When the film was first released in America, all the voices, including that of Mel Gibson's character, were dubbed with U.S. accents at the behest of the distributor,
American International Pictures, for fear that audiences would not take warmly to actors speaking entirely with Australian accents. Much of the Australian slang and terminology was also replaced with American ones (examples: "See looks!" became "Look see!", "windscreen" became "windshield", "very toey" became "super hot", and "preemie" became "rookie"). The only exceptions to the dubbing were the singing voice of the singer in the Sugartown Cabaret, played by Robina Chaffey, and Officer Jim Goose, played by Steve Bisley, singing as he drives a truck before being ambushed. The original Australian dialogue track was finally released in the U.S. in 2000 in a limited theatrical reissue by
MGM, the film's current rights holders (it has since been released in the U.S. on DVD with both the US and Australian soundtracks on separate tracks). The American dubbed version was also the one shown on television in the
United Kingdom until relatively recently.
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