Movie #981: The Road Warrior

The Road Warrior, also known as Mad Max 2, is the second in the Mad Max series and stars Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps, Kjell Nilsson, Emil Minty, Virginia Hey, and William Zappa. 

It's the future and there's no gas, but everyone's driving around in cars?! I DON'T GET IT NO STARS.

No, just kidding (it's a Patton Oswalt bit). It is the future, the world has largely blown itself up, and here we are in the wilds of Australia. People have devolved into tribes and gangs, and then there are lone dudes like Max (Gibson) who roll through the wasteland just surviving. (Max actually lost his family in the first movie, which I've seen but it's been a really long time.)

Anyway, Max runs afoul of the warrior-minions of Lord Humungus, escapes them and winds up teaming up/taking hostage the Gyro Captain (Spence). Gyro leads him to a settlement with a working oil refinery, and the settlers are doing OK except that Humungus attacks them daily and tries to take their gas (so maybe they're not doing that great). Max rolls in just as the Feral Child (Minty) kills one of the marauders (Jimmy Brown) with a boomerang, Humungus tells the settlers to fuck off and leave their gas, and the settlers' opinion on what to do is split.

In the end they decide to bargain with Max - he agrees to bring back a tanker in exchange for gas and supplies. He does, and then tries to leave, whereupon a couple of marauders chase him down, crash his car and kill his dog, so Max returns to the settlement to drive the tanker. And then we get a protracted car chase/battle that ends with many of the important settlers dying, the tanker crashing...but we (along with Max) discover it's full of sand while the gas is actually with the settlers.

I hadn't seen this movie previously - I actually bought it thinking it was the first one, but that's Mad Max (which I have seen, but it's been a while). I think all of the Mad Max movies stand on their own, though. They remind me in some ways of Conan stories; they're really legends about this warrior of the wasteland, rather than telling a cohesive story, which is fine. Gibson is fine but entirely too pretty as Max (I really prefer Tom Hardy's take on the character). Bruce Spence is really the life of this party as the Gyro Captain, providing any exposition and dialog we need. 

George Miller has apparently always known how to do a post-apocalyptic car battle, because although Fury Road is better overall, that's because he had a better budget and years of experience behind him. The battle here hits some of the same notes, and while we know that Max is going to survive, there's very much the feeling that anyone else is fair game. I had no idea, for instance, if the Feral Child was going to survive, and that kind of tension is impressive. 

Effects are impressive and of course they're all practical, so even 45 years later they still hold up. I don't know that the opening narration and stock footage showing how the world ended was necessary, but it doesn't really hurt anything. 

Kinda want to see Beyond Thunderdome now.

My Grade: B+
Rewatch Value: Medium

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