DVD DETAILS:
Vision
The 16:9 enhanced widescreen transfer on this arguably terrible movie is quite astounding, always clear and clean: Anchor Bay have provided another quality treatment of an obscure movie. In original aspect ratio (unlike the region 4 release of the film for example) it has an amusing sense of celebration in sheer destruction. King gleefully indulges in the horror of a rebellion of machines and delights in scenes of vehicles attacking people: King slowly prowls through the aftermath of this in suburbia. The isolation of the Dixie Boy truck stop, besieged by monster 18 wheelers is a peculiar take on Romero’s Night of the Living Dead, but again the characters all behave as if they are half-wits (or over-actors). The sense of mounting carnage is present, but more resonant is the odd inversion of Western iconography – the circling trucks recall a hostile wagon train for instance. Good use is made of driverless trucks, especially the demonic green face on a toy-truck – the ringleader of this particular band of vehicles. The production design of the truck stop revels in the unhygienic and it is appropriate for what King sees as a shitty world that to survive, many of these people must crawl through sewers and storm drains. The explosion of a truck containing a shipment of toilet paper only enhances this scatological undercurrent (which is surprisingly not as crudely indulged as it could be). Explosions abound.
Sound
The cult audience for Maximum Overdrive should be delighted with this Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround transfer. Especially noteworthy on the level of trash culture to which this film aspires, and achieves, is the score by Australian heavy rock outfit AC/DC, of who King was a long-time fan. Thus, much is made of pounding rock anthems underscoring the celebratory sense of anarchy: in particular, the repetition of the song “Who Made Who” carries the sense of a heavy metal slave revolt and the notion of confused, despairing human outrage. This score is always full and there are some vibrant directional effects. Engines are effectively ominous, and ironic use is made of the tune played by an ice-cream truck (the front of which is smeared in blood). Background effects are often vivid, and crudely humorous in the film’s toilet scene. However, only one scene at night really utilizes the sense of multiple voices as people merely wait for something to happen. Dialogue is knowingly dumbed-down, with characters merely dim rednecks, their fate celebrating the survival of their stupidity. However, the combination of score and rampaging engines make for a fine pun on the notion of heavy metal. Explosions are vivid, as is the maniacal glee from the characters when they do exact some vengeance. The idea that these vehicles may wish to communicate in other means is, alas, a most tantalizing idea that is undeveloped. read more
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