the Cinema: Part 1 in 1971. His short film contains a number of shocking images, such as a hot poker being thrust into an eyeball, in the tradition of Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel's masterpiece
Un Chien Andalou (1923). The film earned Dr George Miller an AFI award for Best Short Film - that being a sign of things to come.
Forming an irrepressible bond with fellow film fanatic Byron Kennedy, the pair collaborated on Frieze - An Underground Film (1973), which was another short, before forming the Kennedy Miller Production company in the lead-up to their first feature film, Mad Max (1979). Mad Max was made on an incredibly low budget of close to $300,000 - approximately $15,000 of which went to its inexperienced star - the now legendary Mel Gibson. During the filming of Mad Max, George Miller had to sacrifice his own van to use in a particularly destructive stunt sequence as the group couldn't afford another stunt vehicle. Regardless of these adversities, money would not pose a problem in the company's seminal stage, though, as Mad Max went on to set box-office records around the world, grossing more than Star Wars (1977) in Australia.
